ELA Stations

Just a few pictures from our ELA stations this past week:

A Kindergarten Feast

This week, we have been learning all about the First Thanksgiving specifically focusing on the Pilgrims and Native Americans. We made retelling bracelets to aid us in retelling the entire story. We also learned a lot about the clothing that was worn and even made our own! Today, we held our own Thanksgiving Feast for all of the kindergarten.  Each class contributed one food item for our feast! The students dressed as Pilgrim and Native Americans for the feast!

Did you know that kindergartener's can make their own butter?

Today, we continued learning about different things that the Pilgrims and Native Americans taught each other! Did you know, during the First Thanksgiving, the people could not drive to the grocery store to buy their own butter? If they wanted butter, they had to make it by hand. We learned how to make butter, just like they did in Colonial times.

We began by adding heavy whipping cream and salt into our jar.  We passed the jar around so everyone would have some time to shake it.

Pouring the whipping cream into the jar.

Adding salt to the whipping cream.

After A LOT of shaking, our butter was finally ready. It was so amazing to see the smile and excitement on the kid's faces when they realized they had made their own butter, just like the Native Americans and Pilgrims.

Below is our finished product.

Notice the whey that formed around the outside of our butter. How neat!

Here are some sweet reactions to their initial tasting of our homemade butter! I brought crackers for them to taste with the butter.

We all had such a FUN time making the butter today. They all wanted me to tell you guys how to make it so that they could try it at home with you!

What you need:

Heavy Whipping Cream

Salt

Jar with a lid

Directions:

Fill the jar to a desired amount with whipping cream.

Add a good amount of salt.

Shake the jar A LOT!

(Continue to add salt and shake until the butter becomes firm)

HAVE FUN! :)

Wondering Friday: All About Gummy Bears

Wonderopolis.org is such an incredible resource that promotes inquiry and wonder into each child's learning. The link below will take you straight to our wonder of the day:

http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-are-gummy-bears-made/

Below is a picture of our wonder of the day which sparked all of our exploration. Please pay special attention to the student's questions. 

After wondering, I posed the 2 questions, "What are gummy bears made of? Do you think we can make our own gummy bears here at school?"  Of course, after making our own candles yesterday, our class was up for trying anything!  We used the recipe under the "Try it out" section on Wonderopolis.

Our Directions:

Ingredients Needed:

1. Gelatin

2. Jello

3. Water

4. Microwaveable measuring cup

5. Bear molds

First, we mixed the gelatin, jello, and water together in a microwaveable measuring cup

Next, we heated our mixture and poured it into our bear molds.  

Lastly, it was time to place them in the freezer for about 45 minutes.

It was finally time to taste our gummy bears!

After tasting, the students recorded their thoughts and observations in their wonder journals:

This was so much fun and sparked lots of natural curiosity in my kindergarten all*stars!