This week, I started my cloud lesson for our 2nd grade meteorologists. I used this video to start us off with. I then created an cotton ball activity to give them a visual aid. I made word cards to them. I used the cloud ideas from The First Grade Parade to help me make a visual for the kiddos, too.
We will wrap up with this book and our song to The Farmer in The Dell found on Super Teachers.
My dear science teacher friends, I tried out our Three Billy Goats Gruff lesson last week. I read one of the versions of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. I stressed our power words OVER, UNDER, AROUND, NEXT TO...I then had the blocks, plates, cardboard, whatever you got people, to have them build a bridge as a team. I put the three billys, I called them, to work. I made groups of three, slick stuff. Then they worked together to build that bridge. It took them awhile to work together, but I had a goat puppet that I used to see if I could get up the bridge, across the bridge, over the bridge, and then down the bridge. All of the little billys forgot to build a slope or ramp, so I gave them each a car to try it themselves. They started to figure out that they needed something to help them get up, over, down. By the end of our time we had all of our billys able to make it safe across the bridge to greener pastures. Next week, the word slope and our next lesson. Also, push and pull...working on building the perfect playground equipment for a playground for our bears from last week. Push and pull...stay tuned.
Up, Over, Down. Up, Over, Down. Let's get the Billys to the other side of town.
Wow, what a wonderful weekend. My daughter's volleyball team just made it to state. I got my 385 report cards done, and I am even able to find some time for quiet time on the computer! I almost forgot about the Currently fun that is had every month thanks to http://ohboy3rdgrade.blogspot.com/ .
Loving cranberries! Here is a great site for some cranberry recipes!
Here is a shout out to the two posts before me... Amanda at First Grade Garden and Literacy without Worksheets have really yummy recipes that I could actually make!
Wish the Lumberjacks luck on their way to Green Bay this week for the STATE VOLLEYBALL tournament!!!! It has taken 30 years for volleyball to get there. We shall enjoy every minute of it!
One of our FOSS kits is Earth Materials. We use it with our 3rd graders for ENCORE science. That means that I am a "specialist" who teaches our kiddos science for one hour per week. The teachers this year are to teach science in their classrooms using our theme or unit. Our district six years ago went to this model to give our teachers more prep time, and to get science to our students. In some rooms it meant more science and in others...less. This year, we have a new schedule that allows for our classroom teachers to enhance science in their rooms so I made this for my teachers to help me make.
We are learning about the rock cycle in our 3rd grade science classrooms. I made a little activity that helps our kiddos review the three types of rocks using a graphic I put up on the projector. We are in the middle of creating this book for review. I will post pictures next week when they get closer to completion. Check it out at TPT.
How much did we have today! My after school class celebrated pumpkin day for our harvest of the month festival. We used some great resources from Mrs. Ricci's Kindergarten! We also read The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons.
after doing a sequence activity and singing a song. Love this video!
Now, after reading the book and singing a song and even doing our sequence activity, we watched this great time lapsed video to watch the sequence in action.
We used this sheet for a cute book.
Here is my little cousin in our after school class. You go Alli. Pumpkin Day rocks!
Do pumpkins float or sink? Our little kiddos predicted, all said sink. We started with a small pumpkin...it floated. We put a medium pumpkin in the sink, it floated. Then, we put the big pumpkin in the sink, it overflowed and floated! The kids were amazed. We discussed why they float. We then cup open one of our pumpkins and it was HOLLOW! They got it!
Soooo, I was thinking. How can we make the FOSS lessons extend to really get our olders connected. How about frontloading the idea of medieval catapults? I am giving my fifth graders a piece of tag board this week and as a team they must decorate the sheet to look like a castle. I am then sharing the following sites with them.
And a video of a catapult at Warwick Castle. Short and sweet.
After the students build there flipper system and you have them read about the physics behind the catapult, have them try to get them to get the silver ball over the castle they built. This will help them connect history to science! Or if you want to share another type of catapult at a circus perhaps, then this one may be the one for you.
Either way, this will help our 5th graders understand the flipper system a bit better. I sent along a tag board paper that each group is making that they will make into a castle. We will place the castles around the room and after we practiced the height and distance and recorded we will then have 5 chances to make it over the wall of another groups castle. They are super excited.
