Help your primary grade students explore, learn, and write about landforms. See our hands-on landforms activities plus our culminating writing project!
Explore and learn with The Science Penguin blog!
Workshop about How to tell a real good story! gabriele-heinzel.com/
Helping K-2 Teachers Like You Save Time, Grow Instructional Skills, and Teach With Confidence!
Introducing basic cell structures has never been more fun! Last month, my students created these wanted posters for organelles (and my stude...
Explore this photo album by Jimmie Quick on Flickr!
Explore debbiebryant4's 1192 photos on Flickr!
Hi friends! Today I'm excited to showcase a new collection from Teacher Created Resources . Their new s uperheroes theme has some great p...
Layout stage before the final felt
Making a Self-Portrait is always a fun and enriching activity. I am going to describe today's learning experience in doing a self-portrait. First I showed the paper the students would use and I projected it on a white board. You can use a smart board of course or just chart paper I recommend having something to model drawing yourself. We defined self-portrait and thought about which shapes we have in our bodies. I asked a volunteer to come to the front and asked the kids to help me draw her face. I add all details the children suggested. We were happy with the results. I modeled using a mirror to look at my face and draw it. After I finished my self-portrait I asked for the students input. They were fantastic. They asked me to add my hanging little camera purse, earrings, glasses, my toes showing because I was wearing sandals, patterns from my dress, and more. I then handed a mirror and a paper to each student. The kids had a ball looking at their faces in the mirror They could work sitting or standing. And look how this girl is so focused on her drawing. Even the younger ones did an amazing job. Princesses did a great job too. After they were all ready we shared them with the group. I have different ways of sharing work. We had targeted our audience. It was our friends and our parents as we thought that this would be a great portfolio piece. The way we chose to share today was for me to hold each drawing and ask the class to tell what they liked about the self-portrait I was holding. And here are some more self-portrait samples. You can download the self-portrait template by clicking on the picture below. If you are doing portfolio with your class I have made two templates that can be useful. One to be used at the beginning of the school year and another one for the end of the school year. This way we can see the progress of drawing a self-portrait. Click on the pictures below to download the templates.
Geometry resources for teaching and learning mathematics. Fun and visual resources for maths teachers and kids.
In middle school science, I feel like it is important for students to really understand the steps of the scientific method. Knowing the order of the steps isn’t necessarily that important to me, but understanding each of the steps and what they entail is. I view the steps of the scientific method more as a way of thinking and problem solving than simply a way to conduct an experiment. Yes, students should know how to conduct an experiment correctly and they’ll need the steps for their future science classes. However, I realize most of my students won’t become scientists and won’t use the steps outside of school. What all of my students will need, regardless of their future career choices, is a way to approach and solve the problems that come their way. The scientific method can help with that, so that’s how I choose to present it to my students. Consider the six steps of the scientific method. Make an observation and ask a question about it Research if needed Make a hypothesis Test the hypothesis in an experiment Record and analyze the data Write a conclusion Students can use these steps to solve problems in their everyday, middle school lives. When I introduce the scientific method, I bring in a problem they can relate to. I don’t know about your students, but my students are always having some kind of friendship drama. So I walk my students through the steps of the scientific method in relation to a quarrel with a buddy. Make an observation and ask a question about it: You notice your best friend Ashleigh is being frosty to you but extra friendly to everyone else in your friend group. You ask yourself “Why is Ashleigh mad at me?” Research if needed: You ask your friends why Ashleigh is mad. Then you look through your Facebook posts to see if you wrote anything offensive. You see that yesterday you wrote a post saying Ashleigh’s skinny jeans don’t make her look very skinny. Make a hypothesis: You’re pretty sure Ashleigh is mad about your post. You think to yourself “If I remove the skinny jeans post and make a new Facebook post about my insensitivity, then Ashleigh will stop being mad at me.” Test the hypothesis in an experiment: As soon as you get home from school, you delete the old post and write a new Facebook post about how you made a mean and unfunny joke about a friend and how sorry you are about hurting her feelings. For good measure, you add that you’re a little jealous because you wish you had her curves. Record and analyze the data: Within an hour you have 67 likes on your new post and 13 comments praising your apology. You also have one rude comment from your annoying little brother, but he’s stupid and doesn’t matter. You get a message from Ashleigh saying that she forgives you and asks if you want to go shopping this weekend. Write a conclusion: You learned you shouldn’t write or say mean things about your friends (or anyone else…except your annoying little brother), and apologizing and admitting you’re wrong is important. In the future, you will treat your friends better. I think it’s important for students to realize the scientific method reaches beyond the science classroom. Besides the example above, I also use the Steps of the Scientific Method Activity with Rappers Scenarios. (You can learn more about the rapper activity here.) Using examples students can relate to and seeing how they and others can use the steps in their daily lives will help them remember the steps and actually understand them. With practice, they’ll begin to approach problems and work towards solutions differently. In order to give my students more practice with the steps of the scientific method, I use card sorting activities. My students enjoy them and the activities are more hands on than other approaches. In my Teachers Pay Teachers store you’ll find a set of three card sorting lessons about the scientific method. Each lesson can be used in multiple ways and comes in both English and Spanish so I can reach all of my students. (You can purchase the card sorting activities here.) Lesson Option 1 The first lesson option is a group card sorting activity. I use this activity as practice for my students at the beginning of the year when they’re first learning about the scientific method and again after winter break as a review. In this activity, the students work together to sort the cards into the six steps of the scientific method. For each step, there are five cards: a number card, a step description card, a step explanation card, and two example cards. Take a look at the picture below to see an example of each type of card. This activity gets students to understand what is involved in each step and see what it might look like in an experiment or a problem a student might encounter. The students can work together and discuss the groupings of the cards. After all the cards have been grouped, I have my students complete a two-part reflection sheet individually. The first part is about how well they would have done by themselves. For part two, the students pick out key words and phrases from the example cards and explain how those key words indicate what step the example was a part of. I like it because it gets the students thinking about why it represents a step and not just where a card should be placed. Lesson Option 2 The second lesson option is an individual card sorting activity. I use this activity instead of the group activity for my classes that get a little wild when given any kind of freedom. (It seems like there is always one of those that needs a constant thumb pushing down on it.) Alternatively, I sometimes use it in all of my classes as an assessment part way through the scientific method unit. I do this by having the students glue the cards on a paper to hand in. This lesson option has a lot of possible purposes: a review, a pre-assessment, formative assessment, or summative assessment. I’ve used it as a quick activity where students just sort the cards. And I’ve extended it by having students complete a reflection sheet where they explain how the examples represent each step. Lesson Option 3 The third lesson option I use with our interactive notebooks. The students sort the cards and glue them into their interactive notebooks instead of taking traditional notes. When they’re done gluing the cards, they have the steps in order, a description of what the steps contain, and an example of each step to refer back to in the future. You can use the cards as a part of your lesson and arrange the cards together as a class. Or you can give your lesson about the steps and then have the students arrange the cards afterward as a way to practice what they just learned. If there is time left over in class, I encourage my students to color their cards in a way that is meaningful for them. For example, they might color all of the steps in yellow, the descriptions in red, and the examples in blue. Or they might color all of the step one cards in red and step two cards orange and continue on in the order of the rainbow. While the steps of the scientific method are important for students to learn for their future classes and possible future science careers, I think it is more important for students to learn about the steps so they can use them in their everyday lives as a problem solving technique. When the steps are presented in this way, alongside of the typical science context, I find this approach helps students remember the order of the steps, understand why each step is important, be more motivated to learn the material, and be more likely to use the steps in real life outside of school. If you're interested in using these any of these card sorting activities in your classroom, take a look at the Steps of the Scientific Method Card Sorting Activities in my TpT store. Are you a middle school science teacher? Sign up for my newsletter! You'll get a free scientific method resource just for joining.
Hi everyone. I know that it has been so long since I did a real post about what has been happening in my classroom and I would really like to thank you all for sticking with me!!! Well I have been really lucky again this year and have a temporary contract for Term 1 at the same school as last year (and in the same classroom). So that means I am again teaching a composite Yr1 / Yr 2 class. We are just starting week 6 of term and it is just flying by! Our theme this term is Dinosaurs and we have had so much fun already. Last week we started looking at non-fiction books and using our recalling of facts about dinosaurs. Firstly we studied the features of non-fiction texts and we used our checklist to identify all of the features of the text and then did a Venn Diagram to compare features of non-fiction texts and the narratives we have read so far. Then we used the 'I Remember' strategy on our mini whiteboards to recall three dinosaur facts from a small part of our non-fiction book. The kiddies had so much fun constructing this fabulous craftivity Dinosaur that I found by Leslie Ann from Life in First Grade. You can download the craftivity as a Freebie HERE. They look really cute and it was a fun way of displaying their 'I Remember' facts. Finally, we created Webs of Understanding. We read the entire non-fiction text together as a class and then the kiddies were grouped at tables (this was a really fabulous way of including the few year 1 kiddies who still cannot read or write properly). Each group had a different colour ball of yarn and each member had to say a fact they remembered from the text and then roll the ball of yarn to another group member. It was a wonderful communicative activity that allowed all the kiddies to feel successful, regardless of their literacy abilities and gave my Yr 2 kiddies a chance to develop leadership skills. The class had so much fun and the huge number of facts that they were recalling was fantastic! It is certainly a technique that I will be using more often in the classroom! It can be used for all kinds of activities. I think I will try it in maths groups this week! I would love to hear the ways in which you have used Webs of Understanding with your kiddies!! Wishing everyone a fabulous week ahead! Thanks for stopping by.
By Bill Ferriter The Tempered Radical blog.williamferriter.com @plugusin
blogged @ www.myowlbarn.com
This is a simple worksheet where students illustrate their summer vacation and write short sentences to caption their pictures. Great for a first day back to class for ESL or young learners. See more on this lesson at: http://mrsbaiasclassroom.blogspot.kr/2015/08/back-to-lifeback-to-reality-summer.html
It's a butterfly! Kids will love drawing this easy 6-step picture on their own! Helps kids learn shapes and build fine motor skills!
Help your primary grade students explore, learn, and write about landforms. See our hands-on landforms activities plus our culminating writing project!
Explore Matthias Pflügner's 1201 photos on Flickr!
Contribute Your Creativity to a Tee is a exhibit by artist Danny Murphy and runs in the Main Library's Idea Box from December 1 through the 31. Using colorful golf tees and a giant pegboard, Contribute Your Creativity to a Tee encourages visitors to make there own designs in this constantly changing display. Make your own design or just watch how the wall changes with a giant movable pattern wall created by artist Danny Murphy. December's Idea Box is the winning selection from a participatory student design contest in cooperation with the American Academy of Art. Please join us for a opening reception on Saturday, December 8th at 2 pm.
Explore GK12MAVS@UTA's 233 photos on Flickr!
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Do you have a little one who loves tools? This free printable tool book is a great preschool early reader and coloring book of tools!
Our favorite 2nd grade anchor charts for math, language arts, and beyond. You'll definitely want to use some of these in your classroom.
Conception: Marion Charreau et Thomas Zannoni
Language Arts Classroom Poster.
Rotation, reflection, and translation made easy.
My professional life before blogs & Pinterest seems like a long, long ago, dark, desperate time. I've been thinking a lot recently about ho...
Awesome illustration of the PARA organizing method I teach from @Silly_Strokes, who is part of cohort 14
Done by the 4th graders..lesson I borrowed from paintedpaper. The kids really enjoyed them. Even gave themselves a pirate name.
Spanish Language Arts Classroom Poster.
Grab-Bag Subtraction I recently took a math class that focused on using Kathy Richardson's assessment series. You can click here to read more about her evaluation tools. What I loved about this course is that the instructor had us administer the Kathy Richardson assessments and from the information, gathered we would pinpoint what each child knew and still needed to learn. Every few weeks I would conduct the assessments and then provide lessons at their stage of development. Kathy Richardson's books are excellent math recourse. Her games are designed to meet a range of learners. Each section gives clear examples of how to make a game easier or more challenging. Kids love playing her math games! Math Game: Grab-Bag Subtraction Why I like this game: Super easy to teach and the kids LOVE it! Materials needed: Brown paper bag Cubes Recording Sheet (Optimal) Step#1 Record the number you are working with on the bag on the recording sheet. (I always tell my kids that the bag should always have the same number) I assign kids numbers that are just right for them. Step #2 Kids can play this game alone or with a partner. Grab Bag Subtraction Kathy also has an excellent book How Children Learn NumberConcepts: A Guide to the Critical Learning Phrase. Lastly, I would love to thank Kelsey for my new blog design. She is amazing!
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Tales from a FIRST grade classroom!
Make learning fun with these same and different worksheets for preschoolers. Help them to observe and compare objects by finding differences. Free printable!
