Just Gingy

My week has been just, well, GINGY:

We read/compared all sorts of similar "gingerbread" books.  The students LOVED Stop That Pickle! & my newest addition was The Gingerbread Bear...I thought it was *super* cute.

Here is our 20 min. & 60 min. sink/float gingerbread experiment.  We always watch "Shrek 2 - I Need a Hero" scene while we're waiting for gingy to sink & crumble.

And I found the BEST physical science unit by Cara at Kindergarten Boom Boom, and we did the 1st of 4 force & motion experiments in the unit {all themed around winter/Christmas ("Shout & Blow" - gingerbread, "Rudolph to the Rescue" - reindeer/Santa, "Save the Who's" - Grinch, & "Snowman Poop Shooter" - snow/winter/snowmen)}.  We'll do reindeer next week, Grinch week will have the Whos activity, & we'll come back in Jan. to learn about snow/snowmen & do the shooter then.

Let me be honest here #dontjudge, I never really taught physical science well.  BOO!  #badteacher.  I just never found an experiment(s) that I could manage & that engaged the concept...so I just used to do a 3-D roll, stack, or slide experiment & the sink/float gingerbread experiment above & called it good.  Well, this pack has turned it around, so excited to use it in years to come!

They started by reading the story & making a plan, as teams.  Some of my colleagues did this with Kindergarteners only, some used parent volunteers.  I opted for 5th grade BUDDIES!  It was fun to hear them discuss & delegate tasks to each other.

Then the Kinders & their 5th grade buddies worked as teams, using play doh (clay), foil, toothpicks, construction paper, & popsicle sticks to plan & make a gingerbread house that would withstand various forces:

Then we let the houses dry {started at 10:30am, built until 11:20am, & then they came back at 2:45pm} & Mrs. Greenfield returned to re-read the story while I tested the houses against my own breath & a hairdryer {at low & high settings}.  The kids were so excited that the houses stood, well...we lost 1 roof!

Of course a week of all things Gingy has to end with a cookie tasting!  So we made a circle graph of our first bites, made a glyph of our favorite story, & used stickers to create a gingerbread house that we wrote a sentence to describe.

I can't believe we managed to squeeze it all in, but it was a great week!

Miss Kristan King

Gingerbread House...MANIA!

Oh my gosh...I asked for candy and did I ever GET IT!

My Kinders decorated gingerbread houses with their 5th grade buddies today & it was a lot of fun.  I kept saying (DIRECT QUOTE) "Yours looks bare, it needs more candy.  Trust me, your parents want you to eat up and stuff that house full of sugar!"

Here's our photos {just my room, Ms. G. had just as many in hers!}:

Did you see the candy...geesh!?!?!?

It was all TONS of fun, with sugar on top!

Just Gingy!

We've concluded gingerbread week - it was a BLAST!!

Of course, I used Deanna Jump's unit.  We started with this anchor chart & added to it throughout the week:

Next we had a gingerbread tasting & graphed our results:

The kiddos were so proud that I whipped this up right in front of them, as they were creating the class graph!

Then, we did the gingerbread science & I was really upset at myself for not remembering to bring Shrek 2!!  Youtube did not help me in this oversight, much to my dismay!  Next year we will watch the scene where Gingy falls in the water and grows {circa the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man}.

Finally, we made glyphs & wrote about them:

Can't wait for next week,

Kristan King

Crate Seats & Quick Home-made Tee

So, finished my crate seats:

And while blog stalking browsing this morning before church, I saw Reagan's post about her Gingerbread Week plans...came within 2 mins. of getting a FREEBIE {UGH, bummer for me!}.  Anyway I LOVED Reagan's Oh Snap! shirt, she e-mailed to tell me it was from Wal-Mart.

So off to Wally World I went...the only one in town I hadn't been too {and won't go alone after 4:00pm} like her, they only were in the Jr. section.  Jr. I AIN'T!!  So, my mom {who loves me too much} helped me cut the graphic off the Jr. shirt & sew it onto a plain long sleeved cotton tee.  What do you think?

Reagan, I hope you don't mind...I TOTALLY stole your idea & made it for me!!!

Hope your week is just gingy!!

Miss Kristan King :0)