Ms. Hendsbee's Humming Hive: The Bees Discover Teamwork and Habitats!

As every teacher knows, the time between December break and February break is a whirlwind of reintroducing classroom rules, reviewing, and trying to stay on track with all of the testing we have to do! SO here is what the bees have been discovering through all of this!

In social studies, we took the time to talk about the importance of teamwork. While many of the children know about teamwork and know that it is used in sports circumstances, it is crucial that they learn the importance of each and every person in their lives and how to work as a team in school, at home, during sports, on the playground and especially when they may be in danger or need help. The bees seemed to have a very "surface" understanding of teamwork and very obviously enjoyed the teamwork activities and were even caught using it during their free time! What a miracle....

Here's our library for the two units!

Here's some of our activities:

Here's our thinking map for teamwork. We began it on the first day and added to it when we felt as though we learned something new.

For Martin Luther King Day, the students immediately tied in King's beliefs and dreams with their study of teamwork. Many of them chose to write about a teamwork related dream:

"I want to be a baker and bake for people"

"I wish I was rich to give people money"

One of our favorite texts during our teamwork unit is always Swimmy by Leo Lionni. This is the story about a small, black fish who does not fit in with his orange group. However, he is brave and when all of his group is eaten besides him, he swims off into the bold sea to find new friends. What he finds is a group of fish who are so afraid of being eaten that they do not leave their home until the little fish teaches them to work as a team to stay safe. We read the text twice, once for enjoyment and story sequence and once for vocabulary, inferencing, and connection to our lives. The pictures are always one of the favorite aspects and so when I introduce our project to create our own version of the school of fish at the end of the book they are excited.

First we paint the background blue, but because the mural is so big, we need to work together to cover the entire page.

We then each get one orange fish and I hold the black fish, Swimmy. We discuss what we think the project will be about and throw around ideas until the students decide we must be making a school of fish working together, just like Swimmy and his friends do and we do in the classroom.

After discussing that all people putting the little fish on at the same time wouldn't work to create a realistic looking big fish, we decide to take turns and talk about our goal as we work. The end result looks like this! A giant fishy made out of a bunch of team-working pals! They are always so shocked at the big fish we made and proud of their mural!

We also played many team building games and made time for discussions about what was difficult, fun, and what worked or didn't during these activities. We played keep the balloon up (with a blown up balloon and the children in a circle using their hands to keep it off the ground), tangling our arms and hands together and using communication skills to untangle ourselves without letting go of each others hands, and passing a hula hoop around a circle of grasped hands without letting go. Some bees were really frustrated! It was the best atmosphere for students to experience teamwork in a large group and have the opportunity to work on the kinks.

Our science unit in January focused on habitats and was five weeks long, beginning with the desert, rainforest, arctic, ocean, and then allowing time for the bees to complete a specific research project on their favorite animal! Yay research!

Our desert vocabulary pocket chart with visuals for our ELLs!

As always, the bees helped me create a KWL on what they already "know," and more importantly, what they want to learn from this unit. We always make sure to answer all of the questions.... even if I forget to take a picture of it!

I love flip books! The students color the animals in the desert realistically and then cut and paste to create a predictable book about animals in the desert.

One of my favorite art projects of the year: a desert sunset collage !

On to the rainforest!

We always start with the book The Umbrella by Jan Brett. It is a great introduction to the visual qualities and the animals that can be seen within the rainforest. When we finish, we use story cards with the animals pictures and names to retell the story. It gives the bees a chance to practice sequence, the names and characteristics of the different animals, and public speaking confidence, of course!

We then create our own Rainforest tree out of three paper towel rolls and four layers, the floor, understory, canopy and emergent layers. After learning about all of the animals, their behaviors and the food chain, the bees help me place animals on the correct layer of the tree. We make sure to explain our thinking based on the animal's place on the food chain and physical characteristics and abilities.

Graphing forest animals!

After learning about two different habitats, we compare their similarities and differences by using a Venn Diagram.

Writing about our favorite rainforest animals and using texts to help us remember and recreate realistic physical characteristics.

Next, we moved onto the Arctic and began with a sort of rainforest and arctic animals to help the bees learn vocabulary and physical characteristics of different animals.

And of course, we need to do a fun science experiment! To learn about the protection the Arctic animals have against the cold, we stick our hands in a baggie and then that baggie into another walled with Crisco. We place our other, bare, hand in a ice cold bath of water. We then write our impressions and feelings of the water. Then, we stick the other hand, covered in lard, back into the ice cold water. The students discover they cannot feel the brutal cold through the lard!

(Don't mind my messy handwriting! It was an exciting experiment...)

Throughout the entire unit, we talk about adaptations, what it means and how they help animals. It helps us to understand how adaptations occur across all species.

Some Ocean Activities:

Matching numbers to quantity octopus

counting by tens sea scape cut and paste

A sink and float experiment using classroom items and both salt and fresh water.

Then, we make a coral reef using both our knowledge on coral reefs and how they help protect animals by providing food and shelter... and TEAMWORK to create such a masterpiece!

Towards the end of our ocean study, the children create an ocean layer diagram and flip book. We fold a piece of white printer paper in half, and glue light blue, dark blue, black and "sand" colored construction paper in that order on one half. We then label the parts of the ocean and cut along the division between the colors. This lets us "lift the flap" and draw some creatures that live at that depth. Turns out beautifully !

The very end of our habitat unit is filled with discovery and research. Each student chooses one animal from any of the habitats and does text and online research to write an informational text of their own. I have found that the San Diego Zoo offers a child website with simple to read facts and many videos !

San Diego Zoo Website

Using previously read and discussed text

We then make sure to share our research books with the classroom in the reading chair! They are, and should be, SO PROUD!

As always, some literacy and math centers!:

Four letter word phonics center from Lakeshore!

Vowel flower puzzles, and creation of our own vowel flowers

Search for sight words! We get bored of sight words and so THINK that means we know how to read and spell them all. Here's the catch bees... YOU DON'T! This center.... a big tub filled with packing peanuts and sight word cards from the Kindergarten Smorgasbord, was so fun! we searched to find all of our words and had to write them down. What a race!

Dab the CVC word

Sorting long and short vowel words

Completing our word family booklets

Another great sight word center.. search for sight words. It captures reading, writing, and if you require, usage!

Sorting nonsense (trash) and real (treasure) words

and of course.. a recording sheet!

Lakeshore sentence building center, I love how the bees can read all of the words included. No tricks and its sure to stick!

Some valentine inspired centers:

Letter sound grab, say, and color the picture that begins with that sound

Nonsense and real CVC word sort

Sight word roll and write

For some of the advanced kiddos, the ow/ou vowel pair sort

Even in Kindergarten, I make sure to read the same book with each of the reading groups twice per week... once to understand the story and the next to read for clues, inferences, and meaning. On the second day each group, both highs and lows, do some sort of response to reading. This paper helped the highest bees inference something about the character from the story and provide text evidence that pointed him in that direction.

Sentence build write and read

LOVE THIS! Zingo sight words! so easy, fun and meaningful to play!

Another lakeshore game that we love... Sound Switchin'. Here the bees take their task cards and try to land on the sound/letter they need to complete their card throughout the game. The first to fill his or her card wins!

Roll a word real and nonsense (also can be used with 2-5 letters)

And some math!

Firefighter subtraction cards and recording

Gingerbread man positional words booklet!

(Please, we know this is Christmas related but it was too fun... and meaningful.. to put away!) Here's Ho Ho Ho war with numbers 1-20

Snowman number decomposition

Sticker subtraction!

Numeral to base ten representation puzzles... we used these as a warm up..

Classroom shape search. I always find it hard to create and use centers related to shapes in a meaningful way... I'm trying to avoid the kiddos just playing with shapes here people. This center proved fun and very telling about which shapes were known and which were misunderstood or unknown. Plus! It allowed the kids to get up and stretch their legs!

Some large number decomposition at the rug!

French fry subtraction. Each container holds a certain number of "fries" or popsicle sticks, and is designated by a number on the front of the container. Students pick up a task card.. taken from Kindergarten Smorgasbord.. and grab the fry box with the number they start with. I love this center because it helps me to see who understands the concept of subtraction taking away from a starting amount and who needs more instruction.