Chicka Fun and a Freebie ;)

Last week we did our Chicka Chicka unit. Always so much fun!!!  I got the idea for this anchor chart from Deanna Jump. On the second day of the unit, I brought in a real coconut. We talked about how it looked, felt and sounded.

Next, we read this story.

In this story, a storm blows up and the coconut falls into the ocean. We talked briefly about what the pictures show and what happened to the coconut.

Later on that day, it was time for an experiment.  You can grab the response sheet for this experiment from Deanna Jump's blog.  First we predicted whether we thought the coconut would sink or float.

I know, you're thinking I can't do that with my class!!! It's way to early in the year!! All I did was project this page up on the white board so I could show them exactly what to do and where to do it ;)

Some students predicted that the coconut would float and some said that it would sink. When I asked why-they had FABULOUS answers!!! The child that I asked who said it would sink said it was "because when we felt it-it was heavy." So, great prediction!!! The child that I asked why they thought it would float said "because it floated in the story." Yay!!!! Another great prediction!!!!

 It floats!!!!!!!!

The next day, it was time to finish our 5 senses chart!! So, Ms. Ronnell, who is an individual aide in our classroom showed us how to poke holes in it with a screwdriver. (I had never opened a coconut before and was kind of scared ;) Ha!! Good thing she was there to help!! ;)

So, I drained out the coconut milk.....

 Then, the fun part!!!!! I started beating it with a hammer!!! See it cracking?!?!

I broke in half!!!!! This picture cracks me up!!! I wish it wasn't so blurry!! (cell phone pic) I think I was even more excited than the kids!! ;)

 So, then we got to taste and smell the coconut. Sadly, I didn't take a pic of our finished 5 senses chart...but, here is a pic of us graphing whether we liked how it tasted or not.

On the last day of our unit-we made these fun little chicka snacks. (ignore the pencil...not sure what that is doing there ;) 

You can grab the response sheet for this snack by clicking on the picture below ;)