Fun Things to do Over Spring Break to Build Your Student's Background Knowledge

First-hand experiences are another teacher for your child. Take them to museums, the zoo, the library, parks, arts performances, & geographic locations such as the mountains, beaches, forests, and deserts. They’ll grasp concepts and skills better if they have experiences with the real thing. This gives a real-life connection. Below is a fun list of things to do over Spring Break:

1. Visit the Zoo! The Penguin's are back!
2. Visit the Science Center: They will have several free dinosaur exhibits throughout the month of April
3. Let your imagination go wild at the City Museum
4. Learn all about the history of your state at the Missouri History Museum
5. Go to the Magic House to do hands-on learning activities
6. Visit the beautiful Missouri Botanical Gardens
7. Take a bike ride around Forest Park

Don't forget to listen to your fun Spring Break CD filled with songs we use at school to learn.

Digging for Fossils in Chocolate Chip Cookies

We searched for "fossils" in chocolate chip cookies. Our class LOVED this activity. We started out of dinosaur unit with many dinosaur books and worked our way towards the chocolate chip cookie excavation.

For this activity we used:
-Chocolate Chip Cookies
-Toothpicks

 While exploring about dinosaurs, we discovered that paleontologists use dinosaur bones and fossils to figure out what life on earth was like a long time ago.We also talked about the types of tools that paleontologists use to dig for fossils like shovels, picks, and brushes to clean the bones carefully.  I gave each of the students a cookie and explained that we were going to be paleontologists and this cookie was going to be our piece of earth to explore.

The students closely examined their piece of earth to see how many dinosaur bones (chocolate chips) they thought they would find.  We recorded their findings from the excavation on our data sheets.  


The Students  got to work using their specialized tool (a toothpick) to carefully dig their bones (chocolate chips) out of their cookies.  This was a great activity for fine motor skills.  As we worked, I encouraged the students to describe what they were seeing and feeling.


They were even more excited to discover that there were more dinosaur bones on the bottom of their pieces of earth!  Once the they had removed all the bones they could (some whole and some in pieces), we used our counting skills to find out how many bones we found and record them on our data sheet...and then, we ATE them! 

 

Erupting Rainbow Experiment

Erupting Rainbow Experiment:

What a fun St. Patricks' Day! We started it off with a really fun science activity in which we made an erupting rainbow! I added food dye to the bottom of cups and covered it with baking soda before the students arrived. When we got to our experiment we found 7 cups with white powder in each one. We talked about the colors of the rainbow, identified each color and then got our experiment going! Our first mystery cup ended up being red! Each of us had a chance to discover what color was in each cup while watching an eruption. 

Linus the Minus & Gus the Plus

In math, we have met our favorite math brothers to help with addition & subtraction. They help us remember our and differentiate our math signs. Feel free to practice these poems at home as well :)

2nd Grade Wax Museum

We took an in school field trip to visit the 2nd grade Wax Museum in the gym. We learned about several important people in history such as Georgia O'Keefe, Sally Ride, Rosa Parks, Mia Hamm, etc. Our class can not wait to be in 2nd grade and be a part of this exhibit.

Bartholomew & the Oobleck

During Dr.Seuss Week, we read several Dr. Seuss books. One of the books we read was Bartholomew and the Oobleck.  The book was about a king that was bored of the 4 major seasons and wanted something "new" to fall from the sky. The king called upon his magicians and asked for something  new and their town received Oobleck. We learned the importance of telling the truth and taking ownership for our actions. At the end of the book, we did a fun experiment and made Oobleck ourselves.

You can make Oobleck at home!
All you need is:
-Cornstarch
-Water
-Food Coloring
- A Mixing Bowl

Directions:
Mix 1 cup of cornstarch and 1/2 cup of water.  It should be the consistency of syrup.  Add food coloring if you choose. 

Cloud Experiment

We did a cloud experiment in class! It is a simple experiment that can be done at home as well.

First, we put a bar of ivory soap on top of some wax paper in the microwave.

**NOTE: Do NOT use just any bar of soap. It HAS to be a bar of Ivory soap. !**

Next, turn on the microwave for about a minute and a half. Then, sit back and watch your cloud grow!

After, our experiment was complete we got to feel what a cloud could feel like.