Group items tagged

This online activity will be done at the end of our science lesson on different environments. This game requires that students place the different animals, plants, and objects that would best survive in each given environment. Based on what the students have learned about different environments, they will be able to correctly place each object given. I selected this resource because animals and their environments is a huge content area in first grade. This online game will be available for students to play during centers. Whoever is at computer centers that day will be able to play this game. Having such a fun interactive game will allow them to be very engaged, but still learning at the same time.

This resource is a field trip to the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Students can tour the gardens, learn about plants, and take classes. I chose this because it would give the students an opportunity to see the plants that they are learning about in real life. I would use this field trip as a supplement to a unit about plants.

Taking a field trip to The Botanical Gardens will let the students see plants and their pollinators in real life. I would use this field trip to wrap up my lessons on plants needing sunlight and water and also the role of insects and birds while pollinating flowers. Before the field trip begins, I will have my students bring a notebook and pencil with them. They will write down anything they observe. They could write if they saw a butterfly on a flower, or if a flower looked dry because it was in the sun too much. I want my students to put what they learned into a real life context. I really liked the idea of a field trip because students get to leave school and observe what they have been learning. It is always fun to get out a desk and do some hands-on observing/learning.

This is a book about sheep who take a drive down the country side in a jeep. There are many mishaps along the way. The jeep slows down at the top of the hill and the sheep jump out to push the jeep down the hill. When the jeep gets to the bottom, it gets stuck in some mud and the sheep have to pull the jeep out. I chose this book because of its introduction to pushes and pulls. Students can observe in an interactive way things that have to be pushed or pulled in real life. I could also ask what other things need to be pushed and pulled while I am reading. Although the idea is free, getting the book would cost money but it is only $6.00. I would use this book as an introduction to my lesson on pushes and pulls. This would be a great way for students to acclimated to the vocabulary and how it is used. I could even make the book more interactive by having students do the motion of pushing and pulling in their seat whenever a push or a pull happens.

I would use this lesson as a transition from plants needing sunlight and water to now the importance of birds and insects to plants. Throughout this lesson students will learn the role of flowers and pollinating birds and insects in the garden and that different pollinators have different needs.I chose this lesson because it is important for students to understand that insects and birds play an important part in plant life. I also liked this lesson because it explains why certain insects are attracted to certain flowers. This is a lesson I would use to introduce the new topic to my class.

This lesson allows students to investigate which way is best to clean up oil and researching how oil spills affect the environment. The students will try three different ways to remove oil from a tub of water, then they will determine which way is the most effective. Afterwards, the students will present their findings to the class. I like that this lesson is engaging and it can easily be related to real world oil spills. I would tell my students that they were a team that was hired to find out how to get rid of the oil after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This way the students feel that they are doing something realistic.

In Gro Flowers children learn about the important role bees play in the pollination of flowers and the production of honey. Through age-appropriate activities children will design flowers, manipulate bees in the pollination process, avoid pesticides and collect honey. I would have this app on the iPad in my room (in hopes that I have one). I chose this app because it fits perfectly with the previous lesson I posted about the importance of insects pollinating flowers. This would also be good to use before the field trip so students can visual what they need to observe. I would then use this app for centers. I would break my class down into 4 groups and have 4 different centers. I will first teach and review the lesson, then break my students down into the centers. Everyday the groups will switch so everyone has an opportunity at each center. Adding an app to my center is a great way to add technology into my teaching and what student does not love to play on an iPad.

This is an activity in which students use slices of bread to create replicas of various landforms. After introducing the varying types of landforms to the class, the teacher will provide students with slices of bread with which they can create different land types (such as islands, peninsulas, gulfs, straits, and isthmuses) in a hands-on, memorable manner. After the students have created the landforms, they can glue them to a piece of paper, or simply eat them as a snack! This activity caught my eye because I feel as though it would be engaging for the entire class. I also thought it was cost-effective and simple to execute. This activity would be an excellent way to introduce a unit on landforms because it gives the students a chance to become acquainted with the topic in an appealing, memorable way.

A foundation in geography begins with an understanding of the terms geographers use to describe the features of Earth. Help students grow their vocabulary and learn to recognize common landforms such as islands, lakes, peninsulas, gulfs, straits, and isthmuses in a hands-on lesson using soft and squishy slices of bread! I love this because the students get to visually make the landforms when learning about them. It keeps the students involved in the lesson. I would use it when first learning about the landforms to help the students better remember them.

This little demonstration is so simple and cheap! All you need is a clear glass, water, and a pencil or straw. Place the pencil in the water. Does it look like it may be broken? I would do this at the beginning of a lesson that is covering light. With having a discussion about the topic and the students having a visual in their head, it should help them remember the topics discussed.

For this activity, ask the students what they think will happen if you heat a bar of ivory soap in the microwave. Make a graph of their predictions on the smartboard. Then heat the bar of ivory soap in the microwave for one minute. After you show the students what happened to the soap. Allow them to hold pieces of the "cloud" and make observations about texture and why they think the soap formed into a cloud. I chose this activity because this teacher also has a unit on weather connected to this activity that includes daily weather observations, non-fiction passages and writing organizers.

Who knew!? Very cool and surprising outcome. I am a little concerned that this activity might lead students away from true understanding of the formation of clouds, though. What do you think?

This activity could be used at the end of a unit on rocks, minerals and the layers of the earth. Students build their own structures made out of mini marshmallows and toothpicks. The students then place their structure on top of the jello that's sitting in an aluminum pan. The students then shake the pan to see what structures survive the "earthquake". I chose this activity because I thought it would be a great hands on experiment for students to see the damaging effects of what can happen to buildings after an earthquake. Another plus to this activity, is possibly sparking the interest of future architects.

An engineering design challenge!

This zoo passport activity will not only be worked on in the classroom, but also during our fieldtrip to the zoo. Students will assemble their passports during class time, and I will assist them. While at the zoo, students will mark off what animals they see, and add any other animals by drawing them on the blank pages at the back of the book. I selected this resource because zoo fieldtrips are very popular in first grade, which is the grade I would like to teach. I think it is a great way to make the zoo fieldtrip even more exciting by having them search for certain animals. This is valuable to me because there is a free downloadable printable that I will use instead of having to create my own.

This activity will help students identify what is magnetic by testing different objects. Students will work in small groups for this activity, and be provided the necessary materials. They will use magnets to test each item to determine whether or not it is magnetic. Once they have made their decision, they will record it on their worksheet. I selected this resource because it is a great hands-on activity for the students to work together on. The free downloadable printable makes it valuable to me as a teacher because I do not have to take the time to create my own worksheet. I envision this resource being used for a science center. I will provide the objects to the students in a small bucket, and have them use their coloring materials to record their data.

I like the idea of the blank worksheet, so students could gather up their own collection of items to test, or you could provide some, and then have them select others they would like to try.

The purpose of the lesson is for students to understand and sequence the life cycle of a frog, beginning with the frogspawn and ending with the frog. The website also says that this lesson is designed for kindergartners. The students will make observations of a tadpole and then read the story, Life Cycle of a Frog by Angela Royston. The students will then complete a graphic organizer of the story. I like that this lesson requires the students to determine important information in the story and then complete a graphic organizer using that information.

This activity allows the students to get a better understanding of the water cycle while creating a fun art project. Students will color the printable water cycle stages and then paste them on the cloud template in order. The finished projects can be hung from the ceiling to display your class's work and make your classroom cute and colorful! Because the project is 3-D, it can be spun around which shows that the water cycle is constant and repeats itself. This activity will be done at the end of our water cycle unit in science. It will be one of the many activities done to make sure students understand the process of the cycle. I selected this resource because it is an exciting way to order the stages of the water cycle. Instead of just putting different pieces of paper in order, students can color, cut, and paste their stages on a giant cloud. The free downloadable printable also makes it valuable to me.

In this experiment, students will create their own terrarium. Creating a mini-habitat is a great way for the students to learn what it takes to make an ecosystem work. Not only do the students learn about ecosystems, they also get a sense of responsibility when it comes to keeping their ecosystem alive. I chose this resource because it was something that I did when I was in elementary school and I still remember what I learned from it to this day. I would use this experiment throughout a unit on ecosystems.

I found this lesson to be an extremely fun way to get my students involved and excited to learn about what our blood contains. I remember learning this material in 9th grade, but this is a very great way to just cover the true basics of the concept. The fact that it provides a hands on, sensory motor activity totally grabbed my attention. I loved that the prep time was short and the materials to purchase we cheap and some were reusable. Each material represents the red and white blood cells, the plasma, and the platelets. In the classroom for younger students, I would probably read from a book during a read aloud and then I would do a vocabulary introduction and definition game, and finally, I would provide this activity to help give a visible example and assist with building a better understanding of what blood is made out of.

For this activity, you would use a sensory tub to create "blood" by using red water beads for red blood cells, white ping pong balls for white blood cells, and felt pieces for platelets. This activity is great for visual learners so they can "see" what blood really looks like and what it is made of. Having students put their hands in and feel the different pieces of blood gives them experience learning. Once you are finished with the tub, I would have students draw what they saw and label the different objects as red/white blood cells and platelets. Then look at a magnified picture of real blood and compare!

I think this would be a great extension activity following a lesson over the phases of the moon as students will be showing their understanding of these phases using Oreo cookies. Each student is given 8 split Oreo cookies and one plate with the phases of the moon on the bottom of the plate. Students will use their spoon to move the cream off the cookie to model the correct phase of the moon. After completing eight correct moon phases with their cookies, the student will label each phase of the moon with the correct name strip which is provided. Once the student has correctly labeled the 'moons', they may eat the cookies and take the plate home. This is a great way to check and make sure students have an understanding of this material. It also makes it fun for the students as they are able to finish the assignment by eating their cookies!

This is an interactive exploratory app for kids to learn about the human body. Instead of offering lectures, this app allows kids to go into different parts of the human body, explore, play and observe. It offers many different activities that teach children how each of the different parts in the body work and it explains some of the functions and processes that take place within the human body. One of the activities included is the exploration of a working model of the body, as every part is interactive: the heart beats, guts gurgle, lungs breathe, the skin feels, and eyes see. I think this would be a fun interactive online activity to do in the classroom with the students. It would be interesting to have a class discussion over how the students believe each body part functions and what they think it is used for. Then we could explore the human body through this app and find out more about it. I think creating a KWL chart would work perfectly when using this app in the classroom. Although this would be a great app to use in the classroom, it would also serve as a great resource to use at home as it is designed for kids to discover what we're made of and how we work!

"Learn how to keep yourself healthy by discovering how different exercises such as walking and running can affect your heart rate. Ruby's heart rate will change as you make her sleep, sit, walk & run, watch how her body reacts to the different activities." I think this online interactive activity would be great to use in the classroom! It teaches students about the circulatory system, how the heart works as it pumps blood around the body, why blood goes to the lungs to pick up oxygen and what important roles arteries and veins have in the process. This activity will teach students the importance of keeping healthy and it also helps them understand how the human heart reacts to different activities.

"Two similar plants are observed as one gets regular water and the other does not." This science lesson and activity can benefit students in so many ways. Students will be observing and making comparisons among two plants as one plant receives water and the other does not. Throughout this week-long project, the students will be coming up with their own theories about what will happen to each of these plants. Along with this, they will be comparing and contrasting their observations and the final results. I believe that students would love an activity like this, and it would be extremely beneficial to them as they learn how living things change and depend on their environment to satisfy their basic needs.