Social Studies and Science
Want to see what is going during the
months?? Check out our theme pages!!
Our social studies activities take
place after recess, and they are based on our monthly themes (for
a more complete description of activities, see our themes
page). We generally come in and read a book, sing a song, and
have some discussion all relating to the topic we are doing that
month. We then use hands on activities to reinforce what we have
learned. Here is an example....
Some typical activities during dinosaur
month would be to pretend we are paleontologists and to dig for
fossils (in a cookie), make a paper mache dino egg with a baby
dino inside, compare our shoes to a life sized dino print, and
to measure out the actual size of a dinosaur. In our classroom
we will have dinosaur books, games, toys, and artifacts. In our
sensory table we have "dinosaur bones" that we can dig
up and measure, weigh, examine with a magnifying glass, and explore.
Another good example of some activities
we do is insect month. We talk about the difference between bugs,
actual inssects, and arachnids. Kindergartners love big words,
so we talk about Entomologists and use the technical terms for
the body parts. We talk about the metamorphasis of insects, and
the stages they go through. We make anatomically correct insects
out of peanut butter playdo (and then eat - yummy), make bug finger
puppets, watch the life cycle of real butterflies from our local
school supply store, and make a huge web out of yarn for the spider
paintings we do.
Again, we try to create activities
that are hands on and that reinforce not only the information
we learned about the topic, but math, language arts, and art skills
as well. All of the fun and engaging activities we do encourage
the children to do some critical thinking, exploration, and problem
solving.
A favorite activity during our insect theme is to
make peanut butter bugs!
We go on about one field trip per month related to
our Social Studies theme....we go to the recycling center, the
planetarium and the aquarium, a working farm, the zoo, and even
to the moon!!! Below are photos of our trip to the zoo where we
also visited the insect farm and petting zoo!
Science
Our favorite day of the week is Friday - or Science
Friday, as it is better known. Each Friday we have a science lesson.
We get on our lab coats, go by the name Dr. or Professor, and
carry our science notebooks around. We talk about the experiment
we are going to do that day, and we usually have a book, poem,
or song to explain it. Then we do our experiments, and we record
our findings in our Science Notebooks. Some of our experiments
have scientific explanations (sink and float, magnetism, gravity),
and some are just messy and fun!!!! Some of our favorites are:
Oobleck - cornstarch and water - a suspension - not
really a solid or a liquid
Volcanoes - made out of playdo with baking soda and
food colored vinegar for the lava
Gak - otherwise known as slime
Air - blowing different objects with straws and seeing
what objects are easiest to move
Magnets - we spend a few days seeing what magnts will
pick up, what the magnetic force can go through, etc.
Sink and Float - what objects will...creating a boat
from playdo that will float, salt vs. fresh water
Fun with magnets...after a Science Friday, sometimes
I put the objects we used out for free exploration. The children
really enjoy this!
To request a complete information
packet, or to set up an appointment to meet with Miss Shaynee,
please email the Academy
or call us at 650-591-4882. You are also invited to attend our
Back to School and Kindergarten Information Evening held each
September.
This page is maintained by Miss Shaynee