Liebster Award! Yea...Me!

How fun to have been nominated for this award! I have been super sick...so it took me a few days to start posting on my blog. Yucky germs=yucky bug! Thanks to Mrs. Sprigg's at Mrs. Sprigg's Kindergarten Pond for the nomination!!!! The Liebster Award is a way for newer bloggers (with less than 200 followers) who have great content, to link up, meet other bloggers, and share a little bit about themselves.




1. Why and how long ago did you start blogging?
Well, I last summer, I started to use some of my time surfing the net. I started looking at blogs and seeing how many great ideas there were out there on these sites.  I also noticed that there weren't a lot of blogs that focused on Science. Being a K-5 Science teacher, I figured...why not give it a try. My birthday is in September, I paid for someone to help me create a fun science blog...I tried myself first, but yikes it was ugly and those codes...I don't really get it. I also found TPT at the same time I discovered blogging...which is when I was sending my oldest daughter onto college. Blogging, creating TPT items...both have made me a better teacher and connecting to other teachers is a true blessing!

2. What one word sums up the heart of your blog and why?
Reflecting. As a teacher in Wisconsin, we are under a new observation plan...teacher effectiveness is the name of the game. As I connect to other teachers and their great ideas, I am able to reflect on my own teaching and learn and grow even after 23 years of teaching. Reflecting is essential to growing as a teacher. It makes us better, allows us to grow, and that helps our students in their academic development.

3. Is there something you learned late in your blogging journey you wished you knew before? 
Oh...My...Gosh...Yes! When you first start blogging, it feels like you are talking to no one. You wonder if the time and energy is worth it. As you connect with other bloggers that post faithfully, have great products, and have a large number of followers to boot...you learn how to hop...download freebies...and linkies are a blast! It allows us to learn from our peers. How great is that. I continue to take ideas and strategies from anyone willing to share. What talented teachers...it makes me want to better myself in the process.

4. What is your favorite past time other than blogging?
I love making TPT products. I find it therapy. I sit in a quiet spot...away from the busy, hustle and bustle of my life. I take my FOSS lessons and figure how I can help the classroom teachers I works with and make them activities so that they can incorporate more science into their school day!
Okay...so I also love when I can just sit and talk with my kids when life slows down! Pinterest is also pretty addicting!

5. How many hours per week do you dedicate to your blog?
It depends on the week. Sometimes, I have way to much to do to get ready for the week...sometimes, I am so busy with my own children, but I try to at least post 1-3 times per week. I wish I had more time, but I really like making products so some time is devoted per week to that.

6. What category of blog posts do you enjoy the most?
I love finding great science ideas and freebies. I teach Science! I also love finding ideas for the teachers I work with, too!

7. Where does your blog inspiration come from?
All things science, school gardens, and reflecting on my lessons and the ideas I find that will help them better. I also love to post the resources that I use so that I can find them next time around!

8. Which post that you've written are you most proud of?
I love my farm to school grant posts because they allow teachers that also grow gardens to link up and find freebies and ideas for their garden. It has allowed our school to get recognition and grant money in the process.

Blogs I am nominating:
Mrs. Laffin's Laughings

Mrs. Jones' Creations

Teachers Are Terrific

Now its your turn (nominated bloggers) to participate - here are the official "rules" for accepting:

1. In your post link back to the blogger who nominated you as a thank you and "shout out".

2. Answer the 11 questions given to you (the ones I answered above)

3. Nominate 11 blogs that have less than 200 followers each. Provide them with 11 questions (listed above) to have them answer.

4. Let your nominees know they've been nominated and provide them with a link back to your post so they can accept.

5. Send your nominator a link to your post so s/he can learn more about you as well. (you can just put your post link in the comments below)

Circuits are a SNAP!

I bought this great toy for my son a few years ago and it is so much fun, but doing the electricity unit and teaching vocabulary is not always easy with my fourth graders. So after I was Energy certified this summer...yes, I took three graduate credit energy classes through UWSP and now I have a cool certificate that I got to show my kiddos and share for my teacher effectiveness! I got some free money when I did that sooooo....

I bought some SNAP circuit kits! You can find them at Snap kit circuit kit site. We covered energy...
We covered what type of energy they were creating...mechanical? chemical? wind? Open and closed circuits! Amazing!

Teamwork!

Schematic Drawings!

Wind and Chemical Energy!

Mechanical energy!

Going Green! The resource book in this kit is great!

What a way to tie in FOSS and Energy and give them a break from state testing!

Candy Science!

Ok...so I have seen some sites that show how to use candy to teach science concepts, so I thought I would use the FOSS concepts to see how I could teach some of the kit ideas as a refresher or introduction. We had a special celebration today on our half day...Halloween. We had our and littles sign up for stations...they got to do 2.

I did...CANDY SCIENCE! We did the acidity test (great for a whole class demo or even small groups and to review the Calcite test and mixtures and solutions), floating M's from M&M's (the kids love this when they can get the M to stick to their finger),  Earth materials candy properties (review of property words, mass, perimeter, area, and the beginning of density), sink and float with an introduction to density, candy chromatography (didn't love this when the kids did it, so I would do this as a station demo), reflection and refraction candy suckers.

Not sure how to help kids with their large amount of Halloween candy? Have them bring in one piece to share. Check out the stations...in action...and set up!

Refraction and reflection

M&M fun and floatable...

Sink and Float...and the beginning of density!

Mass, area, perimeter, properties...

Great for demo of citric acid reactions...fizzy fun!

Candy Chromatography...FYI the kids need patience and directions

Refraction in action!

 I put these stations into a pack! Check candy science at Candy TPT Link.

Climate or Weather...or not?

We started with the concept of weather vs. climate.
I have been working on a unit that takes FOSS and NGSS to figure out how to create a weather unit that works more smoothly.
 I came up with the idea of treating my kiddos as meteorologists or better yet...travel agents.

 They would work on learning all they need to know by planning a trip to a major city in the world. They would use the Weather Channel app on the iPads to look up a different city per table.

 We would use a world map to chart the different temperatures on the map. We would focus on climate and weather and know the difference and then we would finish activities that help us show the difference...on to what we did this last week, and the upcoming week....

We will incorporate the FOSS weather tools  as we go... By the way.... As we continue on our trip many of my second grade kiddos have never been out of our hometown or for that out of the state so we read a really nice book based on "stay"cations.


After our book we discussed Wausau. What can we do in and around our town. With our list, we can do great things with little money. To start our FOSS integration, we measured with a thermometer and learned how to read one. We tested hot and cold water and recorded the temperature in our notebooks. Then when we were done we went to the smartboard and looked at hot spots and cold spots in the US. There is certainly a trend. We can see weather and climate.

This week...clouds. Here is the plan...
What are the three main types of clouds...
Here is a quick video...

Then, a review by making a flip book...
Then, a cloud in a jar...
Finally, a cloud song....The Cloud Song lyrics.

Yea! For 2nd Grade!

Rockin' It...Inquiring Minds Want to Know

We now have a name for our inquiry based library corner...the Encorner!

OK let me explain...

The PE, art, library, music...and me the science teacher are called ENCORE...otherwise known as specialists. Prep time classes!

So, encorner works because we are all working together to create inquiry based questions and activities for our kiddos at our school. This corner was a success...using rocks from the 3rd grade unit along with scales, books and our inquiry question..."If you were a geologist what is a question you might want to know about rocks and minerals?"

Here is our Encorner for the next two weeks. Stay tuned we are working on a motion corner...PE, music, art, library, and science...WHOA!

Rock on! We even put our kiddos rock collections into the locked glass case. They feel so proud of their rock finds. 

Here is our I wonder board on the first day...not all about rocks, but they still wonder...

Frog and Toad...Friends

Well, it is our second week of amphibians in our class and the "lily pad" tables worked like a charm. I wanted to keep that idea in mind as I planned for this week's lessons. We will be setting up the classroom tables with QR code stations, an art station, and a life cycle sheet. Here is the new QR code pack...Frog and Toad QR Code Task Cards Pack. Check out the kiddos in action!

Here are some fun Frog and Toad videos to play if, too! Check out the link...Watch, Know, Learn...Toads and Frogs

Weather...or Not?

My kiddos use the FOSS Weather module and I wanted to create a packet that they could use that combined everything they needed to cover as well as assimilate NGSS standards in a fun way...planning a trip! What is the weather and climate like where each group is going? With the help of a travel agent...the teacher, and a meteorologist...them, it is bound to be a great trip.

I have been using this pack to get my 2nd graders a bit more excited about the weather unit, but still using the FOSS lessons to incorporate the creation of the tools and plans they have. I love using the sheets on my smartboard so that we can review what we did and see the vocabulary and pictures when needed. 

My Classroom Teachers love the QR Code Vocabulary Review Game! Our school focus is vocabulary!

I made a packet with all of the sheets for the kids to work on. I will use several of the sheets for review.
I can't wait to post pictures this week of this packet in action!