Warning: I went a little crazy with hyperlinking. Once I started... I just couldn't stop. You've been warned. One of my goals for science is to make using our textbook more exciting. It's common knowledge that textbooks don't possess much of that "cool factor". I've always been a fan of Dinah Zike's Foldables, but until recently I hadn't quite figured out how (or when) to use them. Then, my wheels starting turning. As part of of plants chapter, I wanted my kiddos to be able to recognize the process of photosynthesis, but I didn't exactly have gobs of time to spend on it. I knew in my mind, I wanted my students to create some kind of photosynthesis foldable. After a few failed google searches, I decided to use my own noggin. Using an awesome foldable resource I snagged from Pinterest, I decided on a "Six Door" foldable. A Teacher's Treasure has several great options and ideas for foldables here. In the top three boxes, students listed the three things necessary for photosynthesis to occur: water, sunlight energy, and carbon dioxide. On two of the bottom flaps, we wrote what plants produce as a result of photosynthesis: oxygen and sugar. One of my students even suggested writing "produces" at the bottom to remember! Brilliant! Finally, in the last box we wrote the definition of photosynthesis. Not too shabby! On the inside of the flaps, using our books as a resource, students described what happened with sunlight, carbon, water ... and so on and so on. My kids loved it! It was probably because they got to fold, cut, and color. Oh well, I'll take it! I've been a follower of Eve's Science Notebooking blog for awhile, but it took my brilliant coworker to stumble upon her Flip and Flaps post for the lightbulb to turn on! As I mentioned earlier, I am always looking for ways to make the textbook seem "cool". Although, one student DID tell me that he took his book home every night to read... I'll assume he is the minority. So! After reading this post on Flip and Flaps, Erin (my brilliant coworker) and I put our heads together and whipped up some flippity flaps for the week! Using Microsoft Publisher as Eve suggested, I created a little interactive textbook activity for lesson four. I asked my students today what they thought and I received cheers! Let's keep in mind... they got to color and glue again. On the cover of the flip flap, I created a parts of the flower review based on this photo. On the inside, students sneakily had to reread the text to fill in the blank and answer various questions. I'm Learning So Much about Flowers! How DO plants grow? Erin (my brilliant coworker) recreated this leaves, stems, and roots flip flap for our kiddos to review the functions of each. Once again, my kids were in love with science (or their scissors, colors, and glue). Now, before I part for the evening I must inform everyone of something extremely important happening this weekend. The University of Missouri will be playing the kU jayhawks (yes, that is grammatically correct) at THE MIZZOU Arena this Saturday. There's only one thing I have to say: MIZZOU-RAH!

See our plant life cycle activities and why my students are so excited to write about science! Includes FREE lesson visuals for teaching about plants.

As you are going to discover, I adore foldables. Many of my postings will show the foldables I use in my classroom. Here is my model for plant parts. To create it, a regular sheet of copy paper (or in the case of my model, cardstock) is folded in half, hotdog (or lengthwise) style. Cut marks are made every 2 3/4 inches, but don't cut it yet, as it will make drawing the flower more difficult. Using these marks, draw a flower in the top section, making it large enough to fill the space. In the next section down, you will need to draw a leaf or two and a bud. The following section is the easiest--just continue the stem and establish the ground line. In the bottom section, draw roots. For my example, I drew fibrous roots because these are the roots my students most easily recognize. Color your image and label the parts. Now, you are ready to cut the sections apart. Inside, using the cuts as a guide, my students and I fill out the information needed for each plant part, in particular the job of the part. We fill all this out together to ensure students have complete and accurate information. Once the foldable is ready, students use them to study from and to self test. Tip: reluctant artists may find free hand drawing a flower intimidating. While I encourage them to try to do it on their own, I do have traceable images they can use if the stress of drawing is too great.

Our Parts of a Plant Poster is a great educational resource that will help you create relevant and engaging Science classrooms.

Print out the following worksheets and test your knowledge about the basic structure and parts of a plant. Suitable for: Kindergarten and Grade 1 Download PDF Download PDF Suitable for: Grade 2, Grade 3 Download PDF Download PDF

Lead your entire class on a singalong about the parts of a plant sung to a familiar tune.

Got a gardening guru on your hands? Give them a fun challenge with this fill-in-the-blanks quiz about the parts of a seed!

Teacher Appreciation Week may be coming to an end, but the celebration isn't over yet! Teaching Blog Roundup is teaming up with 20 of the best blogs to host this Teacher Appreciation FREEBIES Roundup blog hop. Thanks for stopping by my blog! I would like to show my appreciation with this great freebie for you. Click Here for the FREEBIE:) I'm glad you hopped by! If you are new to my blog and liked what you see, don't forget to follow me! Now head over to Fantastic First Grade Froggies to roundup the next FREEBIE! We Appreciate You!

So one of my goals this year was to put student work up on the walls in my classroom. You see, with 200+ students, how do I put all students' work up? Well that's just it... I don't. I was already collecting sample work from students (you know, keeping the REALLY good ones to show next year's students what their final product should look like), but wasn't doing anything with those samples aside from keeping them in a drawer until the following year. That's when I decided that it was time to put those samples up on the wall. I realized that I don't have to put up samples from EVERY student... meaning, I don't have to put up the eye-sores non-sample work. Below are pictures of what now adorns my very colorful and educational wall. I have already referenced projects on the wall several times... And my 8th graders are reminded of the science they forget from learned in 7th grade. Fun, right? And after receiving numerous emails requesting templates to make some of the foldables shown above, I decided to make a few tutorial posts. You see, my students are AMAZING artists and therefore none of the above projects required templates. Just instructions. So here they are. Organization of Life Foldable Tutorial Cells Foldable Tutorial Cell Cycle Foldable Tutorial Happy Projecting! (I know, I totally made that word up.)

What are the different parts of a plant, their functions, and structures explained through labeled diagram

In our first Herbs for Kids lesson, we learned how how to use herbs. This week we are going to learn a very special part of science – botany, plant parts!

The Parts of a Plant Worksheets are a fun and educational set of free worksheets for kindergarten and 1st grade. *this post contains affiliate links* They are a great tool for teaching young kids about

Science Resources (Scroll down for social studies.) Social Studies