March in Review - Part 2 - Look Up!

Over the course of the month we learned all about things in the sky. It was great that just as the weather warmed up we were learning about birds and the weather.

One of the things I love is that we have teachers with so many talents and interests teaching in our school and they are willing to come do special activities with other classes! One of the things the students love is listening to someone besides me on occasion. :) Ms. Morse, our fifth grade teacher, is an avid bird-watcher and wealth of knowledge on the subject, so she spent an afternoon with our class sharing a little bit of what she knows. She shared video and sound clips of some common birds in our area such as the Mourning Dove, Black-Capped Chickadee, and the Cardinal (our state bird).  Ms. Morse even took us on a "field trip" to her classroom where she has several bird feeders just outside her windows. We learned some important tips for successful bird-watching, be very quiet and do not make any sudden movements. Our "field trip" continued with a hike around the school. We saw a number of birds, heard even more, and even spotted a few nests. Ms. Morse ended her visit with fun bird coloring books for all of us. Thanks for visiting us Ms. Morse, we hope you'll come back soon!

After learning so much from Ms. Morse, I thought it might be fun to make little bird feeders to hang outside. It took some searching, but I found a great way to make our own bird feeders without peanut butter and without leaving litter after the seeds are gone on Bargain Hoot.

Of course birds weren't the only things up in the sky that we learned about. The Kinder Kids really got excited about studying weather and rainbows.  We read two books in particular that the students really enjoyed. Weather Words and What They Mean by Gail Gibbons and Sometimes It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw.  After we read Spilt Milk we created our own version by painting cloud pictures and describing what they looked like. This class book is a favorite for read to self time.

We spent a lot of time discussing primary and secondary colors. We learned about color mixing, prisms, and how rainbows are formed. As a concrete representation of our learning we created hanging rainbows to decorate the room.  

 

We ended the month (and started April) by studying the solar system. The kids created their very own Solar System Big Books. 

I think their favorite activity was orbiting in the gym though. Each student acted as a body in the solar system and we attempted to orbit around each other. It was a wonderful way to demonstrate how God's power is evident throughout the universe, the student's couldn't think of any way, other than through His power, the planets would fall into such perfect orbits.

March was busy, but so much fun. I'm sure April and May will only bring more exciting learning!