Group items tagged

A free animated video presentation to show students how dinosaur bones become fossils. I liked this video because it really enhances the teaching of how bones eventually become fossils and will help students gain a better understanding of the long process and natural forces at work. It would be a great resource to use in conjunction with teaching students biological evolution (3-LS4).

This website is a little project that the students can do while at home. I selected this website because it shows the students that even in their own backyard there is still plant and animal biodiversity going on. I would use this as part of my lesson segment to get the students thinking that plant and animal biodiversity is all around us.

This website is based in Texas but is a group of individuals that will come into your classroom and teach the students about the need for plants and animals. I selected this website because I feel that younger students love to hear an expert on a subject come in and talk about it. I would use this resource at the beginning of my lesson segment on plant and animal biodiversity to get the students engaged and excited to learn.

This is a lesson where the students get to make observation about snails. The students are given a live snail and told to name characteristics and at the end they get to race the snails. I think this activity is a good way to introduce make observations. This is a very simply and directed lesson. The teacher is given specific question so the students know what they are looking for. I think this resource will be fun for students and it will help them develop the skills needed to make good observations about other animals.

Skeletons are the structures that hold our bodies together and are very important to keeping us healthy. Students can play do an online interactive activity while learning about moving and growing by sorting and labeling the bones of a human skeleton. For added difficulty, or to use this link associated with a different unit, students are also able to label the skeletons of other animals such as an insect, fish or horse. I would use this website in a lower elementary classroom for a quick, fun assessment on the bones.

This is a handout that shows the food chain pyramid with pictures and words. I would give this to the students to keep and help them with studying or other worksheets. I like it because it shows the different animals in the pyramid.

This website is a couple of different lesson plans that are centered around diversity in organisms, humans, and plants. I selected this website because there are four specific lessons that go right along with plant and animal biodiversity. I would use this resource when I was making my lesson plans for the lesson segment on plant and animal biodiversity because the lessons will give me a better understanding on what the 2nd graders need to know.

This website is for the teacher to design a lesson for students to compare and contrast different animals and their habitats. This forces students to use observation, and critical thinking.

This resource shows instructions, materials and photos for creating a shoe box habitat. The website lists that this craft is for 1st graders, but I think that it could be just as easily used in a 2nd grade classroom. Students get to choose which type of habitat they would like to create and are able to work on it at school and home. I selected this resource because I feel that it would be a great activity to reinforce 2-LS4-1. This craft would not be necessarily a lesson, but rather something that ties into the after math of learning about animal/plant habitats. I would use this resource as either an end of the unit craft to discuss in the class and compare/contrast each others, or as an extra credit project to do at home.

This lesson plan helps teach students about pollination and the different ways that plants are pollinated by different animals. Students create flowers and try to match animals to the different flowers based on characteristics. I like this resource because it combines art and science. Kids get to make their own flowers. Also, I think it is a really creative way of talking about pollination and gets kids thinking about how bees are not the only creature that pollinates flowers. I would use this resource during a plant unit in an upper elementary classroom. I would use this resource when we are discussing pollination and the reproductive parts of a plant. I would modify it to meet the needs of my students and the constraints of my classroom.

This website shows an activity using Styrofoam cups. It gives teachers an idea on an activity for students. I found this website on Pinterest and I really like the idea. I chose this website because it is a clever activity that many teachers can use in their classroom. It is also inexpensive. I would create this activity for different environments and have my students stack the animals in the correct order, to create a food chain. After a lesson on food chains, I would have my students complete this activity.

LOVE this! Would like even better if the cups weren't styrofoam.

"Present an activity that uses globes to show that some birds migrate east and west rather than north and south." This activity can incorporate problem solving, prediction, reasoning, and many more options.

This resource is a web page that has an entire outline and all of the information to do a field trip at Glacier National Park in Montana. This field trip is designed for 2nd grade (in the fall or spring) and has a duration of 4 hours. The group size listed is for 45 students. This is an excellent field trip that allows students to observe plants and animals in their natural habitats, compare/contrast, and communicate findings. I felt that this field trip would match perfectly with 2-LS4-1. I would use this field trip near the end of my unit, so students could grasp the real life connections and I could somewhat assess their learning of the lessons previously taught for this specific standard. ( I did not see the cost for this field trip listed on the website, so I am led to believe it is a free field trip that Glacier National Park offers.)

I thought this would be a cute video to use as an introduction to solids, liquids, and gases. This would work best with younger grades (1-3) as the video uses a lot of animation and a catchy song. "Enjoy the bright and colorful animations in this science video that helps explain the different states of matter in an easy to understand way."-Science Kids

This site gives information on educational tours at the St. Louis Zoo. The tour can be guided toward a certain theme and are offered throughout the day. This would be a good field trip to take to get the students outside and actually seeing the different animals and being able to identify it on a food chain or web.

In this field trip opportunity, the students will receive the chance to go apple picking, go to a petting farm, go through a fun house, and watch an educational variety show. I chose this field trip location because it fits multiple topics that are learned in elementary science classes including nutrition and animal biology. I would like to go on this field trip at the end of a nutrition lesson and use it to lead into an animal biology lesson.

This would be such a great field trip after studying about how some of the food you buy in stores actually comes from a farm. The students would have the opportunity to walk around the farm and see different kinds of fruits that are grown on the farm, as well as, the students being able to do some apple picking! The tour includes apple or pumpkin picking, petting farm, educational variety show on the grand stage, tractor and wagon ride, and the students would enjoy free apple cider and one free apple per child. This field trip would give the students a visual of where different fruit comes from.

This resource is an interactive introduction to sound. I would use this resource in a lesson on sound and vibrations, and show the website on a smartboard for my students and I to explore together. This interactive resource has multiple pages of images with sounds and animations that allow students to pluck rubber bands to notice sound and compare the speed of sound with the speed of other familiar vehicles. Another page of animations also shows students the speed of sound in the air in relation to thunder and lightning, something all students should be familiar with. I like this resource but I think teacher involvement would be required. It is not something young students could explore or read on their own.

This is a great environmental field trip! I would use this in conjunction with a unit on the environmental impact and/or the various plants/animals present in our local communities. This is a beautiful nature preserve. I chose this resource because I have spent time on this preserve and it is remarkable. You feel like you are in your own little world and there is so many possibilities to explore. Students could be partnered up and sent on a photo scavenger hunt. They would journal their findings and upon returning to school we would discuss the many things they encountered.

Journey North classrooms track bald eagle migration each season. This goes into details on things such as their territories, nest building, courtship, and babies! I love this site its so interesting going into more depth in a specific animals life. There are other animals on the site as well.

This website is really cool. There is a ton of great information on topics that I think would be interesting for kids of all ages. The images included with the information are awesome.

This site contains activities and projects for students to work on like creating their own space probe or looking at interactive maps. Its full of videos, current events, extra teaching resources and even describes way that everyone can get involved with helping the environment. It's a great interdiciplinary resource that can tie together a broad range of subjects and topics. The webiste resources are free but the magazine subsription does cost money. In addition to the teacher resources link there is also a special page just for young learners that includes music, games, movies, and more.