Science Inquiry Based Learning In The Library!

Sunflower Inquiry Freebie

This year, we have a few new ENCORE or specialists in our building. I love our new librarian, music teacher, EBD teacher, and of course I already loved our PE and art teachers. We make a great team. This year, with our new librarian we are working on incorporating each of our special areas and tying it into the library through inquiry based learning. I took a summer class based on this way of teaching science and due to the fact that we use FOSS I have been trying to twist our questions to fit this model. This week, in the library corner we are focusing on seeds and sunflowers. We just harvested them from our school garden. Take a look at how the art teacher and librarian have helped make this corner wonderful!

Books, pictures, artists, and I wonders...

Seeds, tweezers, books, and ...

An inquiry question and activity!

Currently October...Trick or Treat?

 Once again, it is a new month and Farley over at Oh, Boy 4th Grade is having us connect with Currently! I love to see what everyone is doing and Oh, Boy maybe even some good tricks and treats!

Listening to silence...Golden!

Loving the fall leaves and knowing they will soon be gone. Cold weather is on the way.

Thinking about how hard it is for some students academically and wishing I had some new tricks up my sleeve when there are over 7 LD students in my science room with no assistance in one class. Any tips for vocabulary retention?

Wanting Teachscape to go away...does any other state besides WI do this to their teachers? Hours of evidence that we are good teachers placed on a computer system that has many flaws is really taking away from my time spent planning, correcting, creating. Makes me sad:( 

Needing to have my whole family together...SOON! I sure miss having them all under one roof. I hope I don't have to wait until Thanksgiving to see my college kiddo.

Here are some amphibian connections I use...

Also check out this fun song and video...

Double Life Of An Amphibian

Treat for you this month! Amphibian Freebie!

Amphibian Freebie This Month

Hoppin over to the pond (carpet) to draw amphibians as they also hopped from lily pad to lily pad writing down facts!

Wordless Wednesday...School Garden Harvest

We are almost done with our harvest in our school garden, but how fun to continue to pick until the frost comes. I hear snow flurries this weekend?!!?? We are continuing to pick our cherry tomatoes, and our carrots just went into the lunchroom today. Next week, our potatoes will be served up, hot and roasted. How exciting. So, thanks to Miss DeCarbo over at Second Grade Sugar and Spice I can share my Wordless Wednesday picture.

Carrots from our school garden went into the lunchroom three times so far! Yummmm...so sweet!

Cherry Tomatoes not a fan favorite, until they tried them. Just one of the many buckets we have picked and served!

School Gardens make a difference!

Digging For Gold...Yukon Gold That Is

Today, we started our FOSS mock rock activities. We observed properties, measured what we needed to measure...then as geologists we dug for "gold". Could it be pyrite or copper or yukon gold potatoes. What a great way to get my second grade planters, who are now our 3rd grade geologists to make connections. We discussed what properties we could use if we found a rock in the earth. How could we safely excavate? Safely, we went out to our dig site to find our "rocks" and then use our geology words to measure the circumference, diameter, and depth as well as use our property words once again. What a golden opportunity to tie the garden into science in a new way again. We even found green rocks and red rocks...potatoes that saw the sun and red potatoes. Golden!

Digging for "gold". Learning how to be geologists in and out of the classroom.

We will be measuring this "rocks" properties. What is its circumference? What is its diameter? What is its weight and depth?
Making FOSS connections!

Digging for gold is fun...so is science!

Here is the sheet we will be using next week to record our data and observations. Digging For Gold freebie!

 

Rock on!

Science I Cans...

This week in the science room... we are sharing our I can's with the staff. Here is what we are up to this week!

K= I can experiment with smell.

1=I can understand that amphibians are cold blooded animals that hathch from an egg and go through various stages of development. I can compare amphibians to mammals. 

2=I can reflect on what air resistence means by showing evidence. I can prove that air can be compressed and that compressed air can move things. 

3= I can explain the many properties of the mock rock. I can compare what I am doing to what geologists do to help identify real rocks and their properties. I can identify the circumference, diameter, and depth of my mock rock. 

4=I can use a compass and iron filings to detect a magentic field. I can create a compass using common items. 

5=I can test a variable using lifeboats to show the number of passengers a boat can hold and that it is affected by variables such as placement, water movement, and boat size. I can define capacity. 

We are also starting something pretty sweet...Nearpod a free app on the ipad. This program is a science to use and easy to assess the students' progress. I am using it with my 4th and 5th graders this week to check their understanding of magnets and variables. Each class has 7 ipads and if we pool the pads we can have a set for a whole class. Here is what it looks like...

You can create, test, use as a large group, small group, seat work (homework), or one on one. It sends you a report to check how each student is doing, as well as let's you see where the kids are struggling.
What a great tool to use! My only suggestion...use it as homework and not a live session. Otherwise, you have to wait for everyone to get to the next step before everyone can do it. I will work out the glitches...and keep trying to find ways to assess. Got any suggestions or apps you use?

Batty For YOU! Book Talk Time

This week in first grade...Bats are mammals, too! We have just covered what is a mammal and we are taking a little quiz to see what they know. Then, we will be reading Bat by Gail Gibbons. Who doesn't love Gail Gibbons?  I love this book so this is my feature book this week. Join Mrs. Jump's Class for Book Talk Tuesday.

Great non-fiction...just enough information for 1st graders to remember bat facts!

We will be using some of the activities in my new unit Bats: Bats Are Mammals, Too. I used the picture slides as a powerpoint to show the vocabulary words and then discuss what each word means. We then read the book, followed by the Bats can, have, are sentence starters fro the Bat Facts sheet. After the kiddos were done with the bat facts sheet, they could make a bat for our bat cave in the hall. They loved it. My teachers followed up with the other sheets and a follow up with Stellaluna.

I will be using the can, have, are sheet as I make a big one on the wall. We will follow up by understanding how bats are mammals, too. I am using the facts sheet as a group activity. Each person will fill out a sticky note to add to the sheet. As a group, each person will read their fact and then stick it on the sheet.  I will be passing on the Stellaluna to my classroom teachers to do the activity sheets. I gave them this great link from Storyline Online where you can find the reading of Stellaluna for free! This song is a cute beginning or end to compare birds and bats.

Five For Friday and a Freebie!

It's my first time linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching because I never know if I have five things to share. Today, however I have fun stuff in the works! Here are my five fabulous treasures rolled up into one free pack! Blimey...there is some free bootie to be had!

TREASURE #1

TREASURE #2

TREASURE #3

TREASURE #4

TREASURE # 5...The Pirate TREASURE...The FREEBIE LINK!