100 Books!!

As we gear up for our 100th day of school this week, last week we marked another milestone -- reading 100 books together. We celebrated by having, what else?, a book party!

Students brought in their favorite books from home, and we had a special book show and tell. This is one of my favorite activities, because I love seeing the variety of books that are chosen. Some are classics, some are nonfiction, and some are super easy but the child loves it because he can read it himself! All are awesome!

The students enjoyed sharing some of their favorite pictures or parts of the stories.

We also had some third-grade friends stop by and read our books with us. Mrs. Grimes is famous for her beanie baby collection, and they brought each kindergartner one to keep! 

What's a party without treats?!? We enjoyed these awesome book cookies as a finale to our celebration.

(And don't worry, parents. Most of the kiddos took 2-3 bites of their cookie and were done. Next year I will order smaller cookies!!) 

Penguins and Polar Bears

During January, we've had a lot of fun learning about polar animals, namely penguins and polar bears. We read lots of books about cold-weather animals, labeled their body parts, located them on the globe, and even tried to grow our own polar gummy bear! It did the opposite -- shrank -- but being surprised is part of what makes science fun! We did a couple of other fun science experiments too!

 

First, we investigated how a penguin's feathers stay dry in the water. After coloring one of these penguins with black and white crayons and leaving the other blank, we sprayed them with water to see what would happen!

  

We also demonstrated how arctic animals' blubber helps keep them warm in cold water. Mrs. Viall made a "glove" out of ziplock bags (many, many ziplock bags) and crisco shortening. Kind of gross! But wow, does it work! We put one bare hand in a bowl of ice, and the other one was inside our glove. The fat kept one hand warm and toasty!

These next three facial expressions CRACK ME UP! 😆

In his defense, it really was cold! The students had so much fun returning to the ice buckets to feel the differences over and over again!