Kinders- I found this amazing book called Animal Homes that is a pop up book. It is an National Geographic book. We first start with discussing the new NGSS standard...Plants and animals can change the environment to meet their needs. We discuss what a habitat is and that animals, plants, and humans need habitats to survive. They also need food, water, shelter, and space which makes up their habitat. We also shared how habitats can change due to weather...we have a storm right now and our garden is getting flooded. Perfect time to share what could happen to plants and seeds.
We read the story and then I used the free clip art to show the habitat of the 6 animals shown. Monster Wrangler Mike's Mother's Day Clip art was a great way for the students to have the picture there and to draw the habitat around it. I am making a book with their sheets. We finished up with this fun song:
We are learning about insects. Today, we are meeting our next guests...the painted lady larvae. We first review what we know about meal worms, then we take a test from my Life Cycle of the Butterfly and Insect Connections Pack to review what they know. We used sheets for life cycles and observations from my pack, too. I start by showing the FOSS posters of the life cycles of our insects so far. We then read the book From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman.
We then observe our larva recording on a chart our observations. We measure how big they are and record from each days' class the changes. When we were done we viewed this nice video that shows the metamorphosis of the butterfly.
2nd graders-
Our second graders are learning about plants. We reviewed for a test on seed parts, plant parts, and how seeds travel. We then listened to the story First Peas to the Table which I shared my lesson ideas in the last post. Check out our competition.
3rd Graders-
They were introduced to our homework assignment...make an instrument for our rock band. Our own little school of rock. We gave examples of homemade instruments. We discussed the parts of the ear again and I gave them a picture and labeling sheet for them to do so they understand the three parts as well as the little parts that help us hear: outer, middle, inner ear and eardrum, stirrup, anvil, hammer, Eustachian tube. We then read a sound book that I was going to read last week...and discussed our big question for the day...What evidence is there that ocean mammals are good communicators. We watched two videos to help in our gathering of evidence.
4th graders-
Our fourth graders are taking a quiz to see what they know about the sun, moon, and Earth. We then have a scavenger hunt in the room based on the game scoot. They have an answer sheet to fill in as they move around the room to find the answers to the questions. I got the idea off of super teachers. The scavenger hunt is free! You can find it here! Solar System Scavenger Hunt. I mounted the yellow cards on black paper with a cut out star next to each. Easy to see and find. I placed two sets in my tiny room. They loved it. Our 4th graders struggle reading for meaning and this was a great way to help them read and find the correct answer to a question.
5th graders-
I gave them a study guide for simple machines. They could use their notes to find the answers and fill in their study guide. When time was up, we went over the answers and then finished Lever activity 2 for FOSS. We shared results and then time was up.
Busy week...but fun stuff to be learned!
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