Science Notebooking

Hallway Display

2012-01-31T18:57:00.006-05:00

We have a big inspection team coming to one of the school's I go between at the end of February and that got me thinking about hallway displays.

I wanted a hallway display that could be left up all year and simply added to as the year progressed. I originally thought of doing what I did in the pictures above but labeling it 1st quarter, 2nd quarter, 3rd quarter, and 4th quarter (which I still think is a good idea). I approached the fourth grade science teacher and she was game to let me put it up outside of her room (my old classroom) and pull children to put together the display for the first two units in science. The idea is that then the children would add items to the next unit they are moving into.

I have received a lot of compliments on the display and I sort of hope others use it to spring board their hallway decorations. It can be put up at the beginning of the year and just added to each quarter.

I added a sun to each unit as the connecting link between them. One teacher thought that the blank sheets could be laminated and reused every year.

Brain Breaks

2012-01-20T04:46:00.003-05:00

I ran across this video on YouTube and really liked this brain break activity. The purpose of the activity is in no way related to academics (although if streched one could say it falls under the "following instructions" standard which seems to fall into our reading/ELA standards). The purpose is to wake student brains up by doing something that requires a bit of thinking or moving.

Often times I go into a classroom and the kids are zombied out and it doesn't matter how great your lesson is they are not "with it" enough to pay attention. Having them do one of these brain breaks is a great way to wake them up both physically and mentally.

There are several in the series and I have tried a few in classes. I definitely recommend giving them a look through to see what might work in your classroom. Just type in "brain break" in the YouTube search engine and they should come up.

Pollination Activity

2012-01-20T04:28:00.004-05:00

I came across this pollination activity from this kindergarten blog and loved it. This is a perfect example of an activity that can be done and recorded in a science notebook for younger grade levels (although to be honest older grades would like this activity as well as it involves eating cheetos :)

Basically the kids go from bag to bag eating from the "flower" (bag of cheetos). They can not lick or wipe their fingers (the cheese dust represents the pollen). Afterward they have go visit the flowers of their friends "landing" on it with their fingers. Afterward they have to fill out a sheet noting what they learned (if I was notebooking in this grade level this would represent the "right hand sheet" students would complete.

In our district this activity is better suited for the first grade standards so I passed it on to all those teachers. One teacher emailed me back and said that she rushed out to get cheetos to do with her kids :)

Magic Tricks with Science

2012-01-20T03:55:00.005-05:00

I did this recently with a fourth grade class as part of a "Magic Tricks with Science Day" related to the unit they were in - Light, Magnets, and Electricity (big shout out to Mrs. Lauricella who is always game to have me come in and teach her class!).

The day went something like this....

- Reviewed three things light can do when it hits an object (refract, reflect, and absorb)

- Discussed how when light refracts it can make an object appear bent in water. Students then got to pour water in a clear plastic cup and put a pencil in to observe this.

- I then told students that it can appear to bend other things as well and I did the trick above in the video. The teacher and I staged this elaborate senario where we were arguing about who was the best teacher and we decided to let the "magic arrow" decide. The kids LOVED it (we said they could try it at home with their siblings...as in who did mom like the most :)

- Students then got to draw arrows and try it themselves on each other

- After that we did the jello secret message activity (relating it to light absorption and refraction). See early post here. We used the coloring sheet from the Gems Color Analyzer Book.

It was a pretty fast paced activity filled day with the kids (which is always a good thing!)

Tool Box Idea

2012-01-20T03:44:00.003-05:00

Earlier in the year I posted about an activity that was done with a third grade class regarding science tools (see second picture). Later in the year I ran across the top picture of a "Readers Tool Box" and it got me thinking about combining the two.

I could easily see larger versions of the tools that the kids would have to cut out label and identify their use (on the back) and put in the "Tool Box". The box would then open and close with velcro (which I love to incorporate in notebooks!).

It is a bit late in the year for the idea but I can see trying it out next year. If you want to try it this year it would be a good end of year "tool" review activity in preparation for any end of year state test.

Landforms

2012-01-20T03:39:00.002-05:00

I saw this on picture on a Pinterest site and I loved it for third grade (that is when they study landforms in South Carolina). I could easily see having students draw it on the right hand side of their notebook. The picture came from the following second grade class BLOG.

How to Make a Paper Star

2011-12-16T14:39:00.002-05:00

This is an activity that I did with my Girl Scouts. It is very easy to make and several of my teacher friends have used it in the days leading up to Christmas (it can easily be combined with a writing assignment. I have a friend in a second/third grade class who will be doing a winter unit in January and will be calling these stars "snowflakes" for the unit).

This is the last day of school for us before the holiday break and I had two fifth grade girls help me make a how to video.

Spelling Test Surprise

2011-12-16T12:52:00.001-05:00

One of our fifth grade teachers changed up her spelling words the day of her weekly spelling test. The kids moaned and groaned but hunkered down to do their best with their new words.

The teacher ran the spelling test just like every week. She read the word and put it in a sentence.

1. Merry (Merry is not a name. It means happy.)
2. Christmas (Christmas is celebrated on December 25th each year)
3. You (You will be attending the winter dance tomorrow)
4. All (It is difficult to talk with you all talking)
5. Get (In the morning you get ready to go to school)
6. One (One is the number before two)
7. Hundred (I would love to have a hundred dollars in my wallet)
8. On (Jasmine sits on her chair.)
9. This (This test counts for a large percent of your grade)
10. Test (Every Thursday you have a vocabulary test)

By the end many of the kids have caught on but she allows no talking during the test so they all just are smiling at her and each other. At the end she has a child read the spelling words out loud to review from 1-10. The child catches on while she is reading the words back and then everyone gets it.

I thought it was a fun way to give students a surprise 100 on the test.

Pop Ups in Notebooking

2011-12-16T12:20:00.004-05:00

Earlier I wrote a post about this fun pop up card site. I haven't had a chance to use it in a classroom but two Social Studies teachers I know have.

They had their fourth grade students make the pop up explorer ship and write facts about Christopher Columbus. One teacher had her students put it in their notebook and the other teacher put them out in the hall. They turned out very cute!

I did do pop up cards with my Girl Scout troop using the turkey and though that might make a good ELA lesson. Students could practice their writing skills and let their families know what they are thankful for.

Content Carols - Social Studies

2011-12-16T12:13:00.005-05:00

A teacher that I worked with years ago did a fun assignment with her students around the holidays. She had her students rewrite Christmas carols to go along with the units they were studying. She wrote about it in her blog.

I filmed a few of her students singing their revised carols this year and thought I would share.

ELA - End of Unit Project

2011-12-15T06:43:00.002-05:00

Most subscribers to this blog know that last year I accepted a position as a technology coach within our district. I work with two elementary schools and do a lot of integrated technology projects with teachers as well as model lessons using technology.

While this blog mainly focuses on elementary science I do post other ideas in other subject areas.

Today's blog post features an end of unit project I did with a fourth grade class in one of the two schools I teach at. I team taught with the teacher for a two week period focusing in on the parts of speech (she would teach one part of speech one day and I would do another the next day). At the end of the unit we put her children into groups and they were given a digital camera and allowed to take pictures or videos around the school that illustrated the eight parts of speech.

We got an adult volunteer to go with each group and they were given approximately 45 minutes (along with a check list, dry erase marker and pen). Ideally I would have had the students go to the computer lab and put together their video in Movie Maker Live but we ran out of time so I put together the video above using Movie Maker Live. The students loved the finished product although the boys thought my music choices were "too girly" :)

Weather - End of Unit Tech Project

2011-12-15T06:39:00.000-05:00

Here is a technology project that I did with a fourth grade science class at the end of their weather unit. This was my sample project I showed children. I had done a project similar to it at the end of last year and wrote about it HERE.

I had actually helped a teacher do this paper piece project in Social Studies (they were researching explorers) so I felt pretty confident introducing it in science (we had worked out the kinks and problems in the social studies class :)

The project took four days.

Day 1 - Students were introduced to the project, grouped, picked their topic (they could choose between layers of the atmosphere, weather tools and their uses, severe weather and related saftey tips, the water cycle, and clouds and cloud formation), and started working on their graphic organizer.

Day 2 - Students worked on their graphic organizer, script, and paper pieces

Day 3 - Students were at various stages of completion. They were either still working on their paper pieces or ready to film (we sent groups to the library to film where it was quiet - filming took at most 15 minutes. The prep work and dry runs took the majority of time).

Day 4 - All student filming had to finish. Students who were done created a poster of their topic.

They turned out adorably (I'll get a student project posted soon). Some were better then others but it was a fun way for students to demonstrate their knowledge while working with technology.

We used Flip Cameras, Flip Camera tripods, and Windows Live Movie Maker.

Bill Nye - Light Color Video with Lyrics

2011-12-13T13:08:00.001-05:00

I put together another Bill Nye song with lyrics for a teachers light, electricity, and magnet unit. The direct link to the video on YouTube can be found HERE.

Bill Nye Song with Lyrics - Whether the Weather

2011-11-11T11:50:00.003-05:00

Just finished adding the lyrics to this fun Bill Nye song on the topic of WEATHER and posting it to Youtube.

2011-11-11T11:12:00.003-05:00

I love love love the site Pinterest. For those of you have not heard of it it is a site that acts as a virtual pin board of things you come across the web and want to save.

What is the best part is that you can follow other pinners. I don't have time to look at everything I want to on the web but I can look at other peoples pin boards and repin things of interest to my site.

I have picked up so many great ideas for lessons from other people's sites that it is definitely my favorite new website of 2011.

My site is a bit of a mishmash right now. I need to start sub-categorizing items within my "school" pinboard because right now I have 245 pins in that category (don't get me started on my craft and recipe boards!).

If you haven't heard of it I highly recommend checking it out and start searching the education and school boards for ideas :)

Featured Website - Great Ideas

2011-11-11T09:16:00.004-05:00

I had lost and found this site several times over the years and have decided to blog about it so I don't loose it again!

This site belongs to a middle school social studies teacher name Mr. Roughton. Under his assignment tab he has lots of great ideas that can be incorporated into a right hand assignment for notebooks. Often times he has PDF's you can download or details regarding the assignment.

I like to look at it from time to time to see if I can get any new notebooking ideas. I was on it today and was really looking at his game board template and I want to see if I can have students make a game board that will fit into the notebook (oooohhhh....I love a good project to try out).

3-2-1 Pyramid

2011-11-11T08:50:00.005-05:00

I saw this done in a social studies notebook and I really liked the structure. It is called a 3-2-1 review, which I have heard of before and use when kids are watching science videos to keep them engaged (list three things you learned, two things you thought were interesting, and one question you had).

In this example of a 3-2-1 review for the notebook students drew a pyramid. On the bottom part of the pyramid the students had to list three facts. The second part of the pyramid they had to list two “whys” and at the top they had to write a summarizing sentence. I liked this as a right hand assignment.

I have friends that are in an astronomy unit and they can use this structure to have children write three facts about the sun, two reasons why the sun is so important, and then a summarizing sentence.

Cloud Viewer

2011-11-11T08:25:00.002-05:00

This is an idea I saw on pinterest about making a cloud viewer. This is the site with the idea and here was the idea for the template I was going to use for the outside of the viewer.

I did this with a fourth grade class yesterday and in the planning stages I decided to nix the popcicle stick frame because of time…plus I decided I really wanted them to write on the back of the viewer. I also nixed using a prefab cloud viewer frame because I really wanted children to draw their own representation of the clouds – rather than have it handed to them.

So using the idea from the two sites students created their own cloud viewer. I was dreading the activity a bit mainly because I had never done it before, it was being done on a day before a three day weekend, there was a sub in the classroom, it was a full moon, AND I was being observed. Shockingly the entire activity went textbook perfect in all four classes despite all my concerns J.

The teacher the day before had introduced clouds to the class so they had some prior knowledge before I came in. I started the lesson with a water cycle review and then a review of the clouds. I went over a “recipe” for making clouds where the students got to act it out.

Recipe

Take water vapor (kids stand up and make water vapor signs with their hands) and chill it well (kids went into a “brrrrr” stance with their hands and bodies). Collect more chilled water vapor (kids move toward each other until they are standing pretty close). Pack it as close as possible (children start squeezing in tight) and voila the water vapor turns into a cloud (the kids put their hands in the air and yell “Poof we are a cloud”). (I’ll video tape it and post it to give a better idea of how it looks in a classroom).

Sure it is a bit oversimplified but it got the kids moving out of their seats and the general concept that clouds form by water vapor chilling, collecting, and condensing.

Then I reviewed the three basic types of clouds (adding in the bonus fourth cloud not mentioned in our standards – cumulonimbus). We have hand gestures for that to help them remember the three types which I definitely will have to tape.

I explained that they were making cloud viewers and that they had to draw and label the clouds in the front and tell me something about the clouds on the back. Once they were done they came up to me and I checked it and handed them a blue colored pencil to shade in around the clouds on the viewer. Once we had everyone done we went outside and looked at the clouds through our viewers and tried to identify the three basic clouds. The sub came in handy at this point because anyone not done had to stay in with her while we went outside. I allowed 10 minutes for the outside part of this lesson (which included traveling in the halls and moving around the school to look for different clouds).

The viewers are going to be stored in inexpensive sandwich bags that will be taped in their notebook on the right hand side. The left hand side had the information the teacher went over the day before.

NOTE: The child in the last picture is looking through her viewer the wrong way. The kids should be looking at the drawings they made.

Thanksgiving Idea

2011-11-11T08:24:00.001-05:00

Loved this idea! One of the school’s I go between is doing this project on the fourth and fifth grade hall. The idea came from Angie Peterson, one of the fifth grade teachers.

The teachers created and laminated a large turkey for the hall. They gave each student a feather to take home with the instruction that parents, or family members, were to use the feather to explain why they are thankful for their child. They (the parents) had the freedom to decorate anyway they saw fit. Students get to share their feathers with the class and then they get placed on the large hallway turkey.

They are precious to read and you can tell the children loved reading what their families wrote about them.

The two teachers heading up the project said that because November is such a short month for us (we have fall break at the beginning of the month, followed by veteran’s day off, followed by the Thanksgiving break) that they put a Santa hat and red nose on the turkey display and let the display ride through the month of December.

Water Cycle Song - Bill Nye - With Lyrics

2011-10-24T19:19:00.004-04:00

A teacher friend of mine is entering a week of the water cycle with her students and I put lyrics to one of my favorite Bill Nye songs on the Water Cycle this morning for her. The embedded video is above but the direct link to the YouTube can be found HERE.

This is her schedule for the week:

Monday - Water Cycle Introduction

Tuesday - I have them in the computer lab using Smart Art in Word to create a Water Cycle flow chart

Wednesday - They are doing a cut, match up, and paste activity in their notebook

Thursday - They are doing a couple of water cycle experiments

Friday - Students are taking a quiz and watching the Magic School Bus Water Cycle video

The kids are excited about the week but I think more because they get off for a week's fall break on Friday :)

Duct Tape Identification

2011-10-21T17:29:00.003-04:00

I happened to be in a friends room who notebooks in Social Studies and noticed her notebooks on the shelf. I love love love that she put colored duct tap on the binding to, not only secure an area that typically starts falling apart, but allows for easy identification.

"I'm Finished Early" Students

2011-10-20T04:55:00.007-04:00

In my experience there are three kinds of students - ones that finish an activity on time (yay!), ones that you have to push to finish an activity on time (boo!), and the ones that finish early (YIKES!).

I have been helping a friend who just started notebooking and teaching fourth grade science and those early finishers have been problematic (mainly because they start bugging everyone else who is still working :)

We recently devised the "poster project" for students who are done early. Basically we set aside a part of her wall for these posters (in this case her cabinets as pictured above). Students who are done their assignment early are asked to contribute a poster to the wall. It has to be subject specific (so no random pictures!). The other day she did weather tools and the kids who finished early had to draw and label a poster of their favorite weather tool (she uses regular paper and the kids have to mount it on colored construction paper and put it up on the wall....which they LOVE to do). She was working on weather safety the other day and if they were done their notebook assignment they had to make, mount and post a weather safety poster.

I've been grooving on this idea to the point I think we need to set up a poster supply area for these children so that crayons, markers, construction paper, glue, and tape for the wall are all in one "ready to go" to area. We only get at most five to seven children who might be done early (and they don't necessarily have time to finish their poster - if they are not finished we keep them in an "unfinished poster" file and if they are done something else early they can go back to it.)

If you are short of wall space you could always put the posters out in the hall under "What We Are Studying in Science" header.

Another reason why I like this idea is under our observation rubric we must have student work on display. This activity pretty much guarantees that we have met that objective (another YAY!).

Origami Tshirts - Part II

2011-10-20T04:39:00.006-04:00

Earlier I wrote a post about an origami shirt - see post here. I had my Girl Scouts do the activity as part of an energy badge we are working on. The girls had to make an energy pledge and depict it on the shirt. My example is pictured above.

Sadly the girls pretty much copied my example (isn't that the way it always is????). Next time I think I would do a better job of discussing different things we can do to save energy and NOT show them an example.

I thought this might be a fun activity for teachers to do with Earth Day in April (not necessarily with energy). Students can brainstorm all kinds of different ways they can help protect the Earth.

I showed the shirts to a friend of mine and she used them in her ELA class. Students had to investigate their name - interview their parents, look up the meaning of their name online, discuss how they felt about their name. They then wrote up a short piece in Word and glued it on their origami shirt and decorated around it (she used large pieces of construction paper). It looked like a fun project and the kids seemed to be enjoying it.

I thought it could be done in a social studies notebook. Students could draw a scene from whatever they were studying, glue it in the notebook, and underneath write about the scenes.

Grant for Composters

2011-10-19T18:50:00.004-04:00

Composter as Advertised on BuyLifetime

A grant that I wrote up a month ago was just approved (Yay!). The local grant committee surprised us today with a balloon and novelty check for $500.

I will be working with two fourth grade science teachers integrating composting into the curriculum. The grant covered the cost of two tumbling composters (see compost tumbler video here) and child friendly composting books from Amazon for both classes.

We will be composting pumpkins after Halloween and poinsettias after the holidays. These are two items that always find their way into the trash after the holidays. I felt both of them can be easily composted thus eliminating landfill waste. The students are excited about it and are already wondering if decomposing pumpkins make orange compost!

I have never done this project before and I am hoping that we have useable compost in both bins by mid to late May. I want to write another grant that provides students with a pot and plant where they can use the compost to plant their own plant to take home at the end of the school year. Wish me luck!

Pop Up Cube Part II

2011-10-17T20:30:00.005-04:00

About an hour after I made my last post, where I uploaded an embedded YouTube video, I made one of the popup cube wallets. It wasn't that hard. I probably wouldn't have any grade below 4th try it. It would be great if I can get our art teacher to do it with the kids (not sure if he would be willing or not). That way they can work on what goes on the cube in science class. I would like it to be a little bit bigger but I am thinking that I can enlarge the template on the copier. You definitely have to use card stock paper for both the cube and wallet for stability purposes.

Above is a short (30 second) video of my finished cube.

The website for the PDF templates can be found HERE. Scroll down until you see the Pop Up Cube in Wallet video and just below it are the templates.

Pop Up Cube

2011-10-17T19:11:00.001-04:00

I saw this video on YouTube and thought it would be great for a notebook. Not sure kids can handle the craft or not. I am going to try it tonight and might try with my group of Girl Scouts next week.

Scoot - The Video

2011-10-17T17:32:00.008-04:00

I introduced Scoot to two groups of fourth graders today. I video taped the lesson above (and can I say how much I dislike watching myself on tape? Sigh!). The intent was to give folks a visual on how the review game is structured.

I got very lucky with this class. There were only 14 children (five were pulled out for resources so there is actually 19 in the group). They were very good and got the hang of it easily. I gave them an easy Scoot - Abbreviations and Initials so they felt pretty confident going from question to question. The teacher videoing me LOVED it and can't wait to see me do it again with her class on Wednesday with pronouns (we are co-teaching a unit on the eight parts of speech).

I also introduced it to her afternoon class. That would have been more amusing to watch :) They were lower academically and made so much ambient noise that I had to stop several times to get children to refocus. The music seemed the biggest problem...distraction wise...they loved it but got a little crazy dancing and bouncing into each other after they answered the question. I am going to try it again on Wednesday. It may be that I need to choose less energetic music for that group. The first group was certainly dancing (which you will see in the video but nothing like that second group!).

After playing it twice my biggest problem personally was how much paper it wasted. I think I would get paper out of the recycled bin next time and cut it into thirds to reduce the paper waste.

Scoot - The Game

2011-10-14T18:43:00.008-04:00

I was introduced to a game called Scoot today through a teacher at my school (thank you Ms. Perry!).

She found the game through proteacher.net - Here is the link to how the game is played

I watched it being played today with second graders. Ms. Perry had printed out task cards from proteacher.net that a teacher had posted having to do with place value. The cards asked a question and gave the student three multiple choice options.

She had the students number a piece of paper with however many students were in the room (in this case 23). At each table she put a numbered task card. The child would start at whatever number their task card at their desk was marked at (so if I was in spot 19 I would start my answers at number 19 on my numbered sheet). Students stood behind their chair (tucked in) and when told they flipped their task card over and answered the question (the teacher played music during this). She stopped the music and told everyone to "Scoot" to the next number on their list to answer the next question.

When they finished at every desk they reviewed their answers.

I thought it was a really fun review game that got the kids up and moving (I can't wait to try it!). I spent some time looking through proteacher.net and found a teacher that had a lot of science task cards that are pre-made and can be downloaded from proteacher (free registration and free download).

Here are some links to those task cards:

Science Process Skills

Light, Electricity, and Magnets

Science Inference and Observations

Science Review Task Cards

Magnets

I think the game would require some modeling and I found some easier tasks cards for that (abbreviations and initials looked like a good one to start with).

Bill Nye Songs with Lyrics

2011-10-04T06:38:00.005-04:00

At the end of the Bill Nye videos he always has a fun song that goes with the episode. You can find many of the songs as stand alone videos on YouTube.

This came in handy because today I am teaching a lesson on layers of the atmosphere and found a song from his Atmosphere video on YouTube titled "Fresh Aire." I really wanted to remix it and put the lyrics on the video (so the kids could sing along and see how the lyrics matched the lesson). The first thing I did was found a site that has all the Bill Nye lyrics posted used my YouTube downloader (see instructions here) and downloaded the song. I then imported the video into Movie Maker Live and used the caption feature to put the lyrics on the different frames (cutting and pasting from the lyrics site into Movie Maker Live). I saved the video and reposted to YouTube so other teachers could use the video with lyrics (the finished video is posted above).

The process was pretty easy and I am thinking about doing it for more of the Bill Nye songs. My favorite is the "Jump Jump" version of the water cycle.

Donor Choose - Grants

2011-09-28T18:55:00.006-04:00

I was just recently awarded a grant through Donor Choose for science themed reading material for a classroom at our school. I was required to write a grant through a class I was taking as a final project (we didn't have to get it funded we just had to write and submit). Several of us in the class got our requests funded. Mine was flat out funded but a friend of mine got hers funded through a series of donations to the project (which is a great way to get parents involved by asking them to contribute a little bit to the materials you need).

For those educators who have not heard of Donor Choose it is a site where teachers can put up grant requests for their classroom. The entire process is very easy. The site walks you through everything step-by-step.

Some tips I would pass on are:

1. Put a picture up of you with your class (make sure photos are permissible of your students first). I think if donors can get a sense of who you are and your students you run a better chance of getting funded.

2. Work backwards. I wanted to get a grant for a science newsletter in the classroom but the site works with very specific vendors - none of whom carried the newsletter I wanted. I decided to look at the vendor sites first and then write my grant to match what I could get (in this case Time Magazine for Children for my writing/ELA class).

3. Write your responses in Word and copy into the blocks they give you. Save your Word document. I remember going to town the first time with my write up on the site and my computer froze and I lost everything and had to start from scratch (annoying!). I have used portions of my saved grant write ups with other non-Donor Choose grants this way.

4. Look at other grant requests for ideas. My problem isn't doing the write up...it is coming up with the ideas. Sometimes one project might trigger an idea for another project (I got "build your own telescopes" for an astronomy grant after seeing a grant request for something else related to astronomy).

Paper Pull Outs

2011-09-28T18:34:00.004-04:00

I had seen a project on the internet that involved a pull out tab on a teapot and I have been thinking about how it can be used in notebooking. Today I had my "Aha moment" :)

I know my examples above are social studies based and that is only because I happen to be meeting with some social studies teachers this week. The concept would still apply to science.

One social studies teacher is entering a unit about westward expansion. I thought she could take the groups they discuss and students would choose a group (rancher, Native American, Asian immigrants, miners, etc.) to do a pull out tab person for their right hand assignment (my example was of a cowboy/rancher) - the fourth picture is what the back looks like. When finished the edges only would be glued to the notebook (leaving the tab to move freely in and out of the hat). Students would have to finish writing their information on the tab before the edges of the picture got glued in the book (very hard to write on the tab once it is already glued in the book...learned the hard way :)

Another teacher I am meeting with is doing a unit on explorers - so my two bottom examples were of a viking and Christopher Columbus ship.

I freehand copied clip art pictures on the internet because I can't draw at all. I did a Google image search for "viking clip art" and found a forward facing viking and freehand sketched it for this project.

I am hoping to convince these two teachers to do this project. If I am successful I will post some student samples!

Origami Tshirts

2011-09-25T08:02:00.004-04:00

This class made origami t-shirts that they then decorated with items that represented themselves. They wrote about the decorations and how they fit into their lives in the computer lab (using Microsoft Word). The teacher took pictures of their heads and they were cut to fit the t-shirts.

I really liked this project. For this class it was a beginning of the year project but I could easily do it with a Social Studies or Science class. I would change the instructions to read: "Create t-shirt designs that match an event in history. Write about how your drawings match what we've studied in social studies."

The instructions for making the origami shirt can be followed from this Activity TV site.

Room Decorating Idea

2011-09-25T07:49:00.001-04:00

I liked the wall decal and the fabric around the desk of this teachers room.

Hallway Display

2011-09-25T07:42:00.004-04:00

I found out last week that I was assigned a bulletin board in the school for this month. I had seen a picture of a cute Facebook bulletin board that a teacher had done for her class (click HERE to see) and I essentially copied it :)

It was a huge hit in the school because of the interactive "status update". Parents, teachers, and students are encouraged to post updates throughout the week.

Scratched Constellation Designs

2011-09-19T16:48:00.008-04:00

I taught my constellation activity today. It didn't go as well as I hoped (Monday???). One class didn't finish. The other class did with lots of complaining (about coloring)!

I took an idea I found on the internet (see this site) and modified it for the class. I initially wanted to use the cards and hole punch like the website but my hole punches wouldn't reach far enough in. I saw this idea on the web and thought of using it as well but couldn't find any jumbo push pins.

I remembered an old Girl Scout craft where you colored one color underneath a darker color (crayons) and scratched out a design and thought that would work.

The students really had to color hard with both colors - yellow on the bottom and blue on top (hence the complaining). It did not work well with generic crayons (Crayola worked best). Time wise it took about 20 minutes for the entire class to finish. We scratched out the constellations using paper clips.

The right hand side of the notebook held the lyrics to a constellation song on YouTube. You can download the lyrics HERE. (The kids loved the song. We listened to it and sang it about five times). The left hand side held the finished scratched constellations.

Constellation Activity

2011-09-17T11:37:00.004-04:00

I am teaching a fourth grade class about constellations this coming week and came across this adorable idea (picture above) from this blog.

Sadly I don't think I have time to do this activity with this class (the lesson is on Monday and today is Saturday) but I might run it by the teacher to see if we can make it happen.

Sharing the idea because it was just too darn cute not to :)

Pop Culture Points

2011-09-14T06:10:00.000-04:00

A teacher in one of our district shared this YouTube video on letting children earn "Pop Culture Points" in the classroom. I love it! One of my favorite things about teaching is when a child comes in and has made a connection to what we are learning in class to what they are watching on TV, reading, or listening to.

We all know that making connections is powerful and helps students remember. This teacher now assigns points for it. I like what one of the interviewed children said, "It makes you think about learning when you aren't normally thinking about learning."

I saw this video a couple of days ago and really started looking for points of reference in the shows I watched. In this weeks Warehouse 13 the dangerous artifact was a pair of binoculars that were on the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan. On Eureka the entire town was focused on an upcoming launch to Titan, the largest moon on Saturn. I thought both worthy of Pop Culture Points and related to content we teach at the elementary school level :)

Unusual Spaces

2011-09-01T18:17:00.004-04:00

This teacher has a very small room with not a lot of wall space. I loved that she thought out of the box and used her desk to have students make their lunch choices on. She put the students names on magnets and they move them over when they come in in the morning.

ELA - Beginning of Year Activity

2011-09-01T17:52:00.004-04:00

This was an assignment I did when teaching one class of ELA in fourth grade. I stole the idea from a teacher friend of mine (thanks Jamey!). She used the book The Best Part of Me as the literacy tie in and had students write about the best part of them.

One of the third grade teachers in my school loved the assignment and had her kids do it the first week of school.

The first picture was a fourth grade example of this project and the second is a third grade example.

Third Grade - Title Pages and Safety Posters

2011-09-01T17:33:00.003-04:00

Very excited to be working with one of our third grade teachers notebooking this year. It is my first time with the third grade curriculum (outside of my student teaching) and it is nice that the teacher will let me offer up suggestions and ideas for right hand assignments.

Above you will see some of the title pages student worked on and classroom safety posters (the safety posters also went into the notebook...those who finished early got to make larger posters for the classroom).

Tools - Notebook

2011-09-01T17:06:00.003-04:00

In this 3rd grade class students are using notebooks for the first time this year. In this activity children learned about tools a scientist use on the left hand side of the notebook. On the right hand side students were asked to cut out and match up names and uses of each tool.

This was a pretty nice notebook example. Most of the other notebooks looked willy nilly (matched up appropriately but with not super neat cutting) but the children like the activity and we know that the students will get better with notebooking as they progress.

Measure Up Math

2011-09-01T17:00:00.002-04:00

I liked this start of year math activity. It was done with 3rd graders. Student's learned how to measure their height using the floor tiles in the classroom. They then traced themselves on bulletin board paper and measured aspects of their cut out - waist, arms, neck, head, etc. The cut outs were then put out in the hall and made great wall decorations for our open house.

End of the Day

2011-08-30T06:41:00.005-04:00

Typically the worst part of the school day for me is that period at the end of the day when the bus bell rings and you are waiting for the car riders and walker/bikers to be dismissed. I'm sure it only lasts less then ten minutes but it feels longer and I swear I age ten years in the process :)

In an attempt to keep the class focused during those long minutes I started playing Steve Spangler on Ellen Videos that I downloaded (using the YouTube downloader written about here). The kids love the humor and look forward to seeing what kind of science Steve uses to make Ellen laugh. The videos last anywhere from 7-10 minutes and are perfect end of the day fillers.

I would highly recommend watching them before showing them in class to ensure the content is appropriate for your students.

Fossils Part II

2011-08-20T07:15:00.002-04:00

This isn't an edible fossil like an earlier post but I thought this would easy to do in a classroom. Directions can be found on Art Projects for Kids blog. I have a willing third grade teacher so I hope to post pictures soon!

Cookie Moon Phases

2011-08-20T05:39:00.003-04:00

I've seen these cookie moon phases before (click here for a description of the activity on Science Bob's Blog) and wanted to share my "Moon Phase" cookie story.

After seeing these online I thought it would be fun to do it in class as part of our Astronomy unit. I decided to make these at home. They turned out adorable. Then I decided to eat them (justifying that I would let my kids eat them in class :) It quickly became apparent that 8 Oreo cookies was way too many to eat (I definitely felt queasy). I went back to the online directions and found out that I was suppose to use "mini Oreo cookies" (which made much more sense).

A note of caution, the mini Oreo cookies may not be as cost effective with large groups of children (when I taught middle school I had 80+ children). It is definitely cheaper to buy the generic chocolate sandwich cookies. I would just provide a snack or sandwich baggie so the kids could take the leftovers home.

No Name Bin

2011-08-20T05:29:00.003-04:00

This is definitively a pet peeve of mine! Really....how hard is it to put your name on a piece of paper particularly when the first thing I say is "Put your name on your paper and give me a thumbs up when it is done." You would be surprised at the number of papers I get back with no names. It was to the point that I would ask children to turn to their left or right and CHECK that the child next to them put their name on the paper :)

I saw this NO NAME paper bin idea on this Flicker site and thought it was a GREAT idea. Passing it along in case anyone else suffers like me.

Cute Clouds

2011-08-19T17:16:00.004-04:00

Sure they may be a little "cutesy" but I liked the height representation. Thank you to the teacher on the blog The Inspired Apple for posting.

Trying to think of a way that I can incorporate pull tab clouds into the notebook to represent the cloud heights :)

Fossil Cookies

2011-08-19T16:44:00.004-04:00

Mmmm....our third grade students study fossils as as part of their Earth materials unit. This Martha Stewart recipe for fossil cookies looks like it might be something that can be worked into the unit.

I don't like the fact that you have to freeze the cookies first (making the project a two day event) and (unless you have a toaster oven in the classroom) you would have to make them at home.

Some schools don't allow hot plates or toaster ovens. If you aren't sure...DON'T ASK (easier to get forgiveness then permission). I feel TOTALLY fine with bringing in a toaster oven for this one activity and then taking it back home. I would most likely want a parent to help "watch" the toaster oven but the darn things have to bake for 30 minutes.

If any cooks out there have a better idea please let me know.

Stars In a Jar

2011-08-19T16:36:00.005-04:00

This was just a fun looking project. Children would scatter glow paint inside of mason jars and create their own stars in a jar. I would do this in conjunction with our astronomy unit - most likely as an end of unit activity.

Cloud Window

2011-08-19T16:25:00.005-04:00

Someone shared this idea for a cloud window on this nature site. I think the intent is to puchase a kit from the site. However I am looking at it thinking it would be pretty easy to do on my own with a class. Fourth grade goes into weather soon and I might make it a point to try this with a group.

Inexpensive Storage

2011-08-19T13:08:00.003-04:00

Saw this on a blog titled "The First Grade School Box". Loved the simplicity of this idea. I think even with my limited construction ability I could make it :)

It was made with painted cinder blocks and plywood.

Tree Ring Plates

2011-08-18T21:21:00.005-04:00

Another project we did in our life science class for educators was talk about tree rings. I liked the activity one teacher did with her kids where they used a paper plate and the students made rings for each year of their life. They had to write something significant that happened in their life in each ring they made. I thought it was a fun idea for anyone studying plants.

Plant in a Bottle

2011-08-18T20:55:00.004-04:00

I took a life science class for educators this summer in upstate South Carolina and one of the inquiry activities we did was with a plant in a jar.

The question we were asked was how long could a plant live in a closed container. We had to come up with a hypothesis and then support our claim. Some people could not make a hypothesis without more information and we wrote those questions on our flip chart paper, i.e. How fast does a plant use up oxygen?

We then planted small plants inside a plastic container (think Glad Ware) and marked the date on the outside. We were told to keep them out of direct sunlight and not to open them until we came back for our follow up class (a month later).

Sadly most of our plants died. My plant died because the leaves started touching the sides and became water logged. Others died because they spent the month in direct sunlight or got rolled around in the back of their car :) The professor said it was the first time he used the glad ware containers (due to the cost involved in the project) and had never seen so many plants die before. He then showed us a plant he has had in a closed jar in his office for four year (see last picture).

I thought this was a great inquiry project and one I could easily make a year long. We start with inquiry (where we would set up the project) and then move on to weather. In our weather unit we can use the experiment to illustrate the water cycle and transpiration. We then move on to our light unit and we can talk about how light behaves when it hits transparent and translucent objects like our container (in fact you could try different containers and see if that makes a difference). In our astronomy unit we can talk about how sunlight effects growth and in our organisms unit we can use the project to highlight what is needed in a habitat. At the end of the year students can take their plants home.

I know this project could get pricey but i thought it would also make a good grant project.

Scientific Method - 3rd Grade

2011-08-18T20:42:00.007-04:00

I was invited to teach the scientific method in a third grade classroom today and had a blast! As most of you know, I am out of the classroom this year in a technology coach position and a part of my job is to model the use of technology in the classroom. I told the teacher (who is going to try notebooking this year) that I found some fun scientific method songs on YouTube and she asked me to come in and teach.

We went through the steps of the scientific method and used it to answer the question, "Do taller children have bigger feet then smaller children?" In the picture above the students collected their data (drew a bar the size of their feet) and used a ruler to measure their graph and record their results. We talked about the data and what conclusions we could draw from the graph. The kids enjoyed the activity and (of course) loved getting to take off their shoes.

Plant Presses for the Classroom

2011-08-18T20:21:00.004-04:00

I was at a training this summer where we pressed plants using a homemade press (second picture). I thought that was pretty cool and certainly something a teacher could make using two pieces of cut plywood and pieces of cardboard in between. The plants/flowers were put between newspaper and put on a cardboard piece and then stacked with other specimens between the plywood. The instructor said it take about 2 weeks to dry out. The whole thing was cinched with luggage straps.

They also showed us how to make a mini flower press (first picture) using cardboard and index cards. Obviously these would be smaller specimens and the professor suggested putting wax paper between the layers. The rubber bands would be used to secure the "press".

Door Decorations

2011-08-03T11:56:00.006-04:00

This is a fairly new phenominom in our school - covering classroom doors with fabric. I've seen it done with paper but there are several teachers who are doing it this year with fabric and hot glue.

I am not sure how it will stand up during the year, probably better then paper though. I would definitely caution against the use of excessive patterned fabric. I find the letters that Mrs. Peterson used made it difficult to see against the competting pattern of the door and border fabric.

Science - Leveled Readers

2011-08-03T11:51:00.004-04:00

I came across these baskets in a fifth grade classroom and I really liked the idea for storing science leveled readers.

Normally the leveled readers that come with the textbook tend to stay stashed in a closet or remain forgotten on a bookshelf. The baskets allow for independent student exploration and for ready use in science or reading.

Science - Video Project

2011-06-14T20:54:00.008-04:00

In my new position as a technology coach one of the things I try to do is provide sample projects that teachers can do in their classroom with their students.

Since my interest is science I tend to pick projects for that field. The video above is one that I worked on with a group of fourth grade students. It is based on a video style used by Common Craft in their In Plain English Videos. They are very good very simple videos put together using paper creations.

Other teachers in other districts have done this and one even put an instructional video on YouTube to help students understand the process.

To prepare the student I had working with me on this project (which we did end of year after state testing) I made them watch one Common Craft video and the instructional video. I then showed them the three videos below that someone made (about the difference between banks and credit unions) based on the same style to give them a sense of the playfulness and "acting" they should do (those videos really got them jazzed to make it engaging).

Video One

Video Two

Video Three

I gave them a quiet place, a video camera (flip), tripod, paper, pencils, and a black sharpie marker and crayons. Their instruction was to come up with a video that could be used as a public service announcement that would be used to teach people about some topic of concern. This group choose keeping South Carolina water clean. The two girls I had working on this were very bright and came up with pretty good reasons. I was involved in a very limited way. I did jump in when we had to edit their clips together in Movie Maker (we used Movie Maker Live which is the new version of Movie Maker and a lot more user friendly for students). Once the kids got the general gist they were able to pretty much do it on their own. I was actually really impressed and they were super proud of the results!

This would make a great end of year project for students (probably in grades 4 and up) and can be used outside of science. I was thinking any historical event or even a creative book review.

End of Year

2011-06-14T20:41:00.005-04:00

Whew! Another end of the year has come around. I apologize for the lack of posts this year. I didn't mention it but I took a new position this past year (and again into the coming year) as the technology coach for two elementary schools in the district. I thought I would still be able to post notebooking items on a regular basis but learning this new job has been a bit overwhelming so my posts have been hit or miss.

I've acted as a mentor for several teachers working on notebooking this past year and plan to continue in the coming year. My favorite moment this year has come from a teacher (shout out to Mrs. Maroney) who moved from third grade to fourth grade to take my position. I had been trying to talk her into notebooking for several years and she wasn't quite up to it. She was very happy to use all my notebooking stuff in the new grade level and liked it so much she has already started to work on material for next year (she is rotating back down to third). I can't wait to see how that goes for her and I will definitely be taking pictures to share!

I will continue to keep this blog up and running and as I run across items of interest, science or notebooking wise, I will post.

Stop Motion Animation

2011-04-06T17:41:00.004-04:00

Our school district recently purchased SAM animation software and pushed it out to all our student computers. It is a very easy program designed to make stop motion animation videos. Right now our kids are "playing" with it to learn the software but I can see some very practical applications using it in science. In this video you will see the kids "playing" and then it actually being used as part of an experiment. I was in the room helping with the video taping with the children and it was very easy for the kids to set up. Today one of our first grade teachers were talking about some eggs they are hatching in the classroom and I immediately thought that would be a great use for the software. You can program it to take pictures (using a web cam) on a specific time schedule around the day the eggs are suppose to hatch. We had a lively debate about plants moving in my classroom. The kids could use the program to set up an experiment to see if plants move. The free demo can be downloaded HERE. The software and a site license can be purchased for $299 which I thought was pretty good for an entire school.

Dance to Advance - In Action

2011-03-31T10:10:00.002-04:00

Here is a video of the game being played.

Dance to Advance - Video

2011-03-31T10:06:00.003-04:00

Here is a video of one of the children explaining the game.

Dance to Advance - Redneck Version

2011-03-31T09:26:00.004-04:00

I went to high school last week in our district that has computer center that is pretty cool. One of the things that they had the visitors do is play a game called "Dance to Advance".

On the floor were dance mats like "Dance Dance Revolution". You stood in the middle and looked at the interactive white board. A question popped up in the center and you had to jump/touch the square with the correct answer. It was automated for two minutes with questions coming up and the mats - which were connected to the interactive white board - recording who touched the right answer first. It was a lot of fun and I definitely want them for my classroom. Sadly four mats plus a site license cost $947 (which isn't a lot considering but in our budget crunch most likely would not be approved).

I told a friend of mine about the game and we put together a "red neck" version of it to play with her extended learning math class (extended learning is offered to students during our fall, spring, and summer break as a form of remediation). She said the kids really enjoyed playing it and I popped in to see how it was going and to take pictures. This could easily be adapted for science questions.

She marked off the floor in a large square and marked out a center box (where the child would stand). In the eight boxes surrounding the center square she put three piece of different colored tape (silver duct tape, green painter tape, purple painter's tape). Each color would represent a different game. In one game she was doing percent to decimal. In another she was doing fraction to decimal. In another she was just having them jump side to side to indicate if the number was "prime" or "composite".

If I was doing it for science. I might use one tape color to answer questions about the water cycle. Another tape color for planets and the third for vocabulary.

She had three "boards" layed out on the floor so three students could play at a time. She had three additional students act as judges in front of them (they raised their hand as soon as the child has jumped). The rest of the class had to keep track of which judge raised their hand first, second, and third. If the first person made the incorrect jump it would go to the second person. If that person was incorrect the third jumper had the chance to win. This was a good opportunity to talk about how being the first is not necessary better. It is better to be right then first. Many times the third jumper (who had taken their time) was the winner.

I was glad to observe this teacher because it gave me a better idea of how I would manage it in my classroom if I played it. I would probably plan to play this on a Friday/Monday as part of my end of year state testing review or as part of an end of unit review. It definitely got the children up and moving (and with the week long of rainy weather we've had that is a GOOD thing :)

Spring Break - My Guilty Pleasure

2011-03-29T10:20:00.005-04:00

We have just started Spring Break here in Beaufort, South Carolina. Sadly our weather is not cooperating with rain and cooler then normal temperatures forecasted for the week (no beach on this break! In fact I have been wearing a sweater for the last couple of days.).

I know this doesn't quite fit into the science, education, and notebooking theme I have going here on this blog but I thought I would share anyway :)

About two weeks prior to the break I call the local cosmotology and massage schools in the area. They give reduced rates for the services with pedicures running $10, facials $15, and massages $35. I book what I can during the week that I am off. Typically they offer their services during the school day so the only time I can take advantage is when we do go on break. They book up EXTREMELY fast in our area, hence why I have to call at least 2 weeks out in order to get any services done. They rarely run services during the summer and holiday months (when they are on break) so I load up during spring break (it gives me something to look forward to and I usually use it as an incentive to get some household spring cleaning done).

YouTube Downloader - Part II

2011-03-29T10:11:00.004-04:00

There has been a problem recently with the YouTube Downloader that I use and recommend. Someone told me about another site for downloading YouTube vidoes (http://www.mediacoverter.org/) and I decided to give it a try.

I have started using it with success and thought I would pass on a tutorial (pictures above) on how to use. To see any of the pictures in a larger format simply click on it.

3D Invertebrate Project

2011-03-29T09:02:00.004-04:00

Last year I did an invertebrate poetry unit and students created paper versions of their invertebrates for a giant wall display. This year two groups of fourth grade teachers took it further and had their students create three dimensional models of invertebrates for display in our front display cases (the display cases are rotated among grade levels throughout the year and fourth grade has April). They also had to choose their favorite invertebrate poetry and make a good "clean" copy for the case.

I thought this was very brave of the two teachers involved :) They did it on the Friday before Spring Break and it asked parents for supplies from paint to clay to recycled goods. Students were encouraged to be as creative as possible.

I popped in their classroom during the day and took some pictures of the action and put together a little video (above) of their work (I used animoto.com). The students did an excellent job. My favorite were the snail, stick bug, and squid (toward the end of the video). One parent worked with thier child to make a giant firefly that was quite impressive!

Bill Nye - Part II

2011-03-28T10:14:00.005-04:00

I got this GREAT comment on an earlier Bill Nye post.

Mr. Catania said... Hey! I use Bill Nye videos often when introducing a unit too. I found his great website that has most of the Bill Nye videos you can download in parts and it's not blocked by the county on my school computer. Here it is:http://www.gamequarium.org/cgi-bin/search/search.cgi

I have passed this on to ALL the teachers in my school and the science coordinator. Thank you Mr. Catania for sharing.

Science - Tech Projects

2011-03-28T09:43:00.006-04:00

Our school district, like most, are strongly encouraging the use of tech integration in the classroom. As a "tech" person I am always looking for ideas to incorporate the science curriculum I teach with our districts tech requirements.

Above is a picture of a third grade newsletter project that one of our teachers worked on with her children (click on to enlarge). She actually used it in her ELA class (they were talking about feature articles, summarizing, and parts of non fiction text). She used the National Geographic Kids - Animals website and had the students pull out facts that could be incorporated into a newsletter. I really liked the idea and thought it would be something I could do with my Organisims and Their Environment unit.

In my search for tech ideas I came across this sample LESSON PLAN from Teacher Created Resources that I am actually going to do with my fourth graders in the next few weeks. Using the same National Geographic Kids site students will fill out a graphic organizer and then develop an animal report similar to the finished project in the lesson plan. Once I have students samples I will post and go over how the lesson "looked" in my classroom.

Bingo Boards - Large Version

2011-03-28T09:29:00.003-04:00

I have a friend who also teaches fourth grade science who plays vocabulary bingo with her students a lot (see earlier post on playing/setting up vocabulary BINGO). She decided to use poster board and make a giant BINGO board to put on her wall for each of the units of study. When she plays with her students she uses sticky pad paper to cover up the words she has already called.

The poster serves two purposes for her

1. It is her vocabulary word wall for the unit

2. She can use it to keep track of what she has already called during a game

I have not seen it in use but I really liked her cute board and drawings (she is WAY more artistically gifted then I am :)

Fold Factory - YouTube Videos

2011-02-02T05:44:00.003-05:00

A friend of mine sent me a "Fold Factory" video that she saw on YouTube and thought I might be able to disect the fold (unfortunately no) but it did get me looking at other folds featured on YouTube to see if I could modify any of them to use in my notebooking.

I really really really like the one below and will probably spend my weekend trying to see if I can do a modified version for the notebook (probably not with the cool popping sound effects :)

Science/Reading Connection

2011-01-30T07:16:00.004-05:00

As stated in an earlier post I teach ELA/Reading to a homeroom class and then I teach science throughout the day. Obviously as someone who likes science I really try and look for literature that has a science theme. I go between reading a novel (or class set) and using the reading text book for our grade level. In our text book there are a few stories that have connections to what we are learning in science...we tend to read those first :)

I came across this article in Book Links magazine that highlighted quite a lot of science themed novels that I found helpful.

Normally I start my year with Top Secret by John Reynolds Gardiner. It is an easy and entertaining read for my fourth graders and talks about science fairs and photosynthesis (we don't talk about photosynthesis in our standards but our students did in third grade so I look at it as a review). I am very lucky that we have a class set of these in our system and I can order them through our inner office library loan system.

I do try and talk to our Social Studies teacher to see if can introduce any history novels as well. They aren't my favorite but she did manage to turn me on to a few (Sign of the Beaver is a favorite of my students).

At the end of the year (after state testing) I read The Dangerous Days of Daniel X (this was recommended by another fourth grade teacher). It is written by James Patterson and is fast paced and entertaining for children (particularly boys). I remember one child going straight to the local county library and getting the graphic novel tie in to the book and read the rest of the series over the summer. This isn't really science themed (more like scifi themed) but it is still a fun read with kids.

I would love to hear about any other science themed novels that people have used in the classroom.

Bill Nye The Science Guy

2011-01-30T06:50:00.005-05:00

In just about every unit I teach I show a Bill Nye the Science Guy video.

Because our school does not have the series on CD or VHS I have to get creative about finding the videos to borrow. Normally I do a search through our school's library system (that links to all the other library systems in our district) or through our local Beaufort County library system (they have all kinds of great videos you can use in the classroom....so does Netflix if you have a subscription...although they don't have Bill Nye). Normally I can find them somewhere and then I have our librarian place an inner office loan for them (at the beginning of our unit because they take FOREVER to get to us). Worse case scenario I have a friend at another school who happens to have access to the entire Bill Nye Science Guy set (the entire set costs $3,000) but they are not in the library system and she will lend me one knowing she'll get it back :) Each video is $30 through this site and is worth trying to get your librarian to order those episodes that are specific to the units you teach.

We are going into Astronomy right now and these are the videos I like to have on hand:

The Sun
The Moon (excellent explanation of phases of the moon)
Gravity

There are several others in his Astronomy series that don't quite hit our standards. If I can find them I try to get them as a filler if needed.

Our next unit is Organisms and Our Environment and I like the following videos for that (there are a lot in this series):

Amphibians
Reptiles
Mammals
Plants
Flowers
Insects
Invertebrates

For Weather I like:

Atmosphere
Seasons
Water Cycle

For Light, Electricty and Magnets I like:

Electricity
Light and Color
Magnetisim

Title One schools generally have a lot more money and could probably get away with requesting an order but I always wondered if I could write a grant for the videos that I like (mmmm...something to think about for next year :)

Science Vidoes - YouTube Finds

2011-01-29T07:10:00.005-05:00

I thought I would highlight some of my favorite YouTube videos (songs) related to science that I have used in the classroom. You can use the YouTube downloader (earlier post) to download them at home and then show in the classroom.

Meet the Elements - Song
Photosynthesis - Song (younger grades)
Photosyntheis - Rap (older grades)
Lab Safety - Rap
Layers of the Earth - Rap
Sun, Earth, Moon - Rap
The Sun - Song
Shoulders of Giants (early Astronomy) - Song (my students LOVE this one)

Hi Ho the Weather O (song about fronts) - Not YouTube but fun to play in class

Random - Teaching Writing

2011-01-29T06:40:00.003-05:00

In addition to teaching science I also teach my homeroom reading/ELA. One of the most common complaints I hear with fourth graders, when faced with a writing assignment, is "I can't think of anything to write about!"

I always tell children, "Fair enough. Make it up then." This always blows my students away.

As a teacher I am not grading if they are telling the truth or not in their writing. I am grading their ability to develop an idea, write coherently, use proper punctuation, etc.

To drive this point home I play a writing game called Fool the Teacher. I assign a short writing prompt, i.e. write about one of your pets. I leave the room (briefly) while they decide who, at each table group, is going to lie and who is going to tell the truth in their writing. The students call me back in and I tell them to write.

I sit at a table and as they finish they bring it up to me and I read it. I have to decide if they are lying or telling the truth. If I guess wrong they get a starburst treat.

My kids LOVE this game and ask to play it all the time. The quality of their writing has improved drastically (learning how to add just enough detail to convince me but not so much as to make their writing unbelievable). When I manage to guess correctly the child wants to know what they did wrong.

Some people may not feel comfortable having students make up their writing but I'm fine with it. This was definitely one of my better writing ideas (wish I had thought of it a couple of years ago!)

Science Experiment Idea

2010-11-28T12:35:00.005-05:00

It is no secret in my class that I like to drink diet coke from a bottle versus a can (mainly because I fear things falling into the open can). I also like my diet coke SUPER COLD. The other day I grabbed one from Walmart and thought to myself, "I wonder if there is a difference in temperature between soda in a can or in a bottle?" (and do they loose temperature at the same rate).

I thought I could tie this question in nicely with our unit on light we just started. We have been exploring properties of light (it contains energy) and what happens when it hits objects. Using information we have studied students would be introduced to the question and then they would have to make a hypothesis.

I thought it would be a nice easy classroom experiment. All you have to do is take a cold 12 oz bottle of diet coke and a cold 12 oz can of diet coke and then have students record the temperature of each every 5 minutes for about twenty minutes and discuss the results and what part light might have played in the experiment.

Science Fair - Grading

2010-11-22T04:08:00.005-05:00

In my previous post I talk about science fair preparation, in this one I am going to address how I handle science fair grading.

I give a homework grade for the question they turn in during the planning phase (doesn't matter if it is a "good question" or not...they get the full points). I know some teachers require that students turn in their materials and procedures list at benchmark points but I don't. My life is busy enough without adding yet more things I have to review and grade! I figure if they have a decent question they will be fine. I have absolutely no interest in micromanaging their science project. The only requirement I have is if they change their question to run it by me first.

I have a grading rubric but it works slightly differently. All children who turn in a project get a 70% automatically (I don't ever fail a child if they made some attempt and I never make a science fair project such a large amount of their final grade that they can never recover from it). The grading rubric brings that 70% up all the way to a 100% based on what they have (do they have a completed log book...exactly as the instructions state....they are up to an 80%....etc.). Students have an opportunity to get extra points on their project by turning it in early (helps me out grading) and if they get their science fair checklist signed by a parent.

I grade at the time they present in class. Students hand me their log book and go to the front of the room with their board. They present to the class as I thumb through their log book and mark off the rubric. One year I had over 80 boards and this streamlined my life greatly. I tried grading afterschool once but it became so overwhelming I almost cried!

Please note that there are a million different way to handle your science fair grading I am just sharing mine for those who might be starting from scratch. The bottom line is you have to find what works for you and your students.

Science Fair - Preparation Week

2010-11-22T02:57:00.006-05:00

I apologize for not posting recently. Most of my notebooking has simply been a repeat of previous years with some tweaking. I'm trying to avoid repeat posts but that has left me with no material for this year! Luckily we went off schedule this past week in preparation of our upcoming science fair and I thought I would do a post about that.

Our district had isolated community judges for our science fair years ago and set up a schedule for all the schools (for the sake of organizing the judges time). Unfortunately our school got one of the worst dates (right after Thanksgiving break). Science fair projects are mandatory in grades 4 and 5 and, up until this year optional in the lower grades. This year the lower grades are encouraged to do a class project but nothing except 4th and 5th grade projects will be accepted into the science fair.

This means that the first time a child is introduced to a science fair project is in my grade level (4th). No pressure!

Students learn about inquiry at the beginning of the year and we do several projects, however in preparation of the science fair we put aside a week in November (several weeks before the project is due) to really go over what makes a good science fair project. We even host a science fair informational night for parents within that week....which is an excellent parent involvement event (which I usually add to my goals for the year - "Plan one parent involvement activity").

We start out the week with a review of inquiry vocabulary - fair test, variables, graphing, etc. and a review of the science fair packet (most of the information can be found online on my classroom web page). I also review a sample board. The main point we are trying to make is that a science fair project starts with a question you are trying to find the answer to by conducting an experiment (with the end result learning something new). We show them a good BrainPop on the subject (which has a trial subscription for anyone who doesn't have a classroom one).

This year, on second day, I pulled in our laptop labs and used a site called GIZMO (online simulations for math and science). Our district had purchased a district wide license and teachers in upper elementary and middle school received subscriptions. I liked their "plant growth" GIZMO because students could change various variables and see the effect on the plant growth (I believe they have a trial subscription as well). At first students changed multiple variables in the simulation and then we went over how only one variable should change and students practiced trying to get the highest plant by only changing one variable (this could be done in a computer lab if you don't have laptop labs). Students can also be paired up on a computer if you don't have enough. IMPORTANT NOTE - Make sure students have a pencil and paper to record their highest plant and all the variables and a place to note the one variable they changed. I didn't in my first class and the kids played without purpose and it showed when I asked them questions.

Then we conduct a science experiment. This year I told the kids that I went to a training once where we were turning a liquid into a solid using freeze pops, ice, and salt. The pops froze but I was wondering if more salt would cause the freeze pops to solidify faster. We set up the experiment and talked about the variables, materials, etc. and did it in class. IMPORTANT NOTE - This gets very messy so it is best you do it outside (Picture Above). My favorite part of this was discussing the problems we encountered and other projects that could be done based on this one.

We had student put together a mini science fair board on the project and a mini log book. The hope is that they would take them home and use them as a guide when doing their project. The project took one day and the boards/log books another.

The last day I pulled in the lab top labs again and I showed them a kids graphing website that they can use. I put together data for two graphs (bar and line) and the kids have to use the information and create two graphs.

I like putting aside an entire "Science Fair Information Week". I feel like we review everything the students need to know and give them time to practice. Nothing is worse then telling students some large project is due without first giving them practice with something similar!

At the end of the week students are required to turn in the question that their science fair project is going to be based around. This gives me an opportunity to review their questions and help them find problem areas. Traditionally I get about 10 questions that aren't any good (i.e. I am going to do my experiment on fingerprints...or hurricanes...or volcanoes). I have classroom resources (and websites) that I direct students to look through if they need to come up with another topic.

Probably the one thing I don't like about science fairs is the fact that some amount of parental support is needed at home. I try to identify students that don't have that support and work with them before school (or after) or during their specials time. I know one fifth grade teacher lists after school hours she is available for help on science fair projects. Last year I had four students that I helped from start to finish and only two students didn't turn them in. I have a friend who teaches at a Title One school who struggles because her involvement is much greater.

I am not a fan of at home science fair projects in generally (both as a mother and teacher). I fully support them in the classroom and encourage teachers to plan at least ten throughout the year to really drive home those inquiry standards. Unfortunately "it is what it is" and as long as I feel I have prepared the students for the expectations I sleep better at night :)

Random - Class Parties

2010-10-28T04:31:00.006-04:00

We got one of "those" emails at school yesterday....the one that tells us we can't have a Halloween party. No problem....we've been getting those for years. Most teachers plan a party but don't make any reference to Halloween thus being able to say, "We aren't having a Halloween party." (I love that teachers can find the loop holes in just about anything! We are like miniature lawyers in the classroom when wording is vague :)

In our school district we are about to go on a week fall break and it is the end of the quarter so our parties are called an "End of Quarter" party (and we have four of them a year). Other teachers are calling their "party" a Fun Friday.

This email was a little different and seemed to indicate that ALL parties were not allowed. Whoa!!!!!! That caused a little stir in our world (mostly because notices have gone out to parents, children are excited about it, etc.). The emails started flying back and forth.

The second email was an allowance of this Friday's non-Halloween parties but with a caveat about "no junk food" and "no hard candy" (even if given out and told to eat later....DARN...our loop holes are closing :) and a promise of "discussions at the next staff meeting in conjunction with the districts health and wellness plan." Ugh!!!!!!

Now I am fan of less junk food...do not get me wrong...and I often request health snacks in my letter home (fruit, veggie, cheese tray) but lets face it....I teach elementary school and I also get chips, cupcakes, etc. I don't stress out about. We are talking about one day out of nine weeks, on a Friday, usually outside, involves parents, at the end of the day (last 30-45 minutes)... which I think is all very reasonable and is in no means excessive or puts anyone out...but it looks like I will have to defend my position at the staff meeting...which means reading the district's health and wellness plan this weekend in order to argue intelligently...which I always tell students they should do.

But lets go back to parties....

As stated before, we (by which I mean my team) have four "End of Quarter" parties a year. Last year the first two were sort of "pot luck" (everyone brings whatever snacky and we eat at the end of the day). The third (just before spring break) we had an ice cream party where we (the teachers) provided the vanilla ice cream and the students provided the toppings (which was a lot of fun and the kids loved it). The last party was a hot dog and fixin' party where we provided the hot dogs and they provided everything else from cole slaw to shredded cheese to condiments (also a lot of fun and replaced our lunch for the day). We set up two crockpots in each classroom and students went down an assembly line making their hot dogs.

I loved loved loved the last two theme parties and have been thinking that all our parties need to be themed now. With talk about healthier eating, particularly around Halloween, I was thinking that next year we could have a "salad party". Teachers provide the lettuce and the students provide the toppings (tomato, ham, cheese, croutons, dressing, etc.). Students could opt out and provide their own lunch if they don't like salads. Another theme I was thinking would be fun would be a "Color Group" party where you would assign a specific color to a group of students and they would have to bring in food that matches that color. You could assign points for the groups and they could earn extra points for their color group if they bring in something healthy. The color group with the most points would win something cheesy (like front of the line privileges, etc.).

Sorry for the rambling....I had the party thing on the brain and I thought I would share. I would love to hear any other themed ideas that teachers have done in their class or other experiences with party rules.

Pop Ups

2010-10-11T09:22:00.002-04:00

A friend of mine showed me this pop up site that I thought was pretty cool. It could easily be incorporated into a notebook...particularly the animal ones in conjunction with learning about the animal in science

There are some boat ones that I thought might be fun if you studied explorers in Social Studies.

I am not sure how hard they are to make but I thought I would give it a try and see if I think fourth graders (and myself) are up for the challenge :)

Posting Standards/Objectives/Essential Questions

2010-10-09T07:35:00.003-04:00

I saw this in a classroom and really liked the set up. She had a parent volunteer make it for her after explaining what she needed.

The volunteer had taken a cut down sheet of poster board and laminated it. She used double sided tape and plastic sheet protectors.

The orange one was for one subject area and the purple is for another that she teaches.

She simply slides in the standards, objective, and essential question in the plastic sheet protectors.

Those are mostly on display for the folks coming in to observe. She does a more "child friendly" version of these on her flipcharts at the beginning of her lessons.

How To - Rain Gauge

2010-10-02T04:59:00.005-04:00

I had made the larger one in the last picture at a science professional development program at Roper Mountain Science Center in Greenville, SC. One of the teachers in the class said that she made them on a smaller scale with empty soda/water bottles so I thought I would give it a shot.

Teacher Tips:

- Have students bring in the bottles. Collect until you have enough. Kids love doing contributing to a project and mine always asked if we had enough yet.

- I took all of the bottles home in a large trash bag and precut all the tops while watching tv (and made the drainage holes). I kept the top and base together by using small cut pieces of packaging tape so that students had a matching top and bottom (they would just take off the tape when we started the project).

- I modeled what I did at home in front of the students in case they wanted to make one on their own at home.

- Make extras of EVERYTHING (bottles and cut pieces of duct tape).

- Pour aquarium gravel into a shoe box and have students use a dixie cup to scoop out (aquarium gravel can usually be found in one of the life science kits).

- I like the red duct tape but at Micheals you can buy all different colors.

- Start the zero point on the ruler just above the gravel. The intent is for students to fill the bottle up with water to the zero line. They would then put it outside and after a rain record how much rain fell (they they would tip over the rain gauge and drain out all the water and then refill water up to the zero line again)

- It helps to have another adult (parent volunteer or adminstrator) help with this project.

Labels

2010-09-26T09:57:00.007-04:00

I went through my posts and added some labels to make searching for items a bit easier. I added the units that I teach and if the post has something to do with that unit I labled it as either:

Inquiry
Weather
Astronomy
Light/Electricity/Magnets
Animals/Plants

Hope that makes searching easier!

Labels are located to the right of the screen ------------------->

How to Make - Wind Vane

2010-09-26T09:00:00.005-04:00

When making these I highly recommend using white card stock for the fin and tail. I trace the shapes on card stock and have the students cut them out. If a student is done early you can have them decorate the nose and fin. I try to get students to make a compass rose on their plates (they learned how to in Social Studies so this is a great tie in).

Check your science kits (across grade levels) for the modeling clay but you can purchase from Walmart (approx. $4).

Weather Tools - Other Schools

2010-09-19T08:14:00.007-04:00

These are pictures I took in another fourth grade class (not at my school). I really liked the wind vanes (some of her students got creative and added some flair to the top of their projects). I found out that they came from the Delta Science Kit for weather (which we don't have at our school...need to follow up on that :)

The kit only came with supplies to do 15 wind vanes so she broke the class in half with one group making wind vanes and the other making anemometers.

Those windvanes are much sturdier then the ones my students make since they are mounted on a dowel with a ball and a macroma (sp?) pin.

I like how she had the students color the cups for the anemometer (I only have them put their name on one). She used the paper dixie cups and I use the plastic ones (marker wouldn't take as well on the plastic). She tried my stapling idea but actually felt it dragged down the straws more then taping (which she did last time). I thought maybe I did the taping incorrectly and she promised to show it to me the next time I was in her class.

I don't buy the paper dixie cups only because they always come with designs but when I was looking over her anemometers I thought that the paper ones might be lighter then the plastic (need to get out that scale!), which might work better because I also suffer from straws being dragged down (but I don't stress too much about it). If I had the kids color the cups that would effectively cover up the design.

I ran into another friend who just moved to the fourth grade this year and she said that she made anemometers with her second grade class that required no taping or staples. I'm excited because she promised a quick tutorial that I could post here.

Recycling Paper

2010-09-19T08:09:00.000-04:00

This is a copy of an earlier post I did about using recycled paper in the notebook. Since one side is always glued to the book it is a good idea to conserve where you can. My principal is a huge fan of this part of notebooking since it supports his efforts to reduce paper consumption ($$).

During one of our back-to-school meetings where all staff was present I told teachers that I would be recycling paper into our notebooks. I set up a bin (the top lid of a paper box with recycle written all over it) in the copier room and asked teachers if they have messed up a copy to please but it in the box because I can use the back side. It worked out great. Everyone was making back to school copies and I have plenty of material to work with.

Last year I started recycling late and even though I set up a box nobody really contributed or people chucked it. This year I will have plenty of material to work with.

NOTE:

It has been three weeks and I probably should have told folks to make sure the copies are all going in the same direction. Currently when I grab a stack I have the blank side every which way, which is irrating when you are in a hurry and you have to sort the stack so all the blank sides are going the same way. We have a staff meeting this week and I will clarify, which should help. All in all it is going well though.

Spiral Notebooking

2010-09-19T07:43:00.005-04:00

A friend of mine is teaching third grade and is notebooking with spiral bound notebooks. On the day I visited her classroom her children were doing an experiment with "mock rocks" based on an activity in either the Foss or Delta science kit.

She choose to use spiral notebooks because it allowed for more space with glueing and writing. I think the intent is that she would use one for each of her units (so they were the small spiral notebooks - 70 page count I think). I did see that some of the pages had started ripping out just by the way the students were handling them. I think that will improve with time as they move into their next unit/book.

Hallway WOW - Wonderful Outstanding Work

2010-09-19T07:19:00.004-04:00

The fifth grade teachers put up these displays this year for their classes that I thought were kind of fun. I caught two of my former fourth graders adding work and took pictures.

The displays are made with file folders in the first few days of school. Students completed an "about me" sheet that was attached to the first part of the file folder. The entire file folder was then laminated. A gallon sized storage bag was added to the bottom part of the file folder. As students complete work they can add them to their bags. In this case students were adding brochures they had done on matter for science class.

Random Idea - Listening to Speeches

2010-09-13T17:20:00.004-04:00

Tomorrow President Obama is giving his Back-t0-School Speech. Many teachers across the nation will be showing the event live in their classroom. Unfortunately while teachers are tuning in students may tune out. Here is an idea I got from another teacher about how to engage students while listening to speeches and public addresses.

Prior to the speech ask students what kinds of words they think might come up in the President's speech on the topic of back-to-school. Brainstorm 10-20 words and then make a list (i.e. school, education, future, etc.). Have them try and think like the President. What might he say to try to motivate students from all levels and backgrounds? Have students copy that list on a piece of paper. During the speech have them listen carefully and put a check next to any word that the President uses that is on the list. If he uses it it more then once the word gets checked again. Note any words that seem to come up a lot that you didn't list. After the speech compare your results and discuss why they thought some words were mentioned and others were not. Did the words used help convey his overall message? Could they summarize his speech using words on the list?

I did this with the President's inauguration and it worked like a charm. All the students were keyed in and checking their word list. The discussion afterward was certainly more engaging then if the event had been strictly passive on the student's end. This is one of those ideas that could be used from elementary to high school.

YouTube Downloader

2010-09-13T06:40:00.004-04:00

I use a YouTube Downloader quite a bit to download songs or snippets of video related to the subject I am teaching.

There are several kinds of YouTube Downloaders but I like the one found here.

We (the teachers) have access to YouTube at school however it is dicey at best to try to stream from YouTube. If there isn't enough broadband width the video will pause and try to catch up with itself. Sometimes the advertising bar along the bottom pops up with inappropriate ads for the classroom (alcohol, condoms, etc.). The YouTube Downloader eliminates this and is easy to use.

I always use it from home, since my internet is faster. Above is a screen shot of the icon on my desktop and what it looks like when I open it up. I simply copy and paste the address of the video I want to use and tell it where to copy on my computer. It will download it as an MP4 file. I can play an MP4 at school but most time I convert it to a WMV (Windows Media Video) so I can embed the video in my Promethean flip charts. To convert it you would use the same YouTube Downloader and tell it to convert the video (look at the screen shot above - under "what do you want to do?" you have two choices "download" or "convert").

Most recently I downloaded several songs from YouTube that were made up to teach the scientific method. I had taught my version of the scientific method (with fun hand gestures) andthen showed students all the other versions I had found. They had to compare my version with those from other teachers. It was great to show that students all over the country and in different grade levels are learning the scientific method.

Here are links to the songs I used:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPaGOHwv7mQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6cV6568qjQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5iZPPPI6m0&feature=related

How To - Make An Anemometer

2010-09-10T20:46:00.004-04:00

The first time I made these anemometers was when I was teaching sixth grade and the instructions said to tape the cups to the straw. That was a disaster and I was running around like a mad woman with the only stapler I had trying to quickly staple 96 cups to straws. Oh the memories :)

I wised up when I moved to fourth grade. What I do now is pre-staple everything. If I was a rich teacher with unlimited resources and time I would purchase 24 staplers and let the kids make these from scratch but the reality is I don't. NOTE - Try to find straws that aren't flexible. You can use the flexible straws but the cup tends to drag those down. Look for supplies at The Dollar Store, Dollar General, or Big Lots to save money.

I usually pre-staple at home, while watching tv, with a large trash bag next to me, as I finish a set I put it in the bag. Last year I had to make well over 80 (I got very good at it). NOTE - Make about 15-20 more then you actually need. Sometimes the staples come out or the child does something to destroy it and it is easier to hand a child an extra then it is to try to fix or lecture the student.

I give each student a set and then I model how to make one up front in case they want to try it at home (you could have children come up and try the stapling part). The students are then responsible for putting the pin in, getting it into the eraser, and decorating a cup with their name. While this sounds fairly simple it always takes a surprisingly long amount of time (which is fine....just an interesting observation). I then take them outside to test them (great photo op by the way). As irony would have it the day we test them the wind is never blowing. I make them hold them up in the air anyway and time for one minute and we generally all conclude that the wind is blowing at 0 miles per hour. Then the fun begins...

We have several outside vents around our school and I then let students see how fast they can get their anemometer to spin at these vents. This makes everyone happy.

Students get to take them home with them. One year one of our second grade teachers saw us out there and asked one of my classes to come in and teach her students how to make them (they study weather as well). That was a fun lesson as we buddied up a fourth grade student with a second grade student to do this. I was seriously impressed at how kind my fourth graders were with those second graders.

Notebooking with Early Elementary

2010-09-06T02:11:00.005-04:00

I know a first grade teacher who wants to start notebooking with her little guys. She has enough experience to know that a normal compostion book will not work. She asked her group of students to purchase a primary composition book that has a large space for pictures on top and young child friendly lines below.

The problem she ran into was that the local stores don't stock them in the quantity that she needed and none of her parents could find them.

She ended up having to purchase through the internet. This can get pricy...I saw them from anywhere from $4+ to $2+ (depending on how many you ordered). I believe that she got the funds approved through her principal (she is at a title one school) and is currently waiting for the shipment to come through.

I am excited to see how she will incorporate notebooking in this young grade.

Social Studies Notebooking

2010-09-06T01:43:00.002-04:00

I ran into a fourth grade team in another school who have started notebooking in social studies and I liked the activity they were doing the day I was in their classroom. They were using the textbook whole group to answer questions in their notebook. The teacher had used the left hand of the sheet to give them the specific (key) questions they had to focus on and the right hand side was used for the students to answer.

I thought this showed how you could still use the textbook in the classroom and notebooking. By having students focus on specific standard related questions you've given them a purpose to their reading and the material becomes more engaging.

Random Idea - Magnet Board

2010-09-06T01:34:00.003-04:00

I saw this in a first grade class and liked the idea. The teacher said she purchased it at Walmart for $9. She said to go to the automotive section and ask for a mechanics drip pan.

She backs her behavior sticks with magnets and the students move them around but I could see it being used in a variety of different ways. You can make your own magnetic poetry and have students use it in a center. You could use it put the unit vocabulary word of the day on it. I really thought someone could get creative with its use.

Argh.....Where to Start?!?!

2010-08-30T03:42:00.004-04:00

Want to try notebooking but are completely overwhelmed and don't know where to start? Here is what I do it....

Start with the standards and the title page. Move on to the vocabulary for the unit (for me it is the Bingo board). Those two either take up the first day or the first couple of days in a new unit for me.

Look over your standards and see what logically makes sense to you to teach next. Our inquiry standards end with safety but I bump it up to being the first thing I address, because it makes sense to me. Our weather unit starts with the water cycle as the first indicator but I bump the one up about weather tools, again because it makes sense to introduce the tools first.

I look at the resources I have for what I am going to teach - textbook, science kits, videos, etc. and decide what I can use to go on the LH (learning/lesson side). Then I decide what the student is going to do on the RH (reinforcing/reflection) page (foldable, notes, acrostic, illustrated outline, poster, etc.).

The first year is overwhelming no matter what but if you can break it up into manageable chunks instead of getting bogged down in "the big picture" you will do much better.

Short Class Periods and Notebooking

2010-08-26T05:40:00.005-04:00

The other night I meet with a group of third grade teachers who are notebooking this year. They noted that this year they only have 30 minutes a day to teach science. In reality that time is reduced to 20-25 minutes when you factor in transition and settle time. The students do go to a science lab once a week, which helps, but the question was, "How do you structure your class to notebook with such a limited amount of time?"

My suggestion was to break up the lesson so that one day you would teach the lesson whole group (so covering that LH side) and then the next day you would do a short review and then the independent work on the RH side (or it might be a lab you do with the information the day before). Doing it this way you would cover two lessons a week. Friday would be a quiz, make up or video day. I looked at the standards and indicators and it could be done (it would be tight but possible).

My week might look like this....

Monday - Introduction of landforms. Create a flip chart for the lesson.

Tuesday - Review (see how many landforms your children can remember from the day before). Make a foldable where students have to draw and label examples of each landform.

Wednesday - Review landforms again. Introduce Earth's water features with a flip chart lesson, use the textbook.

Thursday - Review landforms and add in water features. Students make a second foldable (possible using blue paper) where they draw and label examples and characteristics of water features.

Friday - Mix and match quiz. Finish foldables if not done. If done - draw a poster for the classroom of one of the land forms and one of a water feature. (you could also play vocabulary bingo after the quiz instead).

In this structure you would really have to stay on top of your students who struggle getting started (or they will never finish). I would move those children to a table group, where I would sit and refocus/help children as needed. It would also mean that you would need to be hyper organized for the lesson...all material glued in before hand by you or a parent volunteer, all supplies at the ready, etc.

The third grader teachers at my school decided to teach science and social studies in four and a half week blocks in order to give them more time to teach science. They have the reverse problem. They would need to double up the lessons in order to cover the standards. I am curious to see how that plays out this year and how they manage their notebooking. I'll post once I get a better idea of how it works for them.

Experiment Idea - Water Weight II

2010-08-25T22:03:00.006-04:00

I was watching a show tonight where a person was standing on ice that started to crack. They were told to lay down to spread out their weight more evenly and to start moving back to shore this way.

That got me thinking about the water experiment I posted the other day and I thought you could add a different question into the mix.

Does the shape of a container affect the weight of the liquid in it? So if I pour water into a cup and weigh it would it weigh the same as if I poured that same amount of liquid in a cookie sheet?

It would be fun to see children discuss it and then test it (recording results in their notebook). All you would need is three different size containers one that would spread out the water in a normal way, one that would condensed the water into a tight space, and then one that spread it out. You would also need a scale that could zero out the container weight prior to adding the water.

This is a simple, relatively inexpensive (I hope) experiment that could be done as part of any inquiry unit where you are introducing the scientific method to students.

Experiment Idea - Water Weight

2010-08-23T20:05:00.005-04:00

I was at a Girl Scout camp training this weekend for adults and we had this discussion about how much a gallon of water weighs (I think we settled on 8 pounds).

That got me thinking....would an 8 oz glass of water weigh the same as other liquids? Milk, orange juice, orange juice with plup, tomato juice?

I thought that might make a fun classroom discussion. Students could see the different liquids being poured, make observations and then a hypothesis. They could test their weighing and measuring skills to come up with the answer.

Time Managment - Cell Phone

2010-08-19T06:04:00.002-04:00

In my class last year we had a lot of transitions between teachers. It was becoming problematic at the beginning of the year getting the timing of the transitions down. I wouldn't know I had to line up my students until I saw the other classes line up in the hall. I looked for an alarm clock that had multiple alarms on it to help me out, when my son pointed out that my cell phone had six programmable alarms.

I set all six of those alarms to go off 5 minutes before we were suppose to line up in the hall. I explained the procedures to the children and I put the student who sat close to my desk in charge of turning off the alarm when it went off (they also had to make sure I heard it).

It was GREAT. All the children heard the alarm and knew they had 5 minutes to finish up and clean up. None of the other teachers were upset I was running late and the kids were happy they were never late for recess (that use to happen sometimes :)

Make sure if you are observed, and the alarm goes off, that you (or the students) explain to the observer what the alarm is for so they don't think you are getting random cell phone calls during the lesson.

Hallway Behavior

2010-08-17T07:03:00.003-04:00

Lining up elementary school children and walking them through the halls is always an adventure. I've seen teachers do it many different ways. Yesterday I observed a teacher telling her students that when they stop there should be a "pair on the square" (meaning one pair of shoes per floor tile). I jumped into the line between some kids when I saw it to see how tight a fit it was...since I teach older kids. I thought it was a bit tight (granted I am not a small teacher) but I liked the "pair in the square" concept.

Another one I've seen at a second grade and below level is "hips and lips". Students who start getting gabby and grabby in line have to put their outside hand on their hip and their inside (to the wall) hand on their lips. I often threaten my fourth graders with that one :)

Would love to hear any other fun ways that teachers control hallway behavior.

Dry Erase Desks

2010-08-17T06:45:00.003-04:00

I saw this in a teacher's room and thought it was an interesting idea. I am very curious to see how the desks will look in December, at Spring Break, and the end of the year.

She said she used them the year before and it worked out great for her for the whole year. She only teaches our gifted and talented population (fourth and fifth grade).

She bought the laminate roll from reallygoodstuff.com as well as the colorful tape that is holding it to the desk. I asked her about students picking at the tape and she said that she is really strict about that from the beginning of the year and didn't experience any problems.

She teaches math and science and uses it in both subjects. In science they can take lecture notes and then transfer them to their notebooks. When she has them watching a science video they also take notes or mark down questions they might have. On the desks are caddies with dry erase markers and socks for erasing.

On as side note (mostly for new teachers) when purchasing dry erase markers for the class always purchase them in one color (black works best). I made the mistake of purchasing a variety pack one year and the squabbling over color choice just about drove me insane.