Category: Hoot Owls

If you joined us for CLAS this morning, then you are well aware that the Hoot Owls have been learning about our solar system. This morning they sang a song about the planets, and then shared their favorite planet and why. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Pluto (because it is a dwarf planet!) all made the list.

Leading up to their presentation, the Hoot owls learned about the gas giants of our solar system. They discovered that Jupiter, the fifth planet from the sun, is the largest planet in our solar system with a huge red spot on it. Scientists think that this is a huge storm that has been raging for hundreds of years! The Pre-K kiddos strengthened their fine motor skills by using an eyedropper to add watercolor to shaving cream, and then made prints of it to hang on the wall.

The Hoot Owls also learned that Saturn, the sixth planet from the sun, doesn’t look round because it is spinning so fast. They were fascinated to learn that Saturn’s rings are made of ice and dust! 

Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun, is the coldest planet in our solar system. To remember this the students painted Uranus using bluish green ice cubes! Neptune, the eighth planet from the sun, is the windiest. The Hoot Owls painted Neptune with Q-tips so they could swirl and twirl the wind.

Many Hoot Owls have been excited about space all year long, and so they were very excited to begin to learn about our solar system in class. They started with the center of our solar system, the Sun. The Hoot Owls all worked together to create their favorite star, then put it up in their classroom to help learn about the order of the planets moving away from the Sun.

Next the Hoot Owls started to learn about the rocky planets. They used different painting techniques for each planet to highlight their differences. Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun so they started there. The students learned that Mercury is full of craters caused by meteorites, and then painted Mercury with sponges to give it a bumpy look. Hoot Owls also practiced writing, “Mercury.”

Next, they learned about Venus, and discovered that it is very hot and has thousands of volcanoes and poisonous gases and storms. Hoot Owls practiced writing “Venus” before drawing volcanoes, storms and gases with oil pastels. The Hoot Owls’ drawings showed through the watercolor paints that they added at the end. They also reviewed the terms solid, liquid and gas.

Earth was next! The Hoot Owls created clouds with shaving cream, and used eyedroppers to add blue and green paint that represented the oceans and the land. They used paper to make prints of the shaving cream. The class talked about the seven continents and located them on the globe. They also read the book Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years  by Stacy McAnulty.

The last of the rocky planets was Mars. The Hoot Owls painted the ice caps on Mars. The students learned that Mars is red due to iron covering its dusty surface. They also learned about Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in our solar system. The Hoot Owls used a Q-tip to “draw” or remove the paint to create the volcano.

Up next, the Hoot Owls are excited to learn about the gas planets!

The Hoot Owls have been learning about science and what it means to be a scientist. The class has talked about parts of the scientific method including making hypotheses, doing experiments, collecting data and comparing data, as well as using their senses to learn about the world around them.

The Hoot Owls explored the concept of liquid and solid by making and playing with oobleck (water and cornstarch). The students were surprised to see the liquid thicken and solidify when force was applied to it.

Next, the class experimented with vinegar and baking soda. They were excited to see the reaction the vinegar made in the baking soda!

Finally, the Hoot Owls counted how many drops of water would fit on a penny, nickel and quarter.

#SaklanHandsOn #SaklanScience

The Hoot Owls have been doing some social emotional activities inspired by the book A Little Spot of Feelings by Diane Alber. The book uses child-friendly language to talk about feelings and emotions, which it calls “feeling spots.”

The Hoot Owls have been working to become emotion detectives, practicing naming emotions and spotting their own emotions by paying attention to facial expressions, body language and tone of voice. The class first learned about their calm spot, and how to change from a difficult emotion, like sadness, anger or anxiety, back to their calm spot. They also discussed happiness, love and confidence. 

Next, the Hoot Owls painted some of the feeling spots: sadness, anger, happiness, confidence, peaceful, and loved. The students drew faces on the feeling spots and some of them wrote the names of each spot.

The Hoot Owls also turned the feeling spots into stick puppets. They then practiced role playing with the stick puppets in class.

With Maggie, the Hoot Owls read A Little Scribble Spot, also by Diane Alber. They used wiki sticks to create their own scribble spots, symbolizing when one is mixed up and doesn’t know how they feel. The Hoot Owls will continue to work on identifying their emotions as well as their friends’ emotions by being emotion detectives and looking for clues (like facial expressions, body language and tone of voice) for the rest of the year.

#SaklanSEL

Maggie and the Hoot Owls have been learning about and talking about their families. The Hoot Owls made family portraits by using buttons as heads to count how many people are in their families.

Next the Hoot Owls took the portraits and graphed how many people are in their families. They learned that ten Hoot Owls have four people in their family, four Hoot Owls have five people in their family, and two Hoot owls have three and six people in their families. The class read the book My Family is from Different Places by Daria Leavitt about a mixed race family and how special it can be to have two cultures to celebrate. The teachers encouraged the Hoot Owls to find out where their ancestors are from to see if their family is also from different places.

The Hoot Owls made their first graph of the year! The students learned that a graph is a picture that helps people “see math.” The Hoot Owls worked on this activity together during circle time. Each Pre-K student counted how many letters were in their name and then put their name above that number on the graph. After all owls added their name to the graph, the students noticed that no one in their class has a seven letter name. They also noticed that Leonardo has the longest name, and that eight kids have five letter names.