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As plants grow, they move up toward the light. But what is a plant's favorite color? Do plants move toward some colors more than others? Problem: Do plants bend toward certain colors of light? This experiment would be great for a 4th or 5th grade classroom for the students to see different plant behavior. I would definitely use this resource within my classroom as a project for the class to do throughout a period of time. I personally like this experiment because it will get the kids excited and interested because they have no idea what to expect or to even think a plant will grow more towards a certain color than another.

This website offers ideas for all age science classes in the Saint Louis area. It will help teachers to find a quick idea for a field trip and connect it to a science concept. It also would be helpful to connect the field trip to other subject areas as well. Grade Level: all Main Content Area: All Resource Type: Field Trip Cost: Varies

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.

"Hand rolled soap has been made for centuries, and is easier to make than you think! Your child can learn more about the history of soap as well as rolling up some soap the whole family can use for getting clean. Soap has been around for thousands of years, first referenced in the second century AD!" We all want to be clean! But what is soap made of and what science aspects does soap bring to the table? This experiment is a perfect introduction and leading question to get students engaged. The child will add their own uniqueness to their individual soaps and the flexibility to be creative. They will also learn science concepts of liquid turning into solid and states of matter exploration. If the students are anything like me-they will be intrigued!

This would be a great activity for my students if we had just finished talking about the different food groups, and what each one contains. I would have five plates per child, and have them label each plate "Dairy", "Grains", "Fruit", "Vegetable" and "Protein". I would have magazines available for each student to find pictures of food, and have them glue five under each category. This activity would allow me to see who understands how to group food under the correct category.

This activity would be a great way to get the students more involved with being outside, and would be a fun way to study nature! Take a nature walk in your backyard or local park to find one object for every letter of the alphabet. Then put them together in this handy nature book. In the notebook, I would have the students tape or glue the object in their book, and research information about the object and write a description about it. When the nature book was due, I would have my students share with the class what they found. This lesson would work on their science, reading, communication, and writing skills.

This hands-on activity allows students to get a better understanding of why a tree's leaves change colors. By doing this activity, we will be able to see how a leaves colors stay hidden in the leaf all year long. Students will collect leaves prior to doing this experiment, and will place them in small jars filled slightly with rubbing alcohol. Those leaves will be chopped up into tiny pieces and left in the jar which will be covered with a lid or plastic wrap. The jars will soak in water for about a half an hour. Students will then use a strip of coffee filter paper to see the colors from the leaves bleed. They will see different shades of green, orange, red, and maybe some yellow depending on the type of leaf. I chose this experiment because it allows the students to understand chromatography, chlorophyll, and different pigments found in leaves. By doing a hands-on activity, students are more engaged and anxious to find out what is going to happen. I envision this experiment being used at the end of a plant lesson in science. We would have been discussing different types of plants, trees, flowers, and why they are all different colors. There will also be many important vocabulary words that the students will need to understand, which will be present in this activity. We will conduct this experiment in small groups so that students are able to participate and see what is going on.

Make these homemade shell fossils and introduce your child to the wonders of science! This activity would be a great way to end a unit on fossil imprints. This activity would allow the students to understand how fossils can be made, even if it isn't authentic. The experiment would keep the students interested and would gain their attention. I would allow my students to find objects that have great texture, and allow them to press down in the clay to see how it looks after it hardens. Once the clay hardened, I would hang them up on the wall for my students to be able to look at them.

This activity can be used to tie different school subjects together, social studies, earth science, and math. When introducing the concept of the world they may not comprehend the size of Earth. Have an inflatable globe and let the students toss it to one another, when they catch it have the students identify what each finger is touching water or land, we can also keep a graph of the two to determine if there is more land or water on earth.

This lesson is used to teach young students the importance of nature. Many students don't realize many manufactured items come from nature. Bring in everyday items from home and ask the children where they think the item came from (paper and books from trees, glass from sand, etc). Have different colored dots and walk around the classroom and label items with colors from what the item might have came from (green=trees, red=animals), this requires the students to think critically. It's important for children to respect nature and understand most everything we interact with on a daily basis is from nature. As a teacher I can use this to teach children respect of nature and each other because everything must work together.

This website has 5 different experiments that students can do with plants. The experiments test the effects of light, water, food, talking to the plants, and soil content on the growth of plants. I selected this source because I think the experiments are good and will help students understand the best conditions of plants. It will help them understand that there are other components besides light and water that go into the growth of a plant. I would use this resource during a plant unit, likely in 3rd or 4th grade. This would be an ongoing project that could integrate measurement in math, graphing (with and without use of technology), and art (by drawing observations).  

I love this one! I really like plant experiments becuase these days, kids don't really get to appreicate and witness actual plant growth. I would any of these as ideas to use in my classroom.

This activity can be used in conjunction with a lesson on rock formation. Each rock is formed through different processes and made up of varying materials. This project lets the students make there own sedimentary rock and observe closely how they are made up of different materials held together by one material.

This is a great way to bring something visual to a concept that is mostly invisible: evaporation. It gets the students outside and moving a little.

This is a great activity to make the concept of the water cycle hands-on. Students can watch the process right before their eyes over the matter of an afternoon.

I will use this website to have my students make lightning using an aluminum pie plate, styrofoam, glue, ballpoint pen, thumbtack, and a wool sock. Manipulating these materials will create a harmless mini-lightning bolt. This website provides instructions and detailed explanations for this activity.

I will use this website to have my students make lightning using an aluminum pie plate, styrofoam, glue, ballpoint pen, thumbtack, and a wool sock. Manipulating these materials will create a harmless mini-lightning bolt. This website provides instructions and detailed explanations for this activity.

This activity calls for students to use their imagination when it comes to the different colors. Students are required to know how to classify object according to their color, for example: a blue toy car, a red pony, a green tree. This activity helps younger students work on their sorting skills. In my classroom I would have construction paper divided into four parts. On each part would be a color; Blue, Red Green, and Yellow. I would provide the glue and different colored objects to sort and glue, sequins, stickers, beads, pom-poms, buttons, feathers, macaroni, and foam shapes. Each student will be required to sort and glue objects by color.

This resource gives a lab (activity) that deal with vibrations. You need to have a large bowl and cover it with plastic wrap- a rubber band will hold the plastic wrap in place. You then place large sugar crystals on top of the plastic wrap and let students get close and talk into the bowl. The students will be able to watch the sugar crystals "jump" because of the vibrations. I chose this resource because it sounded very interesting and it makes me want to actually test it out to see if it works. I think that my students would enjoy doing this and it would help them understand that sound travels and bounces off objects creating vibrations. I would use this resource in correlation to a lesson about vibrations and sound; It would be a follow up activity for students to do.

I really like the butterfly life cycle coloring page on this site, especially for younger elementary students. The information presented about the butterfly life cycle is also very good along with the videos. I especially like the link to purchase live butterfly kits and would definitely want to do this in my classroom.

This is an awesome interactive site. This site allows the student to guide his/her own learning while navigating throughout the solar system. It allows the user to move through the solar system and choose a planet, from there it offers several more options:pictures, recent missions, news articles, and endless facts. I could see myself using this as an exploration tool for my students, or I could potentially assign them a planet where they could use this site to gather their information. I really enjoyed exploring this site myself.

Since Fall is right around the corner, literally, I thought this would be a cute activity to show students how the leaves change colors. With simple items you can find at the store students can participate in this hands-on activity that shows them how a trees leaves changes colors. Students can either do this activity by themselves or in groups (older grade levels) and younger students can participate alongside the teacher.