Going batty with creepy crawlies!

The week of Halloween and just prior, our science and thematic units focused on spiders and bats. Not only did we learn about each animal's habitat, eating habits, and anatomy, but we did some fun STEM and art!

When it came to spiders, we tried our hand at some guided painting. Guided drawing requires students to listen to the teacher's instructions and then attempt each step of the task. For example: "Draw a medium-sized circle on the top half of the paper. Draw a larger circle right underneath." After following directions, they end up with a (hopefully) correct looking spider. It was fun seeing the different versions of spiders!

Once our paintings were dry, we glued on eight eyes and labeled different body parts. 

This smart girl used my guide on the board to figure out which label went where.

Proud of her finished spider!

After studying bats, we tried our hand at folding some bats with construction paper (think paper airplanes). And what fun would that be if we didn't try them out?!? We headed over to the gym and enjoyed measuring which bats flew the farthest. We even launched them from the balcony! 

Finally, since it was a nice day, I gave the students 10 minutes to play with their bats on the playground. They had so much fun running through the grass watching the bat wings "flap" up and down, and some creative kiddos even tried flying them off the top of our play structures.

Check out the cutie on the left -- she's trying to blow her bat so it will go farther!

Happy that his bat traveled farther than the others!

Fall Fun!

What a fun fall it's been so far! Our units recently have dealt with spiders, bats, and pumpkins, and we've had a lot of fun with everything.

This "roll-a-pumpkin" activity required students to work in pairs, which is always a great learning opportunity! Each part of the jack-o-lantern's face was assigned a number. They had to roll a dice and draw the appropriate facial feature onto their jack-o-lantern, continuing until the pumpkin was complete. This activity helps build number sense while giving them a chance to be creative!

On Halloween, we continued our pumpkin lessons with Mrs. Shepard sharing the pumpkin parable.

One of our sweet and creative girls brought in special treats that she and her mom made -- mummies! (Oreos covered in white chocolate.)

We also finished up our leaf unit by demonstrating the way leaves release oxygen. This is seriously the world's easiest experiment. Submerge a leaf in a clear container of water and wait about an hour. You'll find lots of bubbles on the leaf and in the water! Oxygen at work!

Next time, I'll share pictures from our bat-flying experiment and our spider guided painting. Fall is FUN in kindergarten!