Group items tagged

Sticky Note: Grades 2-5 all have portions of Life Sciences devoted to ecosystems and this project could be easily manipulated to focus on different aspects of an ecosystem. I would give specific guidelines in some cases, especially for younger grades, but it would be great to allow older students to have time to brainstorm the kind of ecosystem they wanted to complete and allow them to go through the research process to create a good replica of that ecosystem.

Extensions: This activity can connect Science to LA using a writing prompt. Adaptations:  Gifted students can write a short essay on how an animal can use a tool to solve a problem.  Teacher would allow time for research (tool-using animals at PBS.org).  ESL & Special Ed students can draw a picture of an animal using a tool to solve a problem.  Teacher would pair up students for the research phase.

Sticky Note: This would also be a great activity to attach to fractions because you have to be able to understand fractions to put the ingredients in the correct places. It could also be used in younger grades where groups are making one together or the class creates one together and discusses our responsibilities to keep the earth clean.

This game can be differentiated by grouping students (7 cards, six cards, five cards) and they can earn a certificate when they demonstrate they are ready to move up to a new group.  This is a great way to reinforce skills and also assess students' progress.

Game can be modified to include rounding to the nearest ten, hundred, etc.

For differentiated learning, have sections of students competing.  Some could compete at the seven card level, others at six, and others at five.  As they "pass" each level, they earn a certificate entitling them to compete at the next level.  Great way to improve skills and assess progress!

Sticky Note: This would be easy to manipulate for younger students by changing it from a cantilever structure to creating the highest structure with a certain number of materials. It could also be manipulated for older students by changing the materials to less obvious choices.

The Design Process: Identify a need or problem to be solved; brainstorm potential solutions; throughout the entire design process, document the design with drawings (including labels) in a portfolio or notebook so that the process can be replicated; select a solution to the need or problem; select the most appropriate materials to develop a solution that will meet the need; evaluate and test the design. This activity can be adapted for gifted students by allowing them to first draw a blueprint of their model. This will allow them to make predictions and hypothesis about their cube model and their tag board model. These students can then record their observations and their conclusions about their final product. This activity can also be adapted for younger grades by giving the students more materials to help them balance their models. Also, allowing the younger students to work in partners, rather than pairs, will allow them to more freely express their ideas. Working with a partner will give each student the opportunity to make sure their ideas are heard. For younger students, omitting the blueprint may also be helpful. Rather, having the students simply draw a picture of their model with labels may be more appropriate.

4.3.3 Design investigations to explore how organisms meet some of their needs by responding to stimuli from their environments.4.3.4 Describe a way that a given plant or animal might adapt to a change arising from a human or non-human impact on its environment. Differentiation: Have ELL students record their biome's progress and changes using a picture graph.

This project would also be excellent for creating a sense of community in the classroom as everyone would be working together toward a common goal (acceptance of their project by NASA_.   ELL differentiation:  I would probably find a different project to accommodate ELL's as this project is very intense, and requires a strong command of language (in order to follow instructions.)  It is possible to create a book of picture instructions for the project or give them a smaller, yet still important role in the class for this particular assignment.

Allow students to work independently or in small groups.  Provide legos and base plates for student use.  Differentiation may include the chance to design the entire room, or just the toy box.  Students would have an opportunity to visually present, or just set up the model.  

Nature of Science Standard: Make predictions and formulate testable questions; plan and carry out investigations-often over a period of several lessons-as a class, in small groups or independently; perform investigations using appropriate tools and technologies that will extend the senses; use measurement skills and apply appropriate units when collecting data; test predictions with multiple trials; keep accurate records in a notebook during investigations and communicate findings to others using graphs, charts, maps and models through oral and written reports; compare the results of an investigation with the prediction. This activity can be modified for ELL students by allowing those students to be the recorder for the group. This will allow those students to participate, without having the pressure of attempting to measure and use words they may not be comfortable with yet. Allowing these students to be the recorder keeps them involved with the group, while also allowing them to practice the English words for the numbers being recorded. This activity can also be used for younger ages by shortening the activity to throwing the ball five times, rather than ten. The act of throwing the ball make take longer for these students, as well as measuring an angle.

Sticky Note: This would be a great end of unit project as an assessment to see whether students have understood different parts of pollution. Could be useful to make groups inclusive including ELL) and give job titles to ensure that all students would learn and feel comfortable in their groups.

Adaptations: Gifted students can show the sum multiple ways (using different currency) or write the equation for the addition or subtraction problem. EL Students can draw a picture of the currency needed to represent the sum. Other manipulatives can be used with this activity with the amount written in cents or dollars on the manipulatives.

This activity can be used with other manipulatives that are labeled with the coin amounts. This activity connects math and LA. Adaptations include: require gifted students to show 3-5 ways to represent the sum using different currency or give the equation. EL students can draw a picture to represent the coins used.

This can be a fun project for the students to make their own "house" and "families." Teachers can make a social studies connection by trying to arrange the houses in two rows facing each other. Number the houses on the right with even numbers and the ones on the left with odd … just like the houses on a real-life street.

The picture for this activity looks really cute. I wonder how hard it would be for little ones to draw faces on craft sticks. You'd probably want to put newspaper down on the desks and be prepared to have marker on their hands, but still, it looks like an engaging activity that would be worth a little mess.

Great for ESL.  Can easily be adapted for higher ability students as well.  Can also be adapted if no camera or computer is available 

Sticky Note: This would be great to add to a fourth grade social studies unit to make a topo map of the state of Indiana which includes information pertinent to the Indiana social studies unit.

The Challenger Center also offers Special Needs missions. Lessons are differentiated as students will be assigned to different roles.  This is a very "challenging" endeavor, and requires completion of lessons prior to the visit.

This would be great to use in an ELL classroom as a way of using vocabulary such as "above", "below" etc and color so that it becomes a following the instructions game where the person is telling you where to put your pattern block. In this case the picture would be the key and the child could make the shape on a blank table.

This can be used as a cross-curricular activity, extending to social studies. The class can explore flags from several different countries, or choose one country to focus on. The students can learn about why countries have flags and what the shapes and colors represent.

K.G.1 "Describe objects in the environment using names of shapes, and describe the relative positions of these objects using terms such as above, below, beside, in front of, behind, and next to." K.G.2 "Correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size."

5.4.1 "Investigate technologies that mimic human or animal musculoskeletal systems in order to meet a need." This activity can be adapted for ELL students by allowing those students to draw pictures of their design, rather than write a paragraph or make a chart. If the students are able, they can label the parts of their picture, using the English words they know. This activity can also be adjusted for younger grades by allowing them more than one science class time to work on the project. This may be an activity that can span a few days. The activity can then be broken down into sections. The students could use one class time to ask their questions within their group, and plan what they want their product to look like. The actual design and implementation of their product can be put into place on a separate class day.