Cloudy With A Chance of...Ivory Soap?

I was visiting an awesome website called Steve Spangler Science and read about a really cool experiment! My kindergarten students have a science lab book. In addition to the three major units of science I teach every year, I like to also incorporate other experiments in order to teach them about important concepts.

During our study of the spring season, we learned about the different clouds in the sky. While researching different experiments, I found this great activity on the Steve Spangler site. Did you know that you can make a cloud out of a bar of Ivory soap? I was amazed! It has to be a bar of Ivory soap and if you microwave it for 90 seconds (place it on a paper plate) it forms into the shape of a cloud. The kids loved it!!! You could hear the ooohs and aahs all over our school building.

I made my own lab sheet for their lab books (composition notebooks).

Here you go! Click on the picture.

After the experiment, we pasted the sheet into our books and answered the questions. Here is what the soap looks like after it heats up in the microwave!

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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Yes, Earth Day is almost here! To celebrate this important day, I created a new emergent reader. Please visit my TPT store to check it out! Now...I am going to take this book's advice and go outside because the sun is shining!!!

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What A Reaction! Volcano Activity Freebie

Hello Friends! We are in the last week of our dinosaur study. In fact, my dinosaur museum is on Thursday. If you want to check out photos from last year's exhibit, click here.

Today, we read a book about the various theories as to why dinosaurs became extinct. One of the theories was that several volcanoes erupted, causing the extinction. Then, we read a book about volcanoes. The children screamed with glee when I told them that we were going to make our own volcano!

We talked about the word "reaction." Then, I showed them the vinegar and baking soda. Some of them were already familiar with the experiment. After performing the experiment, we completed a science sheet and pasted into our science journals. Click below for your own copy.

 Volcano Experiment

Here is the picture from last year:

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Roar!!! Dinosaur Persuasive Writing and Word Wall Station Activities

Hello friends! I am in the middle of one of my favorite themes for the year - dinosaurs! Be sure to click on my dinosaur links on the sidebar to view pictures of my dinosaur museum and to grab some freebies. I am also in the middle of my persuasive writing unit - kind of a challenging unit for kindergarten, but they are quickly becoming experts.


To go along with both dinosaurs and persuasive writing I read the book, Can I Have A Stegosaurus, Mom? Can I Please? by Lois Grambling.

The children loved this story! After reading the book, we brainstormed ideas we would give our own moms to convince her to let us have a dinosaur. We talked a lot about the word reason and how you had to really try to convince her with a great reason. After sharing some great ideas, the children wrote their persuasive pieces on special stationary. Click below for your own copy.

Stegosaurus Persuasive Writing

One of my literacy stations is the word wall station. The children typically sit in front of our word wall and write  about ten words onto a piece of paper. I decided to "jazz" it up a bit and make it a dinosaur word wall station. Again, please click below for your freebie.

Dinosaur Word Wall Station Freebie

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I Mustache you a question - Fun Freebie

Hi Friends! So my daughter loves to make things from duct tape - wallets, headbands, bookmarks, you name it. The other day she found mustache duct tape. After she used it to make lots of goodies, she said "You should use this in your classroom. Your kids would love it!"

I don't totally get this new mustache fad, but if something will motivate my little ones, I'll give it a try. I decided to square off my magnet board using the duct tape. I made six different sections. Then, I made a little sign for the middle. They use this board during literacy stations. Each student gets their own square. For now, I have them build sight words, but I may use it to introduce other vocabulary terms.

Here is a small picture of the board:

We bought our duct tape from a discount store called Marshall's (usually where I buy clothes, but now duct tape!) You can also find it at Walmart and Staples.


Here is the sign I made for the middle of the board:. Enjoy!!!

Stache of New Words Sign Freebie

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