Extended Day Kindergarten: The Northwest

As a native to the Pacific Northwest, I am proud to do a unit on the living things in our own backyards for the Kindies. At the end of this 3 week unit, we take an amazing field trip to Northwest Trek Wildlife Park to see the animals upclose and personal!

As an anticipatory set, I had the kiddos sketch a picture of an animal or plant they see often around their neighborhoods (not including dogs and cats). This kiddo drew me a lovely raccoon :)

Of course, a vocabulary wall is as important as ever :)

http://www.arlingtonecho.org/pdf_files/findforK.PDF
I googled "forest animal unit" to find many helpful PDFs for Kindergarteners! This one was my favorite because of the printable Northwest animals I used here on my wall.

One FAVORITE book to read to the kids is What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?
Afterwards, I had a chart ready for them with tails already pre-cut and glued on. They had to guess whose tail and give me describing words. Then, everyone got to choose their favorite for me to write down and later create tails for. (This was a lot of work on my part, but it was so worth it).

TAIL DAY! :)

Basically, they had the end of the day to put on their tails and play make-believe in them. Not much, but it got them to be on their best behavior all week to earn those last 10 minutes!

Along with tails, all week they had themed centers. This one is an activity called Skunk or Raccoon. Simply put, they had a chart with skunk on one side and raccoon on the other. They copied down sight words to the correct side individually. Took about 15 minutes to make and laminate all the cards :]

Northwest Trek:

http://www.nwtrek.org/

Best field trip ever! Be warned, we did it in a rush because we had only 3 hours. The tram ride takes about 30 minutes, but if you are going with other field trips, you might get pushed back for a late school (that's what happened to us!) Walking around the park takes at LEAST 1 hour, and that's when you're alone. With a classroom of students and parents, plan for 2 hours to walk. (Not to mention the lunch break you'll need).

We talked a lot about what to do if you were lost in the woods prior to the trip. This smart kiddo is using these smarts and consulting a map!

Up close and personal :) Cracks me up that this 5-year-old is using her mom's phone to take photo!

The kids were THRILLED to see this owl and hear all about it. Luckily, they already knew quite a bit about owls from our Birds unit. NW Trek also does beaver talks where the kids can see a beaver on a leash!