Create Your Own Civilization Curriculum Overview

2/29

Where Do I Live KWL

Me on the Map activity

What is a neighborhood?

Following a map/directionality

3/2

Map of my room

Regions of the USA/Mapwork

Create a brochure for a region of the United States

3/7

Using grids to find locations on a map

 NSEW dice game

Following a map of the zoo

Continents on the map

Roll a map game

Read aloud (I Need My Own Country)

My own country planning sheet/tourism ad

3/9-

Brainstorm: what is archaeology?

Digging for chocolate chips archaeologist activity

Brainstorm: what do we know about civilizations and ancient civilizations?

Read Aloud: Ancient Egypt

Mummy making project

Read aloud (Weslandia)

My own civilization planning sheet

3/16-

Create civilization crests/flags

Create your city layout/blueprints

3/21-

Construct our own civilizations

3/23- 

Field trip to Pretend City

Energy Forms Project Highlights

Constellation kids spent the past month learning about different types of energy!

We began by experimenting with heat energy. Students predicted what would happen to a Hershey's kiss after holding it in an open palm for 5 minutes versus holding it in a closed palm for 5 minutes. A lot of us thought that the Hershey's kiss would melt a lot in a closed palm. We were right! The heat energy our closed palms created melted the kisses!

Knowing that heat can produce an interesting result, we decided to see if we could use solar energy to heat a yummy snack! Students made solar ovens out of materials like pizza boxes, aluminum foil, plastic wrap and black paper. We set the solar ovens outside for a couple of hours and were able to eat some delicious, melty s'mores as an afternoon treat!

Next we wanted to see how heat reacted to some non-edible objects. We did an experiment where we compared what would happen to a balloon attached to a soda bottle that was white versus one that was attached to a black soda bottle. We thought that the balloon attached to the black bottle would probably do something like blow up or expand in the heat. We put the bottles in front of the space heater and watched the results!

Students have been realizing that wind energy is becoming a very popular form of renewable energy. We talked about how many things can be moved by the wind. We tested different objects outside to see which ones the wind would move and which items wouldn't move by the wind.

We noticed that boats use the wind to catch the sails and move across the water. We wanted to see if creating sails on cars would be an alternative to using gasoline! Kids designed sails and attached them to toy cars. We then used fan power to see how far the cars would move.

Wind can do so many things! We even used the power of our breath to create abstract wind paintings!

We had fun racing different objects to see how many breaths it would take to push it across the table.

After reading the inspiring trues stories of Energy Island and The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, we decided to try and make our own wind turbines. These turbines are actually powered by heat!

Sound energy was another form of energy that we investigated. We figured out ways to see sound working by holding up a homemade drum with salt on top next to a speaker. We could see the salt bouncing around in response to the sound waves that were coming from the speaker.

A lot of us are thinking about how to use what we know about renewable forms of energy in our next project, Create Your Own Civilization :)

Energy Forms Curriculum Outline

2/1

Brainstorm: what are the different forms of energy?

Energy sorting activity/chocolate kiss heat energy experiment

Read aloud (Fueling the Future: Wind Energy)

School house rock video/energy sources activity

Read aloud (Let’s Try it Out in the Air)

Will the wind blow it experiment (predict what will blow and what will not--then do experiment)

2/3

Brainstorm: what is Pollution/pollution sort activity

Read aloud (Wind Power)

Brainstorm: What is global warming

Learn about the environment reading/responses

Read aloud (Energy Experiments)

Can you move the car experiment

2/8

Sound energy powerpoint/sorting activities

Sound vibration experiment

Solar energy powerpoint/solar oven experiment

Balloon soda bottle heat/solar energy experiment

2/10

Brainstorm: how can you measure the wind?

Directionality/weather vane (anemometer) project

Windblown painted mural (predict what will happen when you add more/less water)

2/17-

Paper airplane challenge

Read aloud (The Boy who Harnessed the Wind)

Character trait windmills

Read aloud (Curious George Flies a Kite)

Breath race activity

Read aloud (Flight)

Kite making/testing

2/22

Decorate/make pinwheels

Read aloud (The Flyer Flew)

Anemometer construction

2/24

Make wind turbines

Natural resources powerpoint/ sorting activity

Bill Nye video

Health and Nutrition Study Highlights

We became health and nutrition experts during our health and nutrition study!

To understand how to eat healthy, we learned about the food pyramid and what it means to have a balanced diet. Using grocery store circulars, we cut out pictures of different foods and placed them in the correct group on our own food pyramids!

A big part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle is to drink lots of water! We had so much fun learning about chemical reactions and figuring out what happens when citric acid,baking soda, and dish soap meet water, along with other liquids like orange juice!

Just drinking plain water can be boring! We talked about ways to flavor our water without adding sugar. We cut up fruit, added mint and ginger, and other natural ingredients to make delicious tasting water!

 Fitness and staying active is another important aspect of being healthy! We learned how to check our heart rates, and practiced some basic fitness exercises, such as sit-ups and push-ups, to keep us in shape!

Obstacle courses are a very fun way to be active! The kids made sure that their obstacle course was challenging but exciting!

After learning about the food pyramid, we discussed making good food choices. We compared the ingredients in some "healthy" granola and learned that even some "healthy" foods have yucky stuff in them! We made our own, more natural granola and layered it with non-fat yogurt and berries for a healthy, organic snack!

Keeping our bodies clean is another important aspect of being healthy. We talked about routines that keep our bodies healthy. Getting enough sleep, brushing our teeth, and taking a bath or shower are all ways to stay clean!

We discussed what types of things we can do to take care of our teeth, like brushing with toothpaste and using dental floss. We did an experiment with eggshells imitating our teeth to figure out what drinks are better for our teeth, and which drinks might not be so great! Through the experiment, we learned that soda and juice can really stain and damage our teeth if we drink too much of it, but water and milk keep our teeth strong!

Washing with soap is an important step in keeping our bodies healthy and clean! We decided to make our own soap using a few basic ingredients like oatmeal, honey and essential oils.

Our minds also need to stay healthy. Sometimes, our feelings can overwhelm us and we need to get calm and relax. We made glitter mindfulness jars to help us get settled! Just shake them up, sit and watch the glitter settle. You will feel much better after that!

Fortunately, we were able to use some of the veggies we grew during our gardening project on our final day of our health and nutrition project! We created a delicious, healthy salad bar and had a wonderful lunch! We also baked up some whole-wheat pita chips and a healthy greek yogurt dip! For dessert, we had a lovely fruit salad and nutritious oatmeal banana cookies (no sugar!)

Health and Nutrition Study Curriculum Overview

Jan. 4th

Brainstorm: What do we need to be healthy?

What is the food pyramid?

Read aloud: The Food Pyramid/chart foods that belong in each section (give examples and ask which section it belongs)

Activity: kids illustrate their own food pyramid

Read aloud: The Edible Pyramid

Food pyramid graphing practice worksheet/butcher paper graph survey of favorite foods from a group in food pyramid

"Dragon Gets By" activity: write out a grocery list/trade and ask partner to sort items onto blank food pyramid

Jan. 6th

Eating A-Z: what have I tried?

Food pyramid jeopardy

Read aloud “Good Enough to Eat”

What is digestion?

Introduce digestion with vocabulary

Experiment how the digestive system works

Make mini book

Read aloud “ What’s so Yummy?”

Magic School Bus video/listening guide

Food pyramid review/what did I eat? What could I change about my diet?

Jan. 11th-

Read aloud: Drink Water! Experiment to see how different materials react to water or juice.

Read aloud : What’s in my soda?

Water infusions taste test - graph favorites

Where does water come from? Brainstorm water cycle powerpoint/activities

MSB video water cycle / activity

Jan. 13th-

What is your bedtime routine?

Predict what the effects of not sleeping well are/how might you get good rest?

Skits- enough sleep v. not enough sleep

Read aloud: Sleep

kidshealth.org games

Good night story brainstorm/work to write a good night book to share

Jan 20th-

Read aloud: Go Organic!

Make granola and fruit salad and yogurt parfaits -- highlight parts of food pyramid used

Brainstorm: how do you get exercise? why is exercise important?

Read Aloud: Being Active

Fitness tests (heart rate, flexibility, etc.)

Create an obstacle course

Read aloud: Yoga with Babar and practice yoga positions

Jan 25th-

How do you take care of your teeth?

Create mindfulness jars and practice meditation

Brainstorm why it is important to stay clean

Read aloud: Wash, Scrub, Brush! 

Soap making

Read aloud: I Know Why I Brush My Teeth

Teeth/egg experiment highlighting how your teeth react to different drinks (water, milk, soda, juice)

Jan 27th-

What are happy/sad choices for your teeth?

Make and bake banana/oatmeal cookies

Read aloud (how did that get in my lunch?)

Make pita/dip and prepare salad bar

Read aloud: Vitamins and Minerals

I can eat a rainbow activity

Ocean Study Highlights

Our ocean study made a real splash with students this month! We began by identifying where the different oceans are in the world and created a mini-book.

After reading Wish for a Fish, we learned that the ocean has different zones where certain types of sea life can survive.  We decided to map out the zones in one big poster:

We practiced ordering numbers by placing cards with the measurement in feet of each zone and placing it in the correct section on the poster. Then we used cards with measurements in-between each zone section and put them in the correct spot. After that, we drew pictures of some of the animals and plants that live in each zone!

Students even made their own "Oceans" in a jar, using various materials (corn syrup, water, rubbing alcohol, vinegar and food coloring) to create a division of each zone.

The bottom zone is the trench, which is the darkest, coldest zone. The top zone is the sunny zone, where some of our favorite ocean life lives!

The students particularly enjoyed visiting the tide pools in Corona del Mar, especially after reading all about sea anemones. It was exciting to actually see a few in the rocks around the tide pools!

When we learned about ocean habitats and animal adaptations, we also learned a lot about the ocean food chain. We figured out how and where many creatures obtain their food. For example, when we put a few grapes and some pepper with some water into a container, we realized that it is easier for whales to collect the pepper (which is similar to krill) with their baleen (straw like teeth--we used a toothbrush) than try to bite the grapes (seals). Sharks can more easily use their sharp teeth (we used forks) to bite down on the seals (grapes!)

We spent a lot of time reading about many different sea creatures-- whales, sharks, seahorses, octopuses, jellyfish, dolphins, and manatees to name a few. Each child picked an animal and spent some time researching that animal and completing a mini booklet about that animal-- including it's life cycle, what it eats, how it protects itself, and where it lives. It was so much fun to wrap up our study of these animals with some fun puppet shows and posters that were presented by the students before our end of unit trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific!

We loved visiting the coral reefs, especially after we had explored them via webcam and completed some activities about which animals live in the coral reef habitat v. the kelp forest habitat!

It was awesome getting in some "touch time" with the rays and sharks, and even witness a feeding time!

It was great to get "up close and personal" with some sea anemones, especially since these are so colorful and beautiful!

The aquarium was the perfect way to wrap up our ocean study. It was so impressive to hear the children identify and discuss all that they had learned about each animal as we walked past them in the aquarium!

Ocean Study Curriculum Overview

11/9

• What do we know about oceans? What do we want to know? What/where are the oceans in the world?
• Maps: where are the 5 oceans? Create a mini- book.
• What sea creatures do we know? What do we want to know about them? read aloud (Wish for a Fish)
• Discover ocean layers (chart the layers and the animals that live there--kids fill out chart on own)
• read aloud (A Day in the Deep-- adding information that we’ve learned about layers to our chart)
• Math connection: layers of the ocean in feet- look at a number/match it to zone

11/11

• Ocean zones in a jar project
• What is a habitat? What do we know about Ocean Habitats?
• read aloud (A house for hermit crab) and activity (hermit crab fact book)/drab crab vocab
• read aloud (anemone fish) and create an anemone facts booklet
• mystery science video on habitats

11/16

• What do we know about sharks? what do we want to know about sharks?
• Addition and subtraction games using shark word problems
• Discuss predators/prey, create an actual food chain

11/18- tide pool trip

11/23-

• Food chain/adaptations through hands- on sea urchin activity
• tide pool dioramas
• Ocean animal research (pick animal/KW(L) chart)

• shark
• octopus
• crab
• squid
• seahorse
• anemone fish
• whale

12/2

• Shell investigation/-ell word family
• ocean animal research project
• math connection: shark teeth missing addends game
• Reading comprehension: shells group reading passage
• unscramble shells digraph game (sh/th/ch)

12/7-

• ocean animal research project (research our animal’s life cycle-- look at diagrams, etc.)
• acrostic poems about our animal
• shark subtraction game

12/9-

• Finish animal project poems/life cycle sheets
• Fish for a day aquarium activity
• Ocean animal project

12/14-

• Finish ocean animal project presentations
• Ocean habitats aquarium activity
• Present projects

12/16- Aquarium of the Pacific field trip