Little 1st grade Science Thinkers is a complete curriculum that includes scripted teacher lesson plans, read-aloud books in a printable or projectible format, easy-prep science investigations and activities, assessments, anchor chart examples, and more.
Try these easy sound experiments -- Elementary & Middle School kids will LOVE testing the science of sound with this fun wave experiment to create a 'gong' and explore how sound waves travel!
Little 1st grade Science Thinkers is a complete curriculum that includes scripted teacher lesson plans, read-aloud books in a printable or projectible format, easy-prep science investigations and activities, assessments, anchor chart examples, and more.
Microscopes are a lot of fun for exploring all sorts of things, but it’s important to know how to use them correctly and what all the parts are called. A School Called Home has a printable la…
10 Ideas to help students learn science vocabulary words10 Ideas to help students learn science vocabulary words-- awesome for 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade
Learn how to easily integrate science into reading and writing with meaningful literacy-based activities to best help your students master science.
Get your students excited to learn about forces causing movement with these fun and engaging activities they will love.
The 5E Model of Science Instruction was exactly what I needed to streamline the process of planning and implementing a student-led inquiry-based learning
Studying thermodynamics starts at a very young age, even if we don’t use that big word. Thermodynamics is the branch of science that...
I have had the opportunity to spend some time with amazing people over the last couple of weeks. These include everything from researchers in basic science laboratories looking for nature’s r…
Started finding a lot of links for Minecraft curriculum. What could be better than homeschooling with Minecraft?
Teaching landforms to your primary students can be super fun with my ideas for experiments and resources to make your job easier. Plus, get a freebie!
Are you familiar with Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences? It is an amazing way of looking at how your students learn best. You can visit his website here: http://howardgardner.com/. There are several online assessments that your students can take to determine what type of learner they are. In this unit you will find 16 choice boards (8 mini choice boards and 8 full-size choice boards). Each board focuses on activities for your students to complete based on each Multiple Intelligence. Why use choice menus? Choice menus provide differentiation student choice student engagement student-paced learning activities for distance/remote learning meaningful activities for early finishers learning through multiple intelligences minimal or no prep work for teachers!!! Choice menus are not only perfect for early finishers, they are excellent tools for homework, differentiation, enrichment, assessments, extension activities, and more. Choice menus also add instant engagement, motivation, and easily address various learning styles. Looking for no prep activities for your early finishers? Print these out and put them in a folder or pocket for your students to grab and go without disruption or post them in your room for easy access. Looking to provide a variety of skills? These activities focus on critical and creative thinking, problem solving, and more. Varied activities are included throughout the product. Looking for quick, reusable center activities? Print and laminate or put in a dry erase pocket and add to your centers. Great for themed unit extras, too! These boards are included in full color and black and white. These choice boards are perfect for homework, early finishers, independent work time. For classroom use, simply laminate them for durability.
These sound lesson plans focus on hands-on inquiry. The physical science unit includes hands-on activities, review, and assessment.
Review of Living Book Science Curriculum called the Sassafras Science Adventures. Fun Zoology and Anatomy Curriculum for Elementary Aged Kids.
Hot Air, Cold Air Science Activity is a great experiment to watch the effects of hot air and cold air on a balloon. Observe what is happening and why?
Learn about Japanese Ramune Soda and the science behind it. Ramune Carbonation Science for Kids, a fun STEM unit.
This simple buoyancy kids' science activity requires just a few common household supplies. Kids will love learning why things sink and float!
Get everything you need to make your habitats and organisms unit come alive! Games, videos and more!
The Archimedes' Principle is a scientific law which explains why some objects sink and some objects float. Archimedes was one of the world's greatest
Close reading, broken down with a FREE planning page that works for any text
Teaching states of matter in kindergarten can be a tricky! Here are some resources to help students gain a solid understanding of the topic!
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In simple form, inquiry-based learning is more of a student-directed way of learning rather than teacher-directed. In some cases, teachers may set the general framework for learning, but for the most part, the learning is based on the students questions, ideas and passions. But how do you provoke those questions in the first place? Inquiry-based
Introduction to the scientific method and a printable scientific method worksheet for kids.
Let’s teach 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students about physical properties of matter. What are physical properties of matter? Physical properties of matter are characteristics that describe appearance of a substance without considering its chemical composition. Physical properties can be used to identify and distinguish one substance from another. Examples of physical properties include: ... Read more
Bloom’s & SOLO ‘are not Just Colorful Posters we Hang on the Wall’ is my two-part series at Education Week Teacher. The Best Resources For Supporting ELLs With Bloom’s Taxonom…
What is Inquiry Based Leaning in Kindergarten? In simple form, inquiry-based learning is more of a student-directed way of learning rather than teacher-directed. In some cases, the teaching team may set the general framework for learning, but for the most part, the learning is based on the students questions, ideas and passions. This is similar to the emergent curriculum if that is a term you are more familiar with. Rather than working off set lesson plans that are theme-based and not necessarily developmentally appropriate for all children, your teaching is guided by the students interests thus making the learning more meaningful to them. We know from research that children achieve optimal learning when they are given plenty of opportunities to become fully engaged in their play. Most often while children are engaged, their natural curiosity of the world around them comes forth. They take notice of everything and have a beautiful sense of wonder about people, places, objects, and nature. Through noticing and wondering, the children come up with questions and observations about their thinking. It is important that children are given the opportunity to investigate their inquiry, gather information, make observations and share their findings with others. It is the role of the teaching team in kindergarten to act as facilitators. We use these opportunities of inquiry to help guide the children with more open-ended questions allowing them to extend and clarify their thinking and make connections, while modeling the inquiry process. We provide the children with the tools, materials and resources they need to investigate these inquiries. What is the Inquiry Process? The Full Day Early Learning Kindergarten Program clearly defines the inquiry process in the curriculum document and I have included the table for you below: There is also an article I enjoyed named "The Plan: Building on Children's Interests" by Hilary Jo Seitz through NAEYC, that you can read here, that offers a very interesting perspective on the inquiry process. It has many similarities to the one in the Full Day Kindergarten document, but I enjoyed the way Hilary explained her four step process. I also now love the term SPARKS which refers to anything that promotes deeper thinking. Open-Ended Questions to Promote Inquiry The key to open-ended questions is that they promote further thinking and explanation. Questions that begin with "what, why, how, if etc." are usually open-ended questions. Anything that can be answered with yes or no are typically closed-ended questions and a lot of the time may begin with "can, do etc." I created the sheet above to carry with me on my clipboard when I am doing observations during the day as a reminder or suggestion. Very quickly these just became natural for me and it is just part of my normal conversations throughout the day with the children. This certainly won't be my last post on inquiry, but I hope this answers some questions for those who were wondering just what inquiry-based learning is.
Science Fair Ideas! Susan Wells of Steve Spangler Science brings helpful tips and illustration for making a science fair project board.
Discover our new resources for the Cambridge International Primary and Lower Secondary Curriculum Frameworks With everything you need to plan and run your lessons, this teacher's resource helps you get the most out of the series. You'll find starter activities and additional lesson ideas not included in the students' books, as well as answers to all the questions and exercises. There are language support suggestions, along with clearly identified assessment and differentiation ideas to help you meet all your learners' needs. Includes access to worksheets with additional differentiation activities and further language development exercises in the accompanying digital resource.
Helping K-2 Teachers Like You Save Time, Grow Instructional Skills, and Teach With Confidence!
Seminars held by the worlds top universities generally present the most up to date and respected ideas in relation to conducting research. Recently, I was lucky enough to attend a conference where …
Learning about landforms with a hands-on landform building and narrative writing project.
Genetics is one of my favorite units to teach! (I think I've already said that throughout my blog about 6 times.... or 57. I lost count.) I love pulling in real life examples into every
Stop taking away recess and using other punishments to control your students. Find success with 10 powerful classroom management strategies!
Here's to another Sunday spent planning. The goal for next week is to get a few things planned before the weekend comes! To make this post a little shorter, I am breaking it into two parts. Tomorrow, I will share my reading and writing plans for some Minilesson Magic :) Science: This week, we have our mini-unit on genetics scheduled. Our students need to learn the following objectives: * Explain why organisms differ from or are similar to their parents based on the characterisitcs of the organism. * Give examples of likenesses that are inherited and some that are not. For my student journal pgs, click here (free and in a pdf). Monday: Set up science journals. The label shown above will be pasted into their notebook as a divider for our first unit of study. Complete the "Mice" assessment probe to see what students already think about how traits show up in organisms. After students think about their own explanations, we will use the explanations above to make a bar graph for how they think offspring's fur color is decided. (This assessment probe comes from Page Keeley, Uncovering Student Ideas in Science). Use 1st page of heredity video to explain heredity. Tuesday: Fingerprints Lab (found this gem linked for free online) Wednesday: Observing Human Traits Lab (free from Tamra Young on TPT); explain dominant and recessive traits and draw conclusions about what traits are dominant/recessive for humans based on classroom data) Thursday: Complete active sort around the room for Inherited vs Acquired traits and make flipbook (free materials from Jennifer Findley) Friday: Learn about Punnett Squares with Leprechaun Genetics (free from Making it Teacher on TPT) Other Resources that might be thrown in w/ extra time: Unit Outline from Moore County (includes a smartboard file to guide the mini-unit) Peas in a Pod (Mendelian Genetics) online freebie; Questions to go along with the reading selection included (I made these last year) Heredity (from Brainpop) DNA (from Brainpop) Animated Videos that explain DNA, genes, chromosomes, protein, heredity, and traits Math: This week in math, I will be getting to know my students better as mathematicians. I'm using some of the journal prompts/explorations from my Math Explorations that focuses on factors. (Not only will we learn about decomposing numbers, but students will be forced to use their multiplication facts). Since my Math Explorations are aligned with the mathematical practices, I thought it would be a good way to introduce concepts like communicating in math, perseverance, using multiple methods for showing work, using different strategies, etc. We are also going to continue working on our Summer Slide questions, which we started on Friday. Given time, I will also begin to introduce some of our math stations. For math stations, my team decided that we would have 4 stations this year, MATH SUPERSTARS, CONCEPT FOCUS, ALGEBRAIC, and something computer-based like Moby Max. Morning Meeting: We are going to focus on perseverance all week. We have a county-wide assessment that is designed with all tasks focusing on perseverance, so this fits in nicely with morning meeting. The kiddos may not even realize they are being assessed. Finish Strong Erik Weihenmayer on Oprah (start at 1:21) Hope you enjoyed peeking at my week! Tune in tomorrow for my reading/writing minilesson ideas for the week.
Newton's iconic laws of motion are at work all around you, whether you're watching an Olympic swimmer push off a pool wall or a batter hit a baseball. So what are they?
This week as many of you know was our state ELA testing. In our middle school after the testing is over, we still have all of our class periods. I spent time in my ELA class watching The Lightning Thief because we are going to be writing an argument essay between the book and the movie. Before we took our ELA test, I did some fun review that practiced citing text evidence using our novel. Do you use Roll and Retell in your classroom? I first saw the sheet on Pinterest, I believe it is from Fun In First. I loved the idea, but the questions were a little too basic for my Smarties in the sixth grade, so I created an upgraded version. My students loved being able to sit in groups and play. We did three different rounds using the myths we have been focusing on with our Lightning Thief books: Promethius, Medusa and Athena, and then our novel. I put a die in these cool containers that I had purchased from Staples in August. I like using them because my dice don't go flying all over the room. I increased the difficulty as we played, first asking them to cite one piece of evidence for each roll, and then as many as 3 pieces when we got into the novel. I loved what I was hearing from groups! They were talking, they were arguing their points, and they were enjoying group discussion. I couldn't ask for anything better than that! I'm linking up with one of my BBBs, Joanne over at Head Over Heels for Teaching to share this fun activity. If you are interested in the Roll and Retell, you can get a copy of it {HERE}, it's free. Have a great weekend!
I am sharing tips for using Cornell Doodle Notes to teach in your middle school science class!
