This is adapted from the book "Rain" by Robert Kalan. This will be next week's predictable chart, too.
Science Center
Students make Tornados from two 2-liter bottles of soda. They add water & glitter (they like that). Use hot glue to seal the two together. I use silver electrical tape, too, to reinforce it. Let it sit for about 10 minutes. Let the kids spin & turn the bottles upside down. Observe the "tornado" form.
Math Center
Mrs. Gray's Second Grade Bulletin Board.
Miss Range's 2nd Grade did these shamrocks dropping a marble in paint & rolling it around.
Mrs. Fox's class made a Lion & Lamb Bulletin Board for March
Mrs. Beggs' Kindergarten made Rainbows with the students' pictures in the pot of gold and wrote about wishes. See example above.
We read the book Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
Students then brainstormed what they would want it to rain. The first day, we brainstorm half the class on the chart. The second day we do the other half of the class. The third day we read the chart together. The fourth day we cut up each sentence and the child has to read their sentence to the class. The fifth, and last day, we make a class book out of it. I type up each child's sentence. Then I cut up their sentence. They have to put it back together correctly and then glue it down. Then they illustrate. See examples below.
This is an example of the class book we made from our predictable chart above. This is a little difficult to read but the picture below says "Cloudy with a chance of ice cream cones," said Mandie.
This is white construction paper shaped into clouds. Cotton is glued on and different colored streamers are then glued on back to hang down. Very eye catching.
These rainbows below are made using condensed milk with food coloring added. These turn out very shiny when they are dry.
The rainbows above are made by using white construction paper in the shape of a rainbow. Students then tear different colors of construction paper for their rainbow. Their picture was added in their pot of gold. We also wrote about two wishes.
Miss Range's 2nd Grade made these cute rainbows out of paperplates and streamers.
Below , we made PATTERN BLOCK KITES to hang. We have an ellison machine at our school where we can punch out pattern block shapes. Students started in the middle with one shape and worked their way out. This makes a great Math lesson, too. On their strings they had to make an AB pattern with the shapes.
Phonemic Awareness
This is our Predictable Chart for the week. We will then make a class book out of it.
March Graphs
MARCH ART PROJECTS
LAMBS - We teach the weather concept "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb" We make lions & lambs for art. To make the lambs staple on a small white paper plate onto a regular size paper plate. Glue on the black construction paper head, ears, & legs on. Glue cotton around. Make a face with either chalk or crayon.
Lions - We took yellow paper plates & glued a lions face on it. Students glued strips of orange, yellow & brown construction paper around the plate. We added black strips of construction paper for the whiskers.
We read St. Patrick's Day In The Morning & made these leprechauns. You can get this pattern out of "Best of the Mailbox's Arts & Crafts" This can either be a puppet or you can have them color, cut & glue it together as I did here. We wrote a sentence about our leprechaun, too.
Irish Names - We talked about how a lot of people in Ireland have last names that begin with a "Mac" or an "O'". Students were aloud to choose a new prefix for their last name. I decided I would be Mrs. O'Beggs. We wrote down everyones new name on the chart. They really liked this activity.
Bulletin Boards
Learning Center Ideas
March Literature
St. Patrick's Day
Jamie O"Rourke and the Big Potato (Tomie de Paola)
St. Patricks Day (Gail Gibbons)
Clever Tom and the Leprechaun (Linda Shute)
St. Patricks Day In The Morning (Eve Bnting)
Mary McLean and the St. Patrick's Day Parade (Steven Krol)
A Leprechaun's St. Patrick's Day (Sarah Kirwan Blaze)
Pot Of Gold Money & Catch The Leprechaun