"Who built the ark? K5! K5!"

Back when we studied Noah's Ark in Bible, we created a giant mural to represent the story. It's a great way to make this Bible story come to life, and we were able to incorporate lots of different skills, including art and engineering!

We started by learning what a mural is -- basically a giant picture. Then we headed outside to get started. We used blue, teal, and purple paints and swirled them together to represent the water. Why is paint so much fun?!?!? While the paint was still wet, we sprinkled some glitter to make our water really shimmer!

A few days later, allowing for the paint to dry, I cut big pieces of brown paper into various shapes. (Actually, I drew them and the kids cut them out -- which is good for their fine motor skills!) Then I made a list of the various shapes of paper, and the students took turns coming to the board and creating an ark design using those same shapes. Some of the designs were outlandish, but some were quite good!

Here are some of their ideas!

Once we'd sort of settled on a plan, we took turns reading the "blueprint" and gluing the pieces of paper in the right places.

Once the ark was built, it was time to add some animals! The students each chose a different animal, then they colored a pair of that creature. (Bonus: we learned the definition of pair!) When it was time to add the animals, they got to choose which part of the boat they wanted their pair to stay in.

Here is some serious discussion about how close the lizards should be to the cats. (And from personal experience, I know that cats will eat lizards! 😁 )

The finished product is now on display on the wall of our modular, above the lockers. Feel free to come in and see it some time! 

Tower of Babel

Right before Fall Break, our Bible lesson was all about the Tower of Babel. Although this story is from Genesis, we used a New Testament verse to go along with it: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God" (Matthew 6:33). This aligns perfectly with the lesson that we need to seek God's will for our lives instead of trying to be our own bosses -- which was where the tower builders went wrong!

The consequence of trying to be God for ourselves was that humans were spread out and their language was changed to keep them from communicating as effectively as they did pre-tower. Fortunately for us in K5, we have two classmates who speak different languages! We listened to a little Portuguese and Korean, and it was the perfect ears-on example of this -- we had no idea what our friends were saying!

We also did a couple of fun activities that involved building a tower. One was on paper, along with a list of ways to say 'hello' in different languages.

It was crazy hat day at school!

But we had the most fun building a big tower out of shipping boxes! 

This smartie helped read the words to hear group!

Some of our more observant friends discovered that I'd left them clues on the boxes -- one word of our memory verse! When they stacked the boxes in order, they were able to create the tallest possible tower. They had to read the verse on the board and match the words up in order.

Since it was Friday afternoon and we did this activity right before center time, I let them keep the boxes out to play with. Oh my goodness, you'd have thought it was Christmas. They were so excited and had the best time playing with a bunch of empty boxes! One group turned their boxes into a boat and a car, and another group loved coloring all over their boxes to create a home. 

I love love love the imaginations of young children!! 

Fall is LEAF time!

We celebrated the onset of fall with a science unit about leaves. We learned why they're green (ask your kids about chlorophyll!), why they change colors, and one of the most important things -- why they're essential for humans! I love explaining the intake/outtake cycle of CO2-O2 ... how trees take in what we don't need and give off what we do need. God's creation is amazing!

Believe it or not, we were actually able to see a leaf giving off oxygen. (And it's the easiest experiment in the world!) First, we gathered a variety of green leaves from trees and bushes on the playground.

Some of us got a little sidetracked ... 😊

After we found the perfect leaf, we placed it inside a clear glass jar and covered it with water. We also used rocks to ensure that our leaf stayed submerged in the water.

We put the lids on the jars and waited about an hour. Seriously, that's all there is to it. When we checked our leaves, we were able to see air bubbles on the leaves and in the water! The bubbles weren't there when we started -- they were created by the leaf giving off oxygen!

We examined leaves using magnifying glasses, labeled parts of a leaf and then "colored" the leaf green using chlorophyll from a real leaf!

"I don't know why I'm so good at chlorophyll," she said before turning to help a friend! 💚

Today, we separated chlorophyll from leaves! First, we wiped off "chlorophyll" in the form of dry-erase marker to reveal the leaf's fall color underneath.

Then we went outside to choose yet another leaf. We picked the deepest green leaf we could find, crushed it, placed it inside a glass or cup, and then covered it with rubbing alcohol. 

(Today was crazy hair/hat day at school ... just sayin'.)

We added a filter strip (literally, a coffee filter cut into strips) and then stuck one end of the filter strip down into the liquid. We sat our cups in a sunny windowsill and waited a few hours. 

Pretty soon, we had tints of green creeping up our filter strips ... and soaking through our cheap paper cups! 😊

Who would have ever thought kindergartners could extract chlorophyll from leaves? I love doing science with these guys!