Forces of Motion

This week we continued our unit on forces of motion.  We created a double bubble thinking map to compare things that move fast, things that move slow, and things that can move both fast and slow.  On Friday we conducted our first experiment using the scientific process.  We followed these 3 steps:
1 - Make a hypothesis
2 - Do the experiment
3 - Record your observations
We moved toy cars and marbles in our experiment.  We made a hypothesis about which way it would be fast to move a toy car, by pulling or by pushing.  Pushing was the clear winner.  Then we thought of ways that we could move a toy car or marble in faster ways.  By building low ramps they moved faster than just on flat ground, but when we built higher ramps we saw the toys move much faster!  This experiment was lots of fun, check out our photos!

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Celebrating Jamhuri Day

This week we learned a little bit about the country of Kenya.  On December 12th the people of Kenya celebrate their Independence Day, and the holiday is called Jamhuri Day.  We compared the activities of celebration for Jamhuri Day to those we participate in for the 4th of July using a new thinking map: Double Bubble.

We read Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema


We made mosaic flags of Kenya.

We learned a song called Jambo!  Click here to hear see some kindergarteners in Kenya sing this song.

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Scarecrows

As we wrapped up fall season activities we discussed scarecrows, and their purpose of protecting crops for farmers.  We made tree maps to show what scarecrows can, have and are.  The class had fun doing our first glyph and freezing after each direction so that we didn't move ahead and color any pieces the wrong color.  The glyphs also made a great bulletin board.  (See the pictures below.)

Click here for a copy of our Scarecrow Tree Map

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