Our Fantastic Field Trip!

What a fabulous field trip we had!  We were so excited to be going to the Scottish Rite Theater in Austin to see the Pippi Longstocking play.  We have been reading the chapter book about her in our class and we were very excited to see her in person!  Pippi is a loveable character whose  hair is bright red, and is usually worn in two braids that stick straight out from each side of her head. She has a father who is a pirate and a mother that is an angel. She lives alone and does as she wishes.Her behavior often surprises her best friends, siblings Annika and Tommy. Though Pippi often errs, her nature is generous, frequently to a fault. We have loved reading about her adventures and loved seeing her perform today.

 Excited about our Pippi Longstocking field trip!

We were excited  to see Pippi's dad, a REAL pirate!

 Let's Go!

 Getting to ride the bus with our friends was so fun!

 Waiting for the performance to begin!

We loved sharing the fun with our parents!

 We loved the play and Pippi was our favorite!

We didn't want it to end!

 Our picnic in the park!

Time for fun on the playground!

 We all agreed it was a fantastic field trip!  Thanks so much to all who helped out to make it such a fun day!

CraZy about BugZ!

Head, thorax, abdomen, abdomen!

Head, thorax, abdomen, abdomen

Eyes and mouth,

antennaes too!

Six legs.......

and that's an insect for you!

Yes we know that insects have to have three body parts, two antennae and six legs!  We had fun singing songs, reading books and exploring insects this week as we learned about BUGZ! We were able to bring bugs to our Insect Zoo this week.  We had to see if they passed the "Insect Test" before we were sure they were an INSECT!

 Leah and her June bug! Yes, it was an insect!

 Redik and his squished beetle!  Even though it wasn't alive it still passed the test!

 Ernie and his roly-poly playground.  We found that a roly-poly had too many legs and not the right amount of body parts to be an insect..............but it was still fun to have it visit!

 Colston and his roly-poly friend!

Checking out those many tickling legs!

Exploring a teeny tiny insect that we found on the playground.  

We then had a chance to work with a partner to create our own BUG!  We had to make sure it had three body parts, two antennae and six legs!

Check out our creative BUGZ!

 Ernie and Colston created a "JOHNCINO" bug.  It wrestles and stings for protection.

 Redik and Chris V. made a "CROSS" bug and it jumps, plays around and does jokes.

 Ezekiel and Summer named their bug "AUSTIN-BOSTON" because it lives in Austin. It kicks people and sticks out his tongue for protection.

 Chloe, Jordan and Brandon created "COLOR" bug.  When he jumps it puts colors in the air and makes a rainbow.  He can even make two rainbows at a time!

 Atiana and Mikayla with their "BEE" bug.

 Chris B. and Anissa and their "STINGER-LADY BUG". It flies and likes to swing on the playground.

 Emma and Alejandro made a SPOTS SPOT bug.  He flies and his wings turn into shields. He likes to eat bad, raw bugs.

Kennedy and Leah and their BUG creation!

Learning about insects has been CRAZY fun!

Vampires and Volcanoes!

What in the world do vampires and volcanoes have in common?  They both start with the letter Vv,of course.  We met Vam Vampire on Monday as we were introduced to the letter Vv.  We learned that vampires were make-believe, but we did have fun pretending to be one!

On the other hand, some of us were surprised to hear that VOLCANOES were real. A few thought  volcanoes disappeared with the dinosaurs!  We loved learning about volcanoes. We learned  a volcano is a mountain that opens downward to a pool of molten rock (magma) below the surface of the earth. It is a hole in the Earth from which molten rock and gas erupt. The Earth's crust is made up of huge slabs called plates, which fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. These plates sometimes move and collide and cause pressure to build.  When the pressure inside becomes too great, the volcano erupts.  It is called lava when the hot rock is forced out of the volcano.

We loved reading the book "Volcanoes" and watching the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcFtpWjZwlEThe Volcano Song . (You can click on the link to hear it! ) 

We began the day by singing and moving to "Count to 100". We practiced counting to 100 by 10s and then we made an erupting volcano by tearing and sequencing 10s to 100!

After completing our work we went to the playground to create a "real" Kindergarten volcano. 

 We first made a tall mound out of sand for our volcano.  We then made a

crater or hole at the top.

 We added baking soda to represent the magma or hot rock deep inside the earth.

Then we created the "eruption" by pouring vinegar onto the baking soda. "Hot Lava!"

Building Volcanoes was VERY exciting!