Group items tagged

This activity could be adapted for English Language learners by creating an instructional guide on how to set up the still that uses pictures and illustrations heavily.  This way, if the students have difficulty understanding spoken English, they can use the direction handout to figure out  5.NS.4 Perform investigations using appropriate tools and technologies that will extend the senses. 5.NS.3 Plan and carry out investigations-often over a period of several lessons-as a class, in small groups or independently.

Standard: 1.3.1, K.3.1, K.3.2

Expansion: Have students record details about the bugs they find, or spend some time afterwards discussing how they knew what kind of insect was what.  

ESL: Repetition of vocabulary, visual links between real creatures and their names, and cooperative work will help students reinforce their English skills. 

Standard: MA.3.1.15 2000, MA.2.1.12 2000, SCI.2.2.1 2010, SCI.2.2.3 2010

C.C. Standard: 2.MD.9

Expansion: Students could graph their weather findings over time and use those graphs to learn how to interpret data and predict future weather patterns.

ENL: ENL students can expand their weather and observational vocabulary through constant repetition of particular words and images.  The spinner is very visual, offering a graphic representation of the weather pattern they are recording. 

K.NS.3 - Observe living organisms, compare and contrast their characteristics, and ask questions about them

1.NS.3 - Describe objects in terms of the materials that compose them and in terms of their physical properties

2.NS.3 - Observe, ask questions about and describe how organisms change their forms and behaviors during their life cycles

C.C.Standard: 1.OA.5, 1.OA.6 

Expansion: This could be used with subtraction, by having students subtract the number of pins knocked down from ten. 

ESL: Visual representations of numbers using objects will help connect the numbers they hear and see to real-life objects. 

2.3.2 Compare and contrast details of body plans and structures within the life cycles of plants and animals. 2.NS.2 Conduct investigations that may happen over time as a class, in small groups, or independently. This activity could be adapted in many ways to suit your goals and time constraints, but the reason I chose it is because it involves using technology, research, and includes quality literature.

Standards: 3.3.2, 2.3.1, 1.3.2, 1.DP.5, 1.DP.6

Expansion: Students can observe and record changes in their terrarium over time, and create a log.  

ESL: Cooperative work and practice writing will help reinforce science vocabulary.  

Standard: MA.1.4 2000

C.C. Standard: K.G.1, K.G.2

ENL: Connecting symbols to real life objects is helpful for reinforcing ENL student vocabulary, and for helping them draw connections between geometric shapes and objects.

Expansion: Have students cut their pictures out of their chart, mix them up, and trade them with a friend.  Have their friend try to reorder the object pictures by the shapes they represent. 

This is an experiment that is fun to do in class, but it needs to incorporate the scientific method and discussion of the laws of physics in order to be educational.  I would start by explaining Newton's Laws of Motion to the class, writing them on the board, and having students copy them down in their science notebooks.  Then, after they understand the Laws of Motion, set up the egg experiment and talk about what will be going on.  Have the students draw the initial set-up in their journals, then have them make predictions about what will happen when the experiment is conducted.  All of this should be recorded in the journals.  Finally, do the experiment (it would be best if students could work in small groups so that they can conduct the experiment for themselves).  Have them record what happened with words and pictures and identify if their hypothesis was correct or not.  Then explain how this experiment uses the Laws of Motion. This activity could be adapted for special needs kids by allowing them to observe the teacher conducting the experiment rather than doing it themselves.  They could try it by themselves first, but then they should watch the teacher do it so that they are certain to see the experiment conducted correctly. 5.NS.1 Make predictions and formulate testable questions. 5.NS.4 Perform investigations using appropriate tools and technologies that will extend the senses.

5.DP.1 Identify a need or problem to be solved.

Standard: 3.NS.2 Identify fossils and describe how they provide evidence about the plants and animals that lived long ago and the nature of their environment at that time.

Extension: Students could create an fossil then research that prehistoric animal. Students could find out when they lived, how common the fossils are, and how they became extinct.

Adaptation: Students could work together in groups to make fossils if resources were limited. Students might make their own fossils, but then work in groups for the research component. This way the ELL and lower English speaking students could handle the research part of the activity.

Standard: 1.NS.3 - Observe, describe and ask questions about living things and their relationships to their environments.

Extension: Students could maintain terrariums for various lengths of time, depending on the goals behind building the terrariums. Students could make representations of what they have observed over time in the terrariums.

Adaptation: ELL students could work with English Speaking students to bridge the language gap needed when following instructions for making terrariums. ELL students could also get support from English Speaking students when writing down what they observe, because it may be unfamiliar language. Graphs and charts could be made as a class, to keep track of height of plants and number of insects.

4.NS.3 - Observe, describe and ask questions about structures of organisms and how they affect their growth and survival

Adaptations - If large number of students will not be able to reach extended family to complete the chart, class could conduct a study to see how many share traits with immediate family.

Extensions - Students with access to relatives information could try going back as far as they could, creating a "family tree of genes".

For advanced students, Punnit Squares could be introduced and students could find out which traits or dominant and which traits are recessive based on their position in the Punnit Square.