Mr. Baker, Science/Social Studies, Kinder

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Social Studies Week of October 27th

This week we will be taking a look at different fall holidays around the world, including Halloween, so we can better understand different cultures! We have a few holidays on deck, like Dia De Los Muertos, Diwali, and others!

Science Week of October 20th

This is our seventh week of Service Learning. This week, we did a review game of pollinators and how to help them. We ended the lesson by coloring a pollinator. 


During Science this week we will be learning about the life cycle of a pumpkin. Your students will learn how pumpkins start from a seed and grow into a pumpkin. On Friday, we will get the opportunity to dissect pumpkin as a class. We will review what living things need to live and grow. Plants need air, light, space, soil, and water to live and grow. 

Pumpkin Life-Cycle

Seed → Sprout → Vine → Flower → Green Pumpkin → Pumpkin

Social Studies Week of September 29th

This week will be a quick week for us in social studies because of the half day on Thursday. Because of this, we are going to revisit some community helpers, as it ties into our new module in literacy! To help drive this home, we will have a semi come to school on Wednesday, to show us how drivers and logistic workers help our community! We can’t wait!

Science/Social Studies Week of September 22nd

We are continuing our science unit on nature walks this week! Students will once again explore the plants and animals around our school as we take walks through the campus. Our focus will be on how we can help protect nature and keep it safe. For example, keeping sticks and rocks outside, leaving leaves on trees, and not picking flowers. We’ll also talk about what plants need in order to survive.

In our service learning lesson, we’ll continue our discussion on how we can help pollinators by planting flowers, leaving dandelions for bees, providing clean water sources, and being mindful not to disturb their habitats. Students will reflect on the small but powerful ways they can support pollinators in our area.

Science/Social Studies Week of September 15th

This week we will be doing another science unit, that will focus on the nature around our school! To do this, we will be taking a series of nature walks around our school. We will be taking a look at all of the plants and animals that we see around our school, and focusing on how we can help nature, and keep it safe. We are going to be talking about how it is important to keep nature in nature (for example, keeping sticks and rocks outside, not ripping leaves off of trees and flowers off of flowers). We will also be touching on what plants need to survive. 


In our service learning lesson this week, we will be talking again about how we can support the pollinators in our area

Social Studies Week of September 8th

It is our second week of Social Studies, we will continue learning about our community helpers and what it means to be a part of a community. Encourage your student to identify community helpers around your neighborhoods and discuss what they do and why it is important. 


BONUS: Thank a local community helper. Create a card or just say thank you to the community helpers.

Social Studies Week of September 1st

This week in our Service Learning curriculum we are learning about how we can protect the pollinators that we learned about last week. We will talk about the best ways we can protect them at school, and at home! For Social Studies this week, we will be talking about communities, and community helpers. We will be talking about what is in our communities, and the people that help us in those communities. 

Science Week of August 25th

This week in Science, we will be talking all about severe weather. We will be building on their knowledge of the weather and the seasons, and taking it one step further with the idea of severe weather and shelter. They will be learning about Tornadoes, Blizzards, and earthquakes, as well as talking about why shelter is so important! They will be conducting experiments throughout the week, including things like tornadoes in a bottle, as well as creating their own shelter out of materials in the classroom!

Science Week of August 18th

 

This week in Science, we are going to be starting our first Service Learning lesson, in which we will begin to talk about what service learning is. At Westgate, we describe service learning as: doing something helpful. We might help clean up our school, write kind notes to seniors, or plant a garden.​

  • We learn how to be kind, work together, and take care of our world.​
  • In Kindergarten, we will be learning about pollinators and helping support pollinator populations through small projects in our community.

We will also be starting our first science unit as a class, in which we will be taking a look at each of the seasons. We will be creating a ‘doll’ and then dressing it up for each season as we go! 

Science/Social Studies Week of August 11th

Next week we will begin our Science curriculum starting with the introduction of pollinators. This week, we will practice our fine motor skills, we will do this by center rotations, and continue to practice our classroom expectations.