Transportation Take Two: Wild about Water, Friday Freebie and a Giveaway!

Happy Friday!  :)  I am so exhausted/achy/drowning in mucus... okay sorry, that was gross!  (But true.  I hate colds!)  Luckily I have the best class in the world!  They are so sweet.  They were very considerate of my voice (or lack thereof) all week, and we still had bunches of fun.  I am so blessed!  And I am starting to feel better with the warmer weather.  55 today and loving it!  :)

This week was all about water transportation!  The kiddos and I are just loving this transportation thing.  Read on and take a look!

Art:

Sea Scene Sponge Painting

Who doesn't love painting with sponges?  The kiddos used two different colors of blue and sponges to make the water.  I loved how ripply the sponges made the water look!  After those dried, they drew a way to travel on water.  I could really tell how much they had learned about different kinds of water transportation from what I saw.  :)  I bet you can guess which one is my favorite...

Submarine

Aircraft Carrier

Speed Boat

Yep, it's this one.  I just love the expression of abject terror/extreme happiness on the guy's face!  :)

Shape Boats

More fine motor practice!  :)  I had several kiddos sick last week, so this was good practice and make-up portfolio practice all in one.  We did these after reading Toy Boat by Randall de Seve, which is an AMAZING book with great illustrations.  It was definitely my class's favorite book this week!

Seashell Prints

Painting with seashells!  :)  This was lots of fun and a great way to explore the texture of seashells.  Next year, though, I want to try using ink pads.  I think the pattern on the shells would come out clearer.

Literacy:

Letter B (Boat) Handwriting Racers

Another activity from my Transportation unit.  My class never gets tired of these!  They get so excited when they see the dice they start jumping up and down, no joke.

Sand Names

What fun!  Again, I'm really trying to cram in that fine motor/glue/scissors skills practice before sending them to kindergarten.  They traced over their names with glue, then sprinkled on sand (which I put in an old empty glitter container).  Voila!

Fishing for Letters/Letter Sounds

Have you ever woken up at 5 am and decided you were totally going to change your day's plans because you had a sudden stroke of inspiration?  Well, I certainly did this week!  I decided that on Wednesday, since we were learning about different purposes of boats, we were going to fish for letters and letter sounds.  Now, it was too late to buy this cool Phonics Fishing Set from Lakeshore Learning (and too expensive anyways), so what did I do?

I made my own of course!  I already had the fishing poles (which I got from Walgreens at the beginning of this year for only $1).  I just had to find the perfect clip art online, quickly make up some alphabet fish, run to FedEx Office and print onto colored cardstock, run to school and cover with contact shelf paper, quickly cut out and hot glue paperclips on the back.  And I did all this by 9 am.  Not going to lie, I felt pretty awesome (albeit insane)!  :)

So.  Literacy centers roll around and here we are, fishing for the alphabet (NOT using the reels on the fishing poles after a disastrous first attempt).  This was GREAT letter identification practice and letter sound practice!  The rules were simple.  Once my kiddos caught a fish, they had to name the letter and make the letter sound to get to keep it in their fisherman's pail (which I got from the Target Dollar Spot).  If they didn't know, they had the choice of throwing it back in the pond (our sensory table) or taking it to the alphabet chart.

It probably goes without saying, but this was hands-down the favorite activity this week.  My kiddos loved it so much I decided I have to incorporate it into the Transportation unit and make some recording sheets so that it can be used again as an independent center.  SO know this: I am working on revising the unit to include this activity (and another boat-themed math activity).  If you win my giveaway, I will send you the revised unit as well as soon as I have it completed!  :)

Math:

Alphabet Patterns

My class just loves patterns.  It's great!  I catch them making patterns all the time now when they're just free-drawing pictures.  This week we started talking about how AB and ABC patterns can also apply to letters of the alphabet, not just colors.  By the end of the week they were even making their own!

Color by # Boat

This one's from my Transportation unit as well!  :)  I am so excited because some of my kiddos are actually starting to recognize the color words!

Science/Sensory:

Build a Boat

This was a blast!  We built boats out of sponges, straws, and foam paper (sails).  This was great for teaching about the parts of a sailboat.  Unfortunately, they fell apart in our water table more often than not, but they still had fun.  :)  We also used stacking boats in the water table.

Seashell Exploration

My little scientists explored seashells this week with magnifying glasses!  They picked their favorite one and illustrated it in their science journals.

Sink vs. Float Experiment

We did this experiment after reading Who Sank the Boat by Pamela Allen!  I went about it two ways.  With my first group, the kiddos each took turns holding the different objects and used their scientist brains to make predictions.  Then they marked their predictions with an X.  After that, we used our scientist eyes to observe what happened to each object.  Then we used our scientist hands to record our findings by coloring in the appropriate box with the result.

This proved to be kind of complicated for a lot of kiddos, so with my next groups we just made our predictions out loud and recorded the results with an X.  Next year I'm thinking of having "What I Think Will Happen"/"What Happened" columns where the kiddos can mark F for Float and S for Sink.  I think that'd be easier to understand!  :)

Manipulatives:

Transportation Lacing Cards

Now these I got for a STEAL at Carson Dellosa's website the other day.  I got these cuties for only $6 (and some farm animals ones, and alphabet sounds bingo... check it out!)  But I also made four transportation-themed lacing cards for you.  Click on the picture below to be taken to the freebie.

I hope you enjoy them!  (And if you do, please let me know!  My hibernation song freebie has had over 400 downloads on Teachers Pay Teachers, so I know someone likes it, but it has nary a rating!)  Speaking of freebies on Teachers Pay Teachers, if you missed out seeing my color by number train freebie last week, grab it by clicking here.

Lastly, here's a look at the great books we read this week.  (Amazon won't let me add this book, but it's great for teaching about what powers boats and is an emergent reader to boot: The Boat Book by Samantha Berger).

Next year we need to do something with pirates.  I was thinking that all this week, but was too sick to do anything about it!  It would be a blast to have a pirate ship with costume accessories at dramatic play.  AND how cool would it be to dig up some treasure in the sand table?  Oh, the possibilities!  :)

That's all peeps!  Don't forget to comment on my giveaway post to be entered for a chance to win my new Transportation unit!  The giveaway is open until midnight on Saturday.  :)  And don't forget to grab all the great Friday Freebies at TBA!

P.S. Remember those fisherman's pails I mentioned for our Fishing for Letters activity?  I will be back soon to blog about some of the fantastic finds at the Target Dollar Spot!