TREES, TRAVEL and TALES
One year when I taught in Kindergarten, I had a year long theme of "Trees, Travel and Tales." We used fiction and non-fiction books about trees; we read tales about trees; and we pretended to visit other places where these trees or tales were located. We had passports to stamp and luggage to carry with us. Mrs. Schenkelberg was not only the pilot but the tour guide also!
We pretend to go on an airplane trip-- notice the center aisle in the plane.
This is a sample of our suitcase and passport.
To begin our theme with TREES, we built a tree from boxes and cardboard tubes. We made the bark with pieces of jigsaw puzzles painted over. Do you see all the fall animals gathering around the tree and some poking their heads out of the tree holes? The colored leaves have fallen. Soon it will be winter and a mamma bear will crawl in the bottom hole to sleep and have her baby and emerge one spring day with her little one -- much to the surprise of the class! We learned that the tree changed with the seasons and became a home to many animals.
SCIENCE
We used FOSS kits for Science. In Kindergarten we had one called "WOOD." It was a fun unit to do!
Students follow directions to use imagination to make something with their blocks.
Close up view of some of their creations:
Rocks, Fossils and Dinosaurs
Students investigate the rocks and fossils table.
Watercolor dinosaur bulletin board