Photos and descriptions
of Kindergarten science outreach program on Earth Layers
and Timelines at James Buchanan Elementary School.
Earth History, Timelines, and Layers in the Earth James Buchanan Elementary
School, Academic Year 2013-2014
Grade K
Dr. DeLeo came into our classroom and told us about the history
of the Earth, and how scientists know so much about
the Earth’s past. We already knew that there were
dinosaurs and other animals on the Earth a long time
ago that are no longer around today. Many of us even
knew what the word “extinct” means. It means
that those plants or animals no longer live today -
they all died. The dinosaurs disappeared - went
extinct - a long time ago, about 65 million years ago.
He took lots of pictures, some of our classroom, but mostly he took pictures of us!
Dr. DeLeo used a computer and a projector in our classroom, and he even showed movies! We asked a lot of questions! He began the computer slide show by describing "timelines" to us. A timeline is like a clock, only instead of a circle, it is a line. He reminded us that a line that goes from left to right is called a "horizontal" line! Don't we look interested?!
These pictures show timelines for a day in school - the one in the middle for morning (AM) Kindergarten, and the one on the far right for afternoon (PM) Kindergarten.
We had fun as Dr. DeLeo helped us understand the timeline for our day. Click the play button on the picture just to the left to see a VIDEO of us acting out our day.
In order to make sure that we really understood the timeline, Dr. DeLeo asked us to point to places on the timeline that were not labeled. For example, he asked us to point to where we would brush our teeth before going to bed. We knew that we should point to a spot just before bedtime, and not after we went to bed. Nobody brushes their teeth while they are in bed sleeping! He had us point to other places on the timeline as well.
You might call a clock a "time circle" instead of a timeline. The numbers go around in a circle on a clock, as shown below on the left, but they go in a straight line on a timeline. A timeline that goes longer than one day is more like a calendar than a clock. You can string seven days together to make a week. In fact, a calendar is just one-week timelines, placed one on top of another!
When we got to the calendar, Dr. DeLeo had us point to today's date. We are learning about that in Kindergarten!
Dr. DeLeo showed us a timeline labeled by the letters J F M A M J J A S O N D, as shown on the far left. We figured out that these were the first letters of the twelve months in a year, January, February, ... This is a timeline for one year!
Oh! By the way... we showed Dr. DeLeo how well we can sing the months of the year. Click the play button on the photo just to the left to see a VIDEO of us.
It's fun to make timelines using photos or drawings. The timeline to the right shows Dr. DeLeo's life in photos and drawings. Can you make a timeline of your life?
Dr. DeLeo gave us each a paper with three boxes so we could make a timeline for one of our school days. The first box shows us going to school. The second box is us having dinner. And the third box is us going to bed. Grown ups helped us get started, and then we were on our own! Here are pictures from AM Kindergarten. The last two pictures show something special that we do in Mrs. D'Emilio's class!
And, here are pictures from PM Kindergarten!
Something funny happened while we were drawing our timelines. A Lehigh University student who came to help, Brittany Richman, told one of us that Dr. DeLeo's birthday was coming up. So, we secretly drew a dinner picture with Dr. DeLeo sitting in the birthday chair in the center, and she and her sister on either side! We made sure that we colored Dr. DeLeo's hair gray! We then gave Dr. DeLeo a Happy Birthday pencil! It was funny!
Dr. DeLeo told
us that we could tell a lot about what happened in the
past by digging underground. We learned that the Earth’s
surface is made of layers of dirt. The deepest layers
are the oldest because they were laid down first. This
is just like making a sand bottle using layers of colored
sand. The bottom layer goes in first. We knew that –
we’re really smart!! So, if you dig down deep into
the Earth, you are actually looking back in time. Often,
we don’t need to dig since nature sometimes carves
away the ground for us. You can often see the layers easily.
We find the remains of plants and animals (fossils) in
the ground. And the ones that lived a really long time
ago leave fossils really deep underground. A trilobite fossil would be very deep, but a kitty cat fossil would be near the surface.
Mrs. D'Emilio brought in a tall clear tube so we could make sand layers, just like those in the Earth. Each time we added a layer of sand, we would bury an object connected with that time of the year. She started off in the morning class by pouring in a layer of brown sand. She put in a spider figure. Do you remember why? During the PM class, she added blue sand, and buried a drawing of a camera. Do you remember why? Then she added a red layer.
Here is our sand bottle so far!
Throughout the year, we will add layer after layer. Around Thanksgiving, we may bury a turkey wishbone. Two of us with striped shirts showed us what the layers would look like after a while. This is just like it happens on Earth!
We had lots of fun learning about timelines and layers
in the Earth! We can't wait until Dr. DeLeo comes back with fossils!
I hope you have enjoyed this web presentation as much as we enjoyed sharing the actual learning experience with your son or daughter. Although we have endeavored to exclude photographs where permission has been denied, it is possible for errors to occur. If you would like us to remove a photograph of your son or daughter for any reason, please send me an e-mail message at lgd0@lehigh.edu or call me at 610-758-3413, and we will remove it promptly. Please note that we will never associate a child's full or last name with a photograph except in circumstances where special permission was explicitly provided. Thank you. Gary DeLeo.
