Our science focus this month is plants and animals and their environments and habitats and what they need to survive. As I’ve said before, my  monthly themes are based on our science and social studies standards/units. I try to base as much of our reading and writing and math on those central ideas as possible.

Habitats is one of my favorites.

We’ve been busy.

I purchased Cara Carroll’s Camping Capers unit. It’s adorable. The camping aspect is just what we needed to add a little more fun to our habitats lessons. We’ve been “visiting” our different habitats while pretend camping. The kids are loving it. We haven’t used too much of that unit yet. I’m saving all the fabulous s’mores activities for the end of our habitats theme.

October’s habitat theme started out with a visit to the desert.

After discussing the trials that the desert climate offers, we discovered the adaptations that desert plants and animals have that allow them to live quite comfortably in this arid and commonly hot habitat. Then we completed an A LOOK at the Desert activity.

The unit comes with a variety of writing activities. This one is designed for early 1st. There is a simpler Kindergarten activity as well as 2 other more developed paragraph writing activities. (My kiddos aren’t quite there yet. :D)

After the desert we took a trip to the forest.

We did a skunk craft from Cara’s pack. I actually combined two different skunk things she included in the pack. I LOVE these skunks. The kids wrote about something “That Stinks!”  We talked about what that means. One of my kiddos raised his hand and whispered… “That sucks… but you aren’t supposed to say that.”

Yep, exactly.

This pictures doesn’t do these adorable skunks justice.

We talked about why animals hibernate while we “visited” the forest. Then we worked on the “Nighty, Night Bear!” lesson and craft.

This week we are kicking back in the rainforest and discovering all it’s layers.

This “Hanging Around the Rainforest” activity was lots of fun for the kiddos. We read the little banana-shaped book and used our inference skills to determine which rainforest animal would fit best with the information provided. It actually comes with 2 different sized monkeys. I LOVE the larger ones, but 30 large monkeys don’t fit too well on the bulletin board. 😀

You can grab your own copy of each of these items, too. They are available as individual units….

So… the curriculum police are heading our way on Wednesday.

All the big-wigs will be there.

Walking through our rooms.

Judging.

Can you get a clear picture of what truly happens in a classroom by walking through it for 5 minutes?

There is so much we all want to say – but have come to the realization that there really isn’t anything we can say or do to get those who just don’t understand…to understand. So much unnecessary stress and unwillingness to speak with (as opposed to AT) those in the trenches.

Tho thad.

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