Kinder News!: Plants and Animals

We are eager to begin our study of plants and animals. We will be taking a closer look at the needs of both plants and animals, and the students will be working to research an animal of their choice!

April 11-15

This week we began brainstorming what we know about animals and started a growing list of different kinds of animals. We recorded our original thoughts below.

Then after reading several short texts about different kinds of animals like the ones in the pictures below, we began to expand our thoughts about animals and came up with a class definition for an animal by looking for key words from our notes. We decided that:

An animal is a creature that can move and get what it needs from where it lives---like food, water, and air.

Students also had time to select an animal they would like to research throughout our unit. What an exciting start to the unique and interesting world of animals!

April 18-22

The students were excited to begin their animal research this week in the LMC. They did an unbelievable job using Pebble Go to find out more about their animal's habitat, diet, and body features.

We also talked about the needs of pets, wild animals, and people, and through our discussion we learned that animals have four basic needs---food, water, shelter, and air.

We watched the following short video to help us remember the four basic needs too.

April 25-29

This week we finished researching our animals in the LMC and learned how our animals breathe and where they find water. We also researched some fun facts about our animals and began working on our animal reports.

May 2-6

This week we began to explore the world of plants. We talked about what we think we know about plants as well as what we want to learn. We recorded our ideas using the chart below.

May 9-13

This week we met our class plant--an orange begonia compliments of my mother-in-law! We learned that plants need both light and water in order to grow. We also learned that plants soak up water and nutrients from the soil, and a plant's roots keep it from falling over. We also spent some time outside exploring the different plants in our courtyard and recorded some of our observations in our science notebooks!

May 16-20

It was an exciting week in science! We planted zinnia seeds and placed them in our classroom greenhouse. The children are eager to see our seeds begin to sprout. We also planted carrot and green bean seeds in a tall clear container so the students can watch the roots as they grow below the soil's surface!

We also spent some time comparing the needs of plants and animals using a Venn diagram. It was exciting to hear the students sharing what they have learned during our study of plants and animals with their turn-and-talk partners.

May 23-26

The children were SO excited to see how quickly their zinnias sprouted, and they can't wait to see them grow into flowers! They will be thrilled to come back to see our lima bean and carrot plants growing too. They have grown so much over the weekend, and we can get a close-up view of their roots!

We also started the last portion of our "Plants and Animals" unit that focuses on how the needs of people are similar to those of plants and animals. This week we learned how important it is for our bodies to get oxygen. We even did an experiment to see how many breaths we take in one minute. Our Hello Helper, Eva, helped us as we counted her breaths--over 40 in one minute...Wow! We also learned about the different natural resources we use to get the things we need.

May 31-June 3

This week we learned more about the positive things we can do to use our resources wisely. We talked about the different ways we can reduce, reuse, and recycle. We also talked about the different ways people have changed the environment and how it important to consider our needs and wants when altering our natural resources. We took a walk around the school to look for ways in which people have altered our environment.