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!
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.
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.
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...
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!
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!
Kinders are learning about their 5 senses. Having them sing our song is so much fun. They know it by heart, just start that bingo song rolling. "I have 5 senses yes I do..." We are doing that through learning about popcorn. We can smell it, hear it, feel it, see it, and taste it. Our kiddos start off by getting a kernel...describe it...then get a popped corn and to the same. They watch me pop a bit of corn kernels, making sure that they keep far away...it is HOT! We each get a cup of popcorn that I already have set for them and then we read the book:
As they finish their popcorn I have a bin ready to get the empty cups...or they play with them. After the book we finish up with our popcorn sheet. I use the same sheet on the board with words already to go. Finally, we line up to dance the popcorn dance...
1st graders are working on reviewing amphibians than taking a test. Popping up my amphibians back on the smartboard for visuals and word help really works well. Types of animals, metamorphosis, what makes an amphibian an amphibian is reviewed. Once, amphibians are covered again, the kiddos take a yes or no amphibian test. I always put the magic words: tadpole, frog, and egg on the board for the write spelling of the words...out of order for the last part of our test. Then our kiddos listen to Yucky Reptiles...
When the book is done we add to what we know about reptiles: they have scales, they lay eggs with rubbery outsides, they lay them in soil usually, they are cold blooded, they have 4 legs or 0 legs. Finally, seat work. They are working on matching pictures with words and gluing it in their science notebooks. They are gluing in a poem (one...two...then your through with glue). They finish up by drawing their favorite reptile in their notebook and writing three facts about reptiles in the notebook.
2nd graders are working on weather. We start off with the words climate and weather on the board. We discuss the definitions using my weather packet I am finishing up on. We then discuss different types of weather and what it is like traveling on a trip to see family. Is the climate the same? Is the weather the same? We watched the video Weather vs. Climate video to get the definitions. It is a fun wrestling video. Different places gets us to see different things such as weather and climate. We followed up by pulling out the Ipad to show them our current temperature and discuss what forecast is using the Weather Channel app. We defined forecast then. I gave them examples of climate (it usually is cold in winter vs. it is snowing) We can predict the weather for tomorrow by looking at what is coming our way. Show them Wausau by using them the radar really helps them see what is happening in our area. I then zoom out to see the hurricanes in the ocean and discuss weather in other parts of the US. I then as them to think about the 4 seasons and as them to then think about the climate based on the weather changes in each season. I send them back to cut out the orange weather and climate sheet. We finish up by cutting and pasting our climate and weather cards in our notebooks. If time we work on the forecast side of the worksheet.
3rd graders will be focusing on rocks and minerals...specifically mock rocks. I set up little buckets on my back table that have what they need to get the job done. We will focus on the three ways we separate our mock rocks: with a pick and picking the parts apart...adding water to a vial and letting the solid separate in layers, and evaporation to see what crystals are present. Pages 4-6 in their FOSS packet allows them to show what they know. Guessing what the ingredients are in the mock rocks is fun, too. Using our hand lenses are fun when we hold up the evaporation dish to the light. We can clearly see after handing out the earth materials pack that the page showing crystal identification shows one type of crystal. We look at that crystal under the microscope and see it is kosher salt. We once again draw what we see.
5th graders are taking a test based on the lifeboat experiments. First, we review the pages in our packet, get the test, then onto the variable activity of the day. Running out of beans has us using noodles to paste on our paper...how? by creating our own glue. The group must come up with a recipe using corn starch, baking soda, salt, and/or flour. They must measure the solid first, record the amounts in metrics not standard unit then add water. They can't add any more solid once they add the water. They can share their ratios of solids on the board as they place the glue on the notecard and then the noodles. What ingredients are the best and worst? What team made the best recipe? Cleaning up takes time, but it is fun to see them work together.
