February 7, 2012

Penguins and Polar Bears

It has been a while since I have posted! Sorry! We have been very busy learning about penguins and polar bears and I have forgotten my camera. (BOO!) I do have pictures of what we did together as a class (YAY!) Enjoy!

Penguins
Two weeks ago we learned all about penguins. The first day we talked about our schema of penguins. During the week we read a few nonfiction texts. We also watched about 20 minutes of "March of the Penguins" each morning instead of doing our usual normal morning work. After reading and watching the movie we would discuss our new learning and our misconceptions. Each day we wrote a new nonfiction fact during some guided writing. To finish up the week we made one of my favorite projects. I got the idea from a great teacher while I was doing mini-internships in college.





Polar Bears
Last week we focused on Polar Bears and how animals camouflage in the snow. We were able to watch some great clips. During the week we added to our can-have-are chart. At the end of the week we were so lucky - we went on a virtual field trip to the Indianapolis Zoo to talk with a zookeeper about Polar Bears! We were lucky to learn for 45 minutes and the kiddos loved every minute of it! At the end of the week we did an adorable polar bear craft that I found somewhere in blogland! Thank you to whoever gave me the great idea! (They have pink and purple bows so I can leave them up for a little bit in February!)