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Earth Friendly Birdhouse: Design Process - choosing specific materials for the design in mind and function. You have also been talking about resources and know that conserving resources by recycling, reusing, and reducing waste is important. Now you will have a chance to put what you know to use. Design Challenge:Design and build a birdhouse that will attract a bird in your neighborhood. The bird you plan the house for should be about the size of a tennis ball. Criteria:Your birdhouse must have a door that is big enough for a golf ball to fit through. Have a perch inside. Have a perch outside the door. Be able to hang from a tree or other support for 5 minutes with a golf ball inside. Keep birds safe from rain and wind. Be squirrel and cat proof.

Multiple grade levels can do this project, but differentiation would be required for skill and developmental level. Younger grades would require more help and modeling of project.

Children are formed into groups to 'invent' a pretend machine that smashes marshmallows. Each child plays the role of a cog or part of the machine to move the marshmallow along. Children then read the story Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, a machine that digs its way to a happy ending, and recognize how technological devices affect our lives.

Bikini Bottom Experiments I really enjoyed reading these questions, and the activity ideas quickly came to me!   We could discuss how to design effective experiments, conduct experiments similar to the "Flower Power" experiment.  Have students compare the two experiments by determining the results, and keeping logs of the two.  (one experiment done correctly, and one done with the design flaw of SpongeBob's experiment.)   Kids will LOVE this!

Good resource

state standard: 1.1.2 Very simple and hands on activity for the first graders. The good thing about this activity is that you can use pictures with all the words. Not all first graders are able to read all the words, having pictures can be helpful for the low ability students as well as the ESL students.

Excellent activity for grades five and up.  "Students work as teams in mission control and aboard a spacecraft as they test their decision making skills and solve problems during this innovative, inquiry based, space-themed science and math simulation." This activity could meet MANY science standards and math standards including the Design Process, The Nature of Science, and Reading for Literacy in Science.  For the purpose of this assignment, I am assigning it to: 6.2.4  With regard to their size, composition, distance from the sun, surface features and ability to support life, compare and contrast the planets of the solar system with one another and with asteroids and comets.  6-8.RS.1:  Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science texts.   6-8 RS.3:  Follow precisely a multi-step procedure when carrying out experiments or taking measurements.

Roughly every other year, the Challenger Center in Brownsburg gets a grant and invites us to visit for free. Unfortunately for your cohort, we went last year, but I'll invite you back next year if they get another grant. We usually go on a Saturday morning and IT IS AWESOME! I love being in Indianapolis with these fabulous resources available.

Expressing money in different ways - 2nd Grade (dollar, quarters, dimes, nickels, pennies) Materials: bags of play money that have an equal amount for each student, paper, and pencils for each student book: Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday Objective: after reviewing the names of coins and bills and how much they are worth, grade 2 students will listen to a book read to them by their teacher and express the amount of money stated with their manipulative of play money and show different ways to express that amount of money.  (i.e. 10=10=5=25)

Great use of combining reading and math, focusing on addition up to 10 or any other number you are working on.

Identify the digits students will use by handing demo digit cards to selected students (e.g. 3, 5, 8). Students at desks should take these same digits from their card decks. Give directions for students to form a number to meet specific criteria. Students in front rearrange themselves to build a number. Students at desks arrange digit cards to build a number to satisfy the conditions. Build the largest number you can. Build the smallest number you can. Build a number less than 800. Build a number greater than 800. Build a number that is between 300 and 500. Build a different number that is between 300 and 500. Repeat with different digits and different directions. 2.NBT.3 Read and write numbers to 1000 using base-ten numerals, number names, and expanded form. Sticky Note: This could be enriched by having students call out directions and do as group table activities as a review game before a test

Using the game board students will practice rounding whole numbers to the nearest 10,100, and 1,000. Each opponent takes turns reading a question and then choosing a number to round to the nearest 10, 100, or 1,000.  The answer is to be checked by the opponent.

Great for children learning/practicing place value. This can be used for other grade levels.Have your child tell you what number is in each place and the value of that number For example, if the number is 75, there is a 7 in the tens place and the value of that number is 7 tens or 70. Keep reading numbers aloud, but each time increase the number of digits. 

Students explore the differences and similarities between rocks and minerals by investigating samples of these earth materials, performing a series of tests similar to geologists' field tests, and reading about rocks and minerals and how they are used.

Children make a game board displaying different shapes they should know (polygon, quadrilateral, parallelogram, etc.). Each child roles the die and moves that number of spaces. If that player can correctly identify the shape in their space, they roll again. The first one to the end and back wins!

Students work in pairs, battling against one another for this card game. Each person turns over one card at a time. Red cards represent negative numbers, and black cards represent positive numbers. The person with the highest valued card is the winner for that round. The student that accumulates the most cards (when each player is out of cards) is the winner!

Times Table Bingo: Printable Bingo cards. Read off facts and have children mark their card with a bingo chip if they have the answer.

This is a fun activity in which students must understand place value to the hundred millions.  In this activity students hide their recording sheets and draw a number.  The student who draws a number must announce which place value he or she put that digit.  Then, the other partner must copy that down.  Each partner alternates the plays until they have filled in each place value.  At the end, the teams must see if their numbers match and they will score accordingly. This game forces both partners to be working at all times so not just one person is doing all the work!

Here's a hands-on activity that classroom teachers use to help kids get a feel for equations and start building lifelong skills. Popsicle sticks are used to create different addition problems.