Ralph S. Mouse

     This month our school has participated in the "One School, One Book" project. We have enjoyed sharing the book "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" by Beverly Cleary with friends and family. This evening, families finished the last chapter. (My own fifth grader was sad when the book was over.)
     My kinder kiddos will be enjoying a special snack tomorrow for sharing the entire story with their families.
     I know they will be excited when they see these!

Ralph S. Mouse cupcakes.

New Friends

This year has gotten off to a great start! We are getting to know each other and building a community within our classroom. Here is one of the first class books we made together.

Each child sets a name puzzle. Some needed a model. Others did not. 

After setting the puzzle three times, each child glued his or her name

On the page.

Each child completed the page by counting the letters in his or her name 

and completing the sentence by adding the numeral. They also used their

Favorite colors to write the number again in the corner square.

I added decorative duct tape for strength in binding!

Interactive Number Line

During Creative Cornerstones this summer, a teacher in one of my sessions shared this wonderfully frugal idea. Jeanette Ladner used an empty lamination roll as the basis for this interactive number line. Each laminated number strip is wrapped around the tube and secured behind. This makes the numbers interactive, as you can push them forward and backwards as you count etc.

It would be perfect for addition problems too. If the problem was two plus three, the child could push the number flaps for two then push down three more to get 5. Of course, if you can use it for addition, then subtraction is also an option. 

It is perfect for comparing numbers as greater than and less them as well. The possibilities are endless!!!

Thanks Jeanette Ladner from Stow City Schools for sharing this great idea with me and giving me permission to share it on my blog!!!

Disappearing color experiment

After a day filled with Science at Creative Cornerstones, I opened Pinterest and this cool experiment was there.

Instead of mixing food coloring into water, this one shows you how to remove the  color from the water.

                                                To learn the directions for this experiment,
                                                      Click this link: disappearing color.
                                                            I can't wait to try it myself!

Networking with Teachers

Today was a Science filled day! It was fun networking with all of the PreK-K teachers at The Creative Cornerstones class. The participants were very helpful and supportive. I am thankful to one class participant, Heidi, for snapping some pictures of me as I did some experiments.

Making a rain cloud In a jar

Refrigerator Crystals

Rainbow in a jar

Napa cabbage is great for showing how leaves get/need water. This cabbage shows the colors really being soaked in colored water. I was surprised to find Napa cabbage was in our local Kroger store.

Procedures for these experiments will be posted soon!

Science Fair

Friday was the kindergarten Science Fair. It was a huge success!!! It was great to hear the kids each being the expert at his or her experiment. Last year a new member of our kindergarten team had a science background. She said that kindergrten kiddos can do science fair projects too. I had never really thought about it before. She was right!!! I am so glad she convinced me to do it. Now, I can't imagine NOT doing it. What a great experience!

Which color bird food is preferred by birds?

Peeps in different liquids

Gummy bears in different liquids

Which airplane flies the farthest?

Color mixing

Colored bird feeders, which is preferred by the birds?

Ketchup Race Science

Today was the perfect day to do a ketchup race. The weather was a cold, rainy spring day in Ohio.

I hope the preschool classes across the hall were not awakened from their nap by our cheering. We can't help but root for our favorite brand.

The question we were thinking about was:
Which ketchup will win the race?

Each kiddo made a hypothesis about which ketchup would win the race. (We each tried to guess which would come in last also.

They marked their hypothesis on their recording sheets.

Next we made sure that the experiment would be fair by marking the wall and storage container (or table area) with tape so the incline would be consistent with each trial.

The tray rested on each long red piece of tape to assure the incline remained the same. I had trouble with the tray sliding so I used the folded up paper towels as a stopper.

Materials:

(Be sure the tray you are using is totally smooth.)

1 tray marked with a starting line and a finish line (I drew it with sharpie)

4 different brands of ketchup

Tablespoon measure

Timer (we used a classroom iPad)

Recording sheets, one per student

Recording chart

Paper towels

Sink to wash tray between trials or baby wipes or some other cleanup method

Step 1

Put 1Tablespoon of the first brand of ketchup at the starting line of the tray, while flat. Say "GO,", as you place the tray on the designated marks so the student who is timing knows to start the clock.

Step 2

When the ketchup trail reaches the finish line say "STOP", so the timer knows when to push stop.

Record the time. (We recorded how many seconds it took. I told them the number after the decimal point would only be used if there was a tie between two brands.)

Step 3 Record the time it takes for the trial.

Step 4 Clean the tray between trials.

Step 5 Repeat with all brands.

Step 6 Then we recorded our observations by drawing a picture on our recording sheets.

If you didn't know better while walking by our room this afternoon, you would have thought we were betting on the horse races. The kids had a great time with this experiment.

We talked about what it means for ketchup to be thin/thick. My kiddos thought that if they REALLY
liked ketchup, a thicker one might be better because a lot would stick to your french fry. If you only
liked a little ketchup, you might like a thinner ketchup because less would stick to your french fry.

Since scientists like to ask questions, we couldn't help but wonder a few things. Here is what they wondered: Who would win a race between ketchup and mustard? Which restaraunt ketchup would win if we got packets from 4 different places? What other things in our refrigerator can we race?

For the years to come, I made a chart to laminate and reuse.

All I need to do each year is program the brands of ketchup we will be using and it will be ready to go.