Migrant Summer School Visits

I was happy to visit some great kids again this summer.  Last week I talked about moon geology with about 60 smart and excited kids.  I am including my favorite activity from that visit, although I think the students would vote on oreo moon phases. 

Today our topic was habitats.  The teaches reminded me that most of these students have never been to a zoo, and few have been farther than our city parks.  So we made lists of animals that they commonly see in their yards and talked about why those animals are there.  I was grateful that I could refer to Diego, Dora's cousin, because some of those wild animals were familiar to them. We brought out the food web cards and got everyone involved in that vocabulary.  Another good reminder to teachers involves the Pocatello Zoo.  They lend out their animal trunks to teachers, and those trunks are chuck full of hands-on activities, samples, hides and claws and posters and teaching materials.  Great resource!!!

Moon Flip Book:

Use a large Styrofoam ball, play ball or balloon for this moon model. Paint half of the selected model with black paint. Have the kids sit in a circle and place the ball in the middle, securing it so it doesn't move. Provide each child with a sheet of black construction paper and a piece of chalk. The students draw the moon as they see on the paper. Because the kids are sitting in different positions, the resulting pictures will look slightly different, resembling the phases of the moon. Stack the pictures in order. Staple them together to create a flip book that depicts the changing of the moon's phases