Group items tagged

This site from the Kennedy Space Center has a lot of children's books that all incorporate space ranging from $3.00 to $20.00. These books would be a great way to start off a lesson in order to get the students interested in the content. The books on this site are aimed for younger kids. Also, this site includes DVD's, gift ideas, toys, apparel, and even space food to buy. I think that by having a variety of space books in my classroom library would encourage the students to find out more about space. I mainly picked this site because a teacher can never have too many childrens books, and this site has several choices for reasonable prices.

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 bulletin board is a place where people exchange ideas on how to use Eric Carle's books in the classroom. A couple books such as "Little Cloud" and "Papa, Please Get the Moon For Me" are great for science lessons.

This site would be so much more useful if the sections were searchable or organized in some way. I found it to be a LOT of reading to find what the different ideas were for each book.

This is an awesome book that the students could complete over the course of a few days, while learning about the solar system.  The book has a page for each planet in our solar system that requires the students to find out information about each planet.  This is a great activity that allows students to become familiar with the rest of our solar system in a way more hands on than just reading a chapter.

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.

This is a website that contains twelve books all about oceans. They talk about sharks, marine mammals, crabs, seashells, fish, and much more. I enjoy this website because it lists the title of the book, the author, and a summary of what you will get from the book. In the classroom, I would have these out for the students to freely view while we talk about our oceans chapter. Some of the books would even be helpful as a teacher in order to teach a lesson and further the student's understanding.

This resource includes numerous books that can be used in the classroom to teach kids about plants and get them engaged in the topic. I chose this resource because I view children's literature as a very powerful tool in getting students interested in academic material. Some of the books included are very well-known and popular with children, and I remember reading some of them myself as a student. I would use this resource when planning a unit on plants. I would gauge the level of the book with the grade level of my classroom.

As we have learned throughout our education, every teacher is a teacher of reading. Plus, by integrating science with literature, hopefully, more kids will become excited about science. This website offers literature books specifically related to individual content areas. While the website is directed toward elementary teachers, I think some of the books could be utilized by middle school teachers as well. These may be a fun way to introduce a new topic or just on shelves for students to learn more about a specific topic that interests them.

This Dr. Seuss tale opens the eyes of the students to the world of recycling. After we read the book students will participate in a recycling relay. I chose this book because Dr. Seuss is a fun way to learn and the rhyming engages the students.

This link goes to a collection of Seuss ideas. Which are you meaning to reference here, and how would you use it? I don't see a recycling relay activity on the link.

Eyewitness book on matter. Allows kids to explore a world of information through pictures and real life application.

What I like about this lesson is that it can be used cross-cirricularly if your younger class does not allot enough time for a science lesson. Using a book as the main idea of your lesson is a great engagement tool for younger students. This lesson on wind, energy, and renewable resources is fun and lists a lot of extension activities like building a windmill and figuring out the problem/solution using writing skills.

Loads of good info on this free Library of Congress website, including a page on how to get girls interested in science. There are books, activities and internet resources attached to this page, and I think educators could find this useful at all grade levels to get girls excited about science.

I thought how fun and interesting it would be to have a hands-on science project for Dr. Suess' birthday. This is a website that explores different ways to approach hos books through pictures. I think that the children would love to have this project on a day that they are reading his books, and celebrating his birthday.

Fun idea, but I don't see any actual lessons, just pictures.

This unit on weather includes three days worth of lesson plans. Each day corresponds with a specific book about weather. One of the books it includes is "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". Assuming most children saw the movie, I would ask questions to access what they may already know about weather and if the movie is comparable to the weather we experience. These lessons also include weather observation and opportunities to write about their observations. I chose these lessons because they include extensions, assignments, and assessments. I can see myself using this in the classroom with my students because I feel that using literature makes a lesson stronger. It draws the kids in, and enables me to ask questions to access prior knowledge.

STUDY JAMS! A website sponsored by Scholastic books. This page includes a 3 minute video, sing-a-long, vocabulary lesson, and quiz. In addition, this sight includes a link for a matter lesson plan and teachers guide

Love the video, which could be used as a good review, or in segments along with instruction and experiments on the individual phases of matter. Very kid-relevant and scientifically correct, including temperature and molecule movement, using the analogy of "teams" of molecules.

This site has a ton of neat ideas about space, the sun, earth, the complete solar system, technology used, and a site for parents and teachers. This is a site that kids could get on in the classroom during free time because it is kid friendly and would keep their attention. The different activities are labeled by "Explore" which contains facts, videos, and pictures, "Do" which has activities, books, and coloring pages, and "Play" that has a vast amount of games, puzzles, and quizzes all revolving around space. I think that students would stay engaged with this site and want to keep playing. Not only would they be playing games, but also learning about space

This website offers information on the major topics in Chemistry. It explains the key components and terminology and offers examples to use in class. Worksheets and answer keys are also available for each topic. One of the teachers I observed last year used these worksheets with her class often to supplement the problems in the book. The students seemed to welcome the extra practice and change of pace. I think it is a helpful website, but depending on the level of students you end up working with, the worksheets may need to be edited. Some of the problems seemed a little too advanced for a first year Chemistry class.

This lesson deepens students' understanding of the similarities and differences in the life cycles of organisms. The lesson begins with a reading of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar Next, students use a video to study the developmental stages of frogs, dragonflies, and butterflies. _____________ This lesson plan grabbed my attention because it begins with a book by Eric Carle and we just discussed his books in one of my other classes at McKendree. This is a two day lesson. The lesson plan begins by gaining the students interested by reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carl. There is a corresponding video which explains the life cycles of frogs, dragonflies, and butterflies. Then, there is an activity to hand out to the class. In groups they follow the activity to explain their assigned organism, then they explain their findings to the class. I like this lesson plan because it is very detailed. I would use this in my class when studying life cycles.

I enjoy this lesson because it is another hands on activity for students. Students will get to compare and contrast what they know about the seasons. The students will get to place pictures in the correct poster for what season that picture may be related to. This lesson also involves reading books to the children to expand their knowledge on each of the seasons.

This site was originally published as a book to provide resources for new Chemistry teachers. It describes lab experiments that the author has done with classes. It seems very useful because it goes beyond describing the experiments by explaining common problems students have and how to anticipate or resolve them. Other helpful information includes: estimated time, equipment needed, safety concerns, special clean up information, answer keys, and where these labs fit into the curriculum. While the link and all the information provided are free, the labs do require supplies. For some of the labs, the author discussed cost and how to save money when purchasing supplies. Overall, this resource seems very valuable, especially for new teachers. Even though we have the content background, anticipating mistakes and dealing with problems comes from experience.