Penguin Experiment and Super Bowl SALE!

Thursday was our first day back after an unplanned week long winter break....also known as snow/calamity/too cold days!  

I had to wrap up our penguin unit this week so I had to eliminate a couple activities since we only had 2 days this week instead of 5.  However, there was no way I could cancel our blubber experiment!  I told my kiddos they were going to see what it felt like to be a penguin and they were sooooo excited!  

It's so easy and provides such a clear understanding for your kiddos how blubber keeps penguins warm and able to live in such a cold, harsh environment.  

You just need Crisco, baggies, water, and 2 bowls.  I accidentally forgot the bowls so we used a couple tubs I had at school. 

I asked every kiddo which hand was warmer and if they could even feel the cold water through the 'blubber'.  None of them could and they were shocked!  It really showed them how penguins are able to survive!  

I missed our 100th Day of School yesterday because my mama had surgery on Tuesday and I was able to take her home from the hospital yesterday!  She was soooo ready to go home!  My student teacher did our 100th Day activities and said my kiddos loved them, but since I wasn't there I don't have any pictures this year!  

I wanted to let you know that I am having a Teachers Pay Teachers Sale this weekend to celebrate the Super Bowl!  While my hubby watches the game, I will be shopping!  :)

Click on the picture to go to my Teacher's Pay Teacher's Store!  Everything is 20% off and I just updated my Math Story Problems Pack so it's now more than double the size it was (20 pages to 50 pages) and the price is still the same until Monday!  

Have a great weekend watching football, funny commercials, and shopping!  I will be blogging tomorrow about all that I added to my story problem pack!  It's a steal right now if you ask me!  :)

Everything You Need to Teach and Watch Penguins!

Almost two months!  I can not believe it has been almost 2 months since I blogged.  

I hang my head in shame....

I could give you a bunch of excuses about being busy and time just getting away from me, but I'll save them.  As fellow teachers I hope you understand and have some pity for me.  

I got my first student teacher this week and it has been great so far.  She is so eager to have her own classroom and is willing to help me with anything.  It has rejuvenated my teaching spirit....so much so that I just had to get back on here and blog.  

I don't think she's quite ready to accept how busy teaching life really is and how we don't always get to the things we want to even though we really, really want to.  She's refreshingly optimistic, even if a little naive!  :)

We have been spending a couple weeks on penguins and my kiddos are seriously penguin experts!!  Even my student teacher is impressed with how much they know about penguins.  

I want to share a couple packs that we have used and have been so helpful.  I also want to share some very fun and cute penguin videos and web cams.  

This will be more than you need for a 2-3 week unit on penguins.

First, we started with Erica's awesome penguin pack!  This pack is over 100 pages of penguin awesomeness.  Click on the picture for the link. 

This penguin fold and learn is so much fun for your kiddos too.  I used it last year and we will be making them again this week as we wrap up our penguin unit.  Click the picture for the link. 

You can find all of my Pinterest videos *here* if you want to see more, but I've posted a few for you.  

Erica's pack has an attribute chart in it with four types of penguins so I found these short little videos to help my kiddos see and understand the different species of penguins.   

Emperor Penguin Video:

Macaroni Penguin Video:

Adelie Penguin Video:

We have also been watching live penguin web cams.  They are: 

Monterey Bay Aquarium Penguin Cam

California Academy of Sciences Penguin Cam

They have certain hours they are available.  Other times they will play prerecorded videos.  You can even watch them feed the penguins.  Just a heads up, we did see penguins 'wrestling' this week if you know what I mean.  My kiddos thought they were 'playing' and 'trying to push each other off the rocks' and I wasn't about to tell them otherwise so use your discretion.  :)  

Thanks for letting me share our penguin fun with you!  My kiddos are very sad that we are ending our penguin unit this week.  I must say it is a great way to get through the winter blues in January.  

We will be ending our unit on Friday with a blubber experiment.  You can click *here* to read my post about it from last year.  I will share new pictures after we do it again this Friday.  

Hope you are staying warm wherever you are!  It has been crazy cold and snowy here!  We can have 2 more days off school, but then no more!  :)

Prayers and a Science Experiment

I don't usually share too much about my personal life on here, but today I'm making an exception.  My dad has been having trouble with his left eye and we found out 2 weeks ago he had a detached retina and macula.  A detached retina can usually be repaired with very little loss of sight, but a detached macula usually means major loss of sight.  

He had surgery yesterday and we are hoping and praying for a complete healing.  We won't know for about 4 weeks how much sight he will get back.  

I know his health problem is not life threatening and could be so much worse, but my dad is struggling.  My dad is always on the go.  He's not the type to just sit still for long.  He loves to travel and when we go anywhere we are up early and gone all day seeing new things.  He has always taken videos of our trips so that he can sit back and watch them when he retires.  It breaks my heart to think that he might not be able to do that.  

If you believe in the power of prayer, I would appreciate a prayer or two for my dad.  I have absolutely no doubt that God can heal my dad's eye and let his vision return to normal, but I also know that that might not happen.  We are praying for my dad to be at peace and accept whatever does happen.  It's been hard watching him over the last couple weeks and I can't imagine what life will be like if things don't improve...but we have a lot of prayer warriors praying for him.   

Now on to happier things.....

We have ended our unit on penguins and my kiddos had soooo much fun.  They were sad to take home their penguin folders because they thought we were just going to keep learning new things.  They felt a little better when I told them they could go home and tell their families that they are now penguin experts.  

One little boy shouted that he was going to teach his mom!  

To end our penguin fun we did a science experiment.  We wanted to investigate just how blubber keeps penguins warm.  

This is everything you will need.  

This was our 'blubber'.  

We needed two bowls of cold water from Antarctica!  :)

The kiddos put their hands in the bag so they wouldn't get wet... genius for faster cleanup! 

I put blubber in one bag and then put another bag inside of it so the kiddos wouldn't get their hands messy.  They were still a little hesitant to put their hands near all that goop!  

Some of my kiddos were shocked that they couldn't feel the cold water through the blubber.  As they put their hands in the bags I asked them if their hands felt different.  Some were so excited and shouted one hand was cold and one hand was warm!  

After all the kiddos tried it, they wanted my aide and I to do it too.  They didn't believe me that I had already done it.  I thought it was sweet they wanted us to participate too!  

I used Erica Bohrer's Penguin Pack to direct our learning and I highly recommend it.  This pack is full of wonderful activities.  Click on the picture to go purchase it! 

My first graders definitely approved this fun learning pack!  :)

Fantabulous Friday Freebie- MLK Jr and Penguins

Yay for Friday!!  That means another Fantabulous Friday Freebie post.  Here are some great freebies I found this week from some great TpT sellers.  

If you use their products, make sure to show your thanks!

We're going to be using these goodies next week.  These Fantabulous Friday Freebies are Martin Luther King Jr activities and a penguin nonfiction research freebie.  

My kiddos are going to be spending the next couple of weeks researching and learning about penguins.  They are so excited!  

Check out these great freebies:

This is an adorable MLK Jr pack!  There is a writing prompt, word search, and a bubble map.  So cute!  

I am going to use this pack to hang up outside my room in the hallway.  Adorable!  

This pack is a great little book that your kiddos can put together after reading about MLK Jr.  My kiddos love making books!  :)

We are starting our penguin research next week and this little nonfiction book will be perfect!  Love it!  :)

Have a great long weekend!  I'm pretty sure you all love 3 day weekends as much as I do!!  :)