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Healthy eating needs to be stressed at a young age. There are games on here that teach kids how their plate should look at every meal. Very cool and very informational to kids.

When you breathe in, your diaphragm - the muscle at the base of your lungs, contracts. This expands your chest cavity, lowering the air pressure of the cavity below the air pressure outside, and inflating the lungs. You can see this same principle at work in this 'homemade lung'. This activity will definitely keep students interested. It's all hands-on and will allow them to be able to visualize an action, breathing, that is constantly occurring within their own bodies. I chose this activity because I think so many don't actually understand what is happening within their own bodies, and by being able to visualize this action I think makes it easier to understand. This activity has the students making a "homemade lung" out of simple supplies and then observing how our chest cavities contract and our lungs inflate. I could see myself using this activity when discussing the human body, in particular lungs. It is so important that the students understand how the body functions and I think that this activity does a great job in illustrating that.

This project allows students a concrete example to include in their science journals. I like how the students place stickers on the examples to show the molecules. We would do this as a class, while exploring the dynamics of the three states of matter.

This is a good activity to do in the winter when students spend a lot of time indoors. It shows how easily viruses like the common cold can be passed. The activity involves students having glitter on their hands and touching different objects. This shows how germs can easily spread. I like that this is an interactive activity that shows how germs can spread better than I could explaining it. The students must also record their observations. It will be messy though because the glitter will be all over.

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.

So, what does a parade and this lesson plan have in common? A lot of waves! People wave in a parade and this lesson is about waves. Get it? Oh well, that's why I'm a science teacher and not a stand-up comic. Anyway, last lesson we talked about vibrations and frequency. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is a great lesson on waves! I think this particular lesson would be appropriate for 3rd through 8th grade. Of course there are adaptations that may need to be made to ensure that it meets the appropriate grade level needs, but overall, I think it would be an interesting and engaging lesson for many grades. This lesson does not include an exact instructional sequence but it is quite informative and teachers will be able to read through the lesson and choose what he or she wants to say about waves. I really like the funny little tidbits throughout the lesson. I really like that there are many experiments available to demonstrate and experience waves. Also, there is a short assessment at the end of the lesson which I think would be a great formative assessment and might even be a great resource for questions of a future summative assessment. Personally, I would use Plickers or iClickers with the assessment to gauge how well the children grasped the material.

This activity allows students to work with genetics that effect human and animal traits. They will use the worksheets to determine which genes will pass on traits to offspring. Punnett squares are used in the activity to aid the students in finding the answers and understanding the difference between recessive and dominant genes. Students can easily work in groups to complete the science activity and use reasoning techniques to understand how their answers are formed. Along with learning about inheritance and genetics, the students will also be working with probability. This lesson can double as a science and mathematics lesson.

This is an experiment for students to make their own snowflake. I would use this in my classroom as an extension of a weather and seasons lessons. I would try to do an experiment involving an element from every season.

This is a great experiment for students to see the process of crystallization. It's a great way to bring in the idea of crystals being formed by an arrangement of molecules in a pattern. Using household items like borax, food coloring, water, and a few other materials makes it very teacher friendly. I would use this experiment in class to expand on the movement of cold vs. hot water. I could also tie this experiment in while discussing liquids/solids, precipitation, or chemical reactions.

This is an android app, there is a free trial but then you do have to pay about $3 for the rest of the experiments. The app opens with an experiment using batteries, tape, paper, two alligator clips, and a pencil led. The isea is to build a simple circuit. The whole experiment is guided on what ever device you use. After the experiment is conducted it is even explained. The guide even tells you why pencil led was used, graphite contains carbon and carbon can carry electricity. I would use this app in a young classroom to introduce electricity, or the flow of energy. I might even use this as an opener so everyone can do it. Then we might discuss what exactly we learned, or what else we would like to know. I would also set up at least one real experiment to show the students up close. I wouldn't let them do a real one on their own unless they were 3rd grade and up. I think this is an amassing way to introduce electricity and show students how circuits work. Electricity is a real world thing that they use every day.

Skip Discover Education Main Navigation Skip Discover Education Main Navigation Students will: 1. Understand the relationship of the nine planets in our solar system to the sun by creating a three-dimensional representation. 2. Understand the planets' relative distance from the sun and their approximate size in relation to the Earth. I like this lesson because students need to understand our solar system and earth's relation to other planets. I would keep the completed solar system on display in the classroom to ensure students retain the material and can reference it if needed. I like how this lesson plan has adaptations and ways to extend the lesson.

By creating a beach in a pan, students are able to make observations about how erosion occurs in nature. Place rock and damp sand at one end of the pan. Place a brick under the pan on the end with the sand so that the pan is tilting. Pour water into the opposite end of the pan. With a sponge in the water, press down on the sponge to create waves that hit the beach. The students will then be able to observe what happens to the sand and gravel after the waves continue to crash into the sand. I chose this resource because it allows the students to have a hands on activity and watch erosion take place systematically.

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.

This is a game for the students or the class as a whole to do. It has many different options of food chains. I like this game because it is different each time you do it. It also has pictures and words. It then shows you what eats what after you get it correct.

This biology resource is an interactive tool for students to use while learning about the food chain. In the game, the student will be given pictures of 3-5 animals or plants to drag into boxes. The order of placement in the boxes is based on how high that plant or animal is in the food chain. This resource is a great way for students to be tested about different types of animals. There is a different mixture of animals and plants with each step so there is always a new selection of animals or plants to rank. This is the type of resource I can use after teaching the students about the food chain in order to assess their level of understanding.

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.

This lesson actually contains quite a few good activities and gives a good chance to give lesson segments a try. It gives students a great chance to realize how powerful the sun actually is and how using solar panels can fix situations like flooding and the way that water is flowing. There is also fun options that involve melting crayons and sunscreen to show the impact that the sun has on our earth.

Our eyes are using light to see various objects all the time, but when this light travels through different mediums (such as water & air) it changes direction slightly. Light refracts (or bends) when it passes from water to air. I selected this resource because I could not quite find a good field trip. I feel like this is an easy way to show the young children how objects bend when looking through other material. This is a very easy lab and experiment for young grades. I would use this lab when showing my class how objects may appear and look different when seen through different objects.

This is a super simple science experiment for the classroom, involving how seeds grow. It does not take much preparation, and it will not take much time doing the experiment in the classroom. Despite the little time going into the setup of the experiment, students will be able to observe their seeds for weeks and record their data. I would most definitely consider using this in the classroom. It doesn't take much prep, it's not very costly, and the unit could last several weeks. In addition, this experiment is perfect for getting the students to think scientifically, and learning to record observations.

This process is called 'capillary action'. In this experiment you will need a little bit of time. You need a minimum of two glasses, one filled with water and the other one empty. You then will twist a paper towel and form a 'rope' out of it. You will place this in the glass with water in it. You will also place the other end of it in the empty glass. If you do this in the morning first thing when the students get there you could check on it at lunch and maybe a gain before you leave for the day, either way this takes time. You cant start this right before science. What happens is the water travels up one side of the paper towel, across the cups, and down into the other cup until both glasses are evenly filled. This shows students how water is capable of travel. It also is a bridge into talking about how root systems work in plants. What the students will be able to observe throughout the day is the same process plants use when they take water from the soil and carry it to the other parts of the plant. I would do this as an all day thing. Maybe between every subject, or every other subject, I would have them record observations in their journal. This is great for observational skills. You can even use more cups and put food coloring in them, this helps you track the water as it goes from cup to cup.

This is a music video about the sun. It talks about the many characteristics of the sun, like how hot the sun is or how far away from us it is. I selected this video because it was very informative, it had an inviting art style, and the song was really catchy. I personally found the song to sound just like things kids listen to today like the "Everything is Awesome" song from the Lego Movie. I think this video is going to show up a lot in my future classroom. I think it will engage the students as well as spark some interests in Astronomy.

This website provides procedures for creating static electricity using a variety of materials. The lesson also provides objectives and suggestions for "gearing up." The procedures are geared towards 6th and 8th graders but I can do the challenging demonstrations and just have my students observe. I like this lesson because it provides a variety of activities to show students how static electricity is made. There are activities provided in this lesson that would be appropriate for elementary students, and I will modify this lesson for my elementary students accordingly.

This site provides everything from objectives to assessment strategies and also lists related books and links for more information.