Germs and Microbes K-1 unit, Week 2

Welcome to week 2 of our collaborative Germs and Microbes unit! (You can see week 1 of our germs unit study here) Along with No Doubt Learning and STEM Mom, we're sharing all the science activities, art projects, games and more to help teach about germs and microbes. At the end of the study, as with previous units, we'll share all of our links, notes, and printables in one big document for you.

We had some fun this week!

We did an activity to show how germs spread and why hand washing is so important. We sat in a circle and I showed kids "the germs" (thereby breaking my own anti-glitter stance!).

I shook some into my hand as I pretended to sneeze, then we went around in a circle shaking hands.

We all looked at our hands afterwards and saw how far the germs had spread! Ewwwwww.

Then I had the older two kids pretend to sneeze or pick their nose, to show how fast the germs spread from a hand to the rest of the body. They found this very entertaining, especially the distortion in the photos.

Other things we did included a rainy-day game we invented called Germ Tag, where "the germ" chases the other players and they join into one crashing, bellowing, giggling conga line around the house as they are caught, thus spreading the disease. We played this one for a while!

D also created his own lapbook element one day and insisted upon gluing it in. Who am I to argue?

Make sure you head over to No Doubt Learning and STEM Mom to see what they did for week 2 of this unit!

The Outdoor Play Party:Two provinces, lots of outdoor play

Welcome to the Outdoor Play Party! Along with

Learning for Life

The Golden Gleam

Kitchen Counter Chronicles

Making Boys Men

I am happy to be co-hosting the Outdoor Play Party!

  

 

Here's my favourite link-up from the last Outdoor Play Party - but it was sooooo hard to choose between all the great posts you've all shared! Interaction Imagination had a wonderful post on going outdoors in the rain that you'll want to go and read if you haven't already.

The past couple of weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind. Besides the usual assortment of activities we always have on the go, we had a visit ffrom my parents and also hopped provinces to house-hunt for a few days, while back here we have been out and about in between some of the most spectacular thunderstorms we've ever seen!

We haven't been doing any specific outdoor learning, but we've walked all over the place and stopped to play with whatever we've come across and examine the budding life all around.

In no particular order, here are some things we've seen and played with both here in Quebec and in Ontario.

What outdoor play have you and the kids been up to? Link up below! By linking up, you're giving us permission to pin your post on our Pinterest board, and to share the link and one image if you're chosen as a feature on the next link-up.

Painting with nature - Virtual Book Clubs For Kids

This post contains affiliate links.
This month's author for the Virtual Book Club For Kids was Leo Lionni,

  and we had a lot of painting fun with the book Swimmy.

 

 The kids noticed right away that the pictures were made using imprints of textures such as doilies, and asked if they could try it out. Since it was a beautiful sunny day, I suggested that we take our painting project outside.

Things they gathered and painted with included dandelions, cedar bushes, tulips, and leaves. Then they got into the process and started using their fingertips, then in my son's case his entire hand and arm.

In this instance, the art was all about the process. We didn't have an end goal in mind, so they were free to explore.

Be sure to check out the other activities for Leo Lionni by all these great participating blogs:

Toddler Approved - Rainy Day Mum - Adventures in Reading with Kids - 3 Dinosaurs - Royal Baloo - The Educators' Spin On It - Inspiration Laboratories - Pleasantest Thing - Edventures with Kids - Two Big Two Little - Playing With Words 365 - Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Outlaw Mom - Mommy and Me Book Club - Crafty Moms Share - No Twiddle Twaddle - The Good Long Road - Ready. Set. Read 2 Me - Reading Confetti - Mama Smiles - Juggling with Kids- Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas - Creekside Learning - Creative Family Fun - The Usual Mayhem - Teach Preschool - PlayDrMom - CraftoArt - Here Come the Girls - Being a Conscious Parent - Smiling like Sunshine - Crayon Freckles - Train Up a Child - Smile Play Learn - Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - Coffee Cups and Crayons - Having Fun at Chelle's House- Love, Play, Learn - Juggling With Kids - Motherhood on a Dime - Growing Book By Book

- This Reading Mama - Fantastic Fun and Learning

What Leo Lionni books have you read? Link up your stories and activities below!

Germs and Microbes K-1 unit study

We're embarking on a new collaborative K-1 unit study of Germs and Microbes. It's great to be teaming up with Darci from STEM Mom and Andrea from No Doubt Learning again! Over the next three weeks, we'll offer you some great science experiments, printables, and more. This post contains affiliate links as well as freebies.

Here are the books we've read over the last week:



I have made a few lapbook elements to go with this study. I'll have more later, but for now, here are my germ lapbook pieces you can download free if you'd like to play along with us.

These are just a few - there are couple more in the download that aren't shown because I made them but D hasn't used them in his lapbook yet.

Don't forget to go see what STEM Mom and No Doubt Learning are sharing this week, and the experiments that they did!