OVERALL THEME FOR THE YEAR: Change

NOTES:

1a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing understanding of how the scientific enterprise operates.

Overall theme through the year, Change

General Kindergarten Themes: Weather, Five Senses, Apple trees http://www.kinderthemes.com/apples.html

through the seasons, Bears, Animals, Magnets, Insects, Spiders, Life cycle of the frog and butterfly, Three Billy Goats Gruff

Activities:

Look at pictures of birds that are familiar to your area then take students on a bird watch.

Have students compare and contrast two similar objects such as two different pieces of fruit (using the five senses), two toys, two books.

Estimate how many apple seeds are in an apple. Compare to other apples.

Talk about the seasons compare and contrast the seasons using the five senses.

Students will be able to:

A.     Observe and describe objects in their environment in order to organize information and make comparisons (e.g., cats have fur, fish live in water, rocks are hard)

B.     Manipulate an object to discover characteristics not apparent by observation alone

2a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to use measuring instruments to gather accurate and/or precise information.

Thermometer

Three Billy Goats Gruff

Activities:

Everyday math - Use nonstandard units of measure, to measure plant growth, the changing size of caterpillars, and the different sizes of bears. Note differences. Follow a recipe using non-standard measures and standard measures.  Taste the results.  Discuss the need for standard units of measurement.

Students will be able to:

A. Invent their own unit of measurement (e.g., the room is nine     "Nancys" wide)

2b. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to use technology to observe nature.

Activities

Use scales, thermometers, probes, magnifying glasses, microscopes, or computers to conduct investigations and observe nature.

Use scales to compare the weights of various vegetables.

Go on a dirt safari. Spread newspapers outside. Place several scoops of dirt on the newspapers. Give students sifters and magnifying glasses.

View insects under a microscope. Look at the scales on butterfly wings.

Use measuring cups in a water table to compare volume.

Use diffraction grating lens glasses to see the colors of the light spectrum.

Use ramps and balls to develop skills in predicting, comparing, identifying causes and effects, experimenting, and measuring.

Students will be able to:

A.     Use simple tools in a safe and responsible manner

2c. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to analyze, synthesize and communicate scientific information using technology.

Activites:

Connect with another kindergarten classroom in a different state to compare weather through the year.

Have your students do favorite pet or favorite fruit surveys (endless possibilities) with students from other classes. Make data tables and graphs.

Use Computer programs:  “Sammy Science”, “Thinking Things Science”, “Sticky Bear Science”

Students will be able to:

A.     Share data with children in other classrooms

B.     Use age-appropriate instructional software

3a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to recognize patterns and products of evolution, including genetic variation, specialization, adaptation, and natural selection.

Animal Babies

Human Similarities and Differences

Veggie Genetics

Seasonal changes in Animals

Plants
Bears
Frogs

Activities:

Do student sorts by eye or hair color, Sort by ear attachment (connected or unconnected ear lobes) or sort by students who are able to curl their tongue or not. 

Students will be able to:

A.     Group students using a particular attribute of characteristic (e.g., gender, hair color, eye color)

3b. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand how environmental factors affect all living systems (i.e., individuals, community, biome, the bioshpere) as well as species interaction.

Activities: 

Discuss adaptations. Bears and Frogs hibernate; rabbits change color, birds fly south, trees or other plants change color and lose their leaves. Discuss how weather effects what we wear to school.

http://www.nenature.com/GenWildlifeResources.htm

http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/nwep.htm

http://atozteacherstuff.com/pages/140.shtml

Students will be able to:

A.     Name plants and animals whose appearance changes in different seasons and describe the differences.

B.     Discuss features that help plants and animals survive in different environments or in the same environment during different seasons.

3c. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand that organisms are linked to one another and to their physical setting by the transfer and transformation of matter and energy to maintain a dynamic equilibrium.

Animal Habitats

Bears

Plants

Activities:

Create a spider vivarium, or a fish aquarium. Assign students to feed animals and water plants in a science center. Purchase caterpillars and watch them change and transform into butterflies.

What if you were going to another planet? What would you need to survive?

http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Kids/kids.htm

http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/nwep.htm

Students will be able to:

A.     Explore the various needs to living things (e.g., water, food, shelter)

3d. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand fundamental structures, functions, and mechanisms of inheritance found in microorganisms, fungi, protists, plants, and animals.

Animal Babies

Plant Growth

Birds’ Beaks
Veggies

Bears

Activities:

 
Look at pictures of a butterfly and its metamorphosis. Buy caterpillars and watch them change as they eat. Watch them change into their chrysalis and then watch the butterflies hatch.

Students will be able to:

A.     Identify real or representations (pictures, drawings) of living things found near their home and ask questions concerning their attributes and needs for survival.

5a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to distinguish among materials by utilizing observable properties.

Five Senses

Activities:

Use a feely box to touch and describe various objects. Have students close their eyes and try to discern which classmate is speaking. Blindfold a student and have him/her taste and identify various fruits. Have student identify smells. A drop of extract placed on a cotton ball and sealed in a film canister will work well, or place a drop of extract in a balloon and blow up the balloon. This will retain the fragrance for several hours.

Students will be able to:

A.     Describe objects and events using all of their senses: touch, taste, sound, sight, and smell

B.     Construct a variety of different objects from a few types of small parts (e.g., paper clips, coffee stirrers, 3x5 cards, "Legos," "Tinkertoys")

C.     Sort a collection of materials into living or non-living

6a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to recognize parts of any object or system, and understand how the parts interrelate in the operation of that object or system.

Parts of a plant

Skeletons
Human Body

Activites:

Disassemble common household objects. Put together puzzles and objects that require assembly.

http://www2.tltc.ttu.edu/thomas/coollinks/skeleton.htm

Students will be able to:

A.     Explore and identify the parts and materials that comprise simple objects and how they are connected.

B.     Predict the effect of removing or exchanging parts of an object

C.     Discuss how parts when put together can do things that they could not do by themselves.

6b. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate their understanding of the meaning of stability and change and will be able to identify and explain change in terms of cause and effect.

 
Lifecycle of the Butterfly

Lifecycle of a frog 

Plants

Activites:

Watch the Apple tree through the seasons. Read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. Look at the metamorphosis of a butterfly. Take digital pictures of students at the beginning of the school year and through the year. Note change. Record the height of each student at the beginning of the year and at intervals through the year.

http://www.proteacher.com/020026.shtml

http://atozteacherstuff.com/pages/140.shtml

Students will be able to:

A.     List several things that change through time or because of a change in the environment

B.     Recognize that some changes are so slow that they are hard to observe. Classify events or objects as changing quickly, slowly

C.     Observe the movement of people or objects (e.g., record traffic patterns of students moving in the school building

 6c. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate the meaning of models, their appropriate use and limitations, and how models can help them in understanding the natural world.

Skeletons

Plant Model

Water Cycle Model

Students will be able to:

A.     Identify ways in which models are the same or different from the real object (e.g., a plastic flower and a garden flower; a stuffed animal and a real animal; toy car and actual)

Instructional Resources for Kindergarten

Resource

Location

Notes

I Am an Apple

The Story of Johnny Appleseed, Aliki

Apples and Pumpkins, Anne F. Rockwell

Picking Apples and Pumpkins, Amy Hutchings

The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree, Gail Gibbons

Terms for Kindergarten

Term:

Definition