Group items tagged

This activity, designed by ZOOM, allows students to help the environment by cutting down their paper garbage, and recycling it themselves into a new piece of paper. The instructor must gather the materials for the students, and must be available to help the students throughout the process. The students must follow step-by-step instructions on how to transform their original piece of garbage paper, into a brand new piece of paper. I am a strong advocate of recycling. I can see myself using this activity in my future classroom to show students that anyone can save our planet, and have fun in the process.

This experiment, designed by ZOOM, is centered around density. Students will use everyday materials such as coins, grapes, and Legos, in an experiment to find out which is more dense. This experiment could get a little messy, because students will be placing the objects into syrup, oil, and water, to find density. I think this is an awesome activity to incorporate in the classroom. I think it is great when students are using everyday objects in experiments. I believe it sets them up to think scientifically outside of the science classroom.

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 is an iPhone app that helps kids learn about plants. It examines the life cycle of a plant, different types of plants, and allows students to grow their own plant. I selected this source because it is very colorful and has good information about the plant process. It allows kids to watch videos and create their own plant. It seems like a good app for $0.99. I would use this app in my classroom to get students engaged and to review material about plants.  I could also use it as an activity for early finishers.

Looks like the price has changed to free!

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.

Pinterest is a wonderful blog site for almost anything, including future teachers. By putting pipe cleaners in a 2 liter soda bottle, students can examine magnets. You can also click on that information to open up another website full of wonderful magnetic activities. http://heidisongs.blogspot.com/2011/12/another-science-center-marvelous.html Students who are learning about magnets will be able to create fun, easy experiments through this website. Also, it suggest having students learn what is magnetic and what is not magnetic. Teachers would have fun allowing their students to experiment with these types of materials.

This link is to a lesson that helps students understand photosynthesis by engaging in dramatic arts. It also helps students understand the relationship between photosynthesis and decomposers. I chose this lesson because I think it is very creative. I like the idea of having dramatic arts in a classroom, and I think it would be a good way for visual and bodily-kinesthetic learners to remember the material. I would use this resource when discussing photosynthesis in an upper elementary classroom. The lesson allows for the process to take place over a week.

This is an activity to demonstrate the life cycle of a butterfly using pasta! The materials are very simple and the activity will help the students by having a visual aid. The students can get a little creative and you could even try to hatch butterflies to go along with the activity. How fun would that be?!

Electricity -- we depend on it every minute of every day. And yet to many of us, electricity seems a mysterious and even magical force. Before Ben Franklin did his famous and very dangerous kite flying experiment, electricity was thought to be a type of fire. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I think this is an excellent lesson to teach to grades 3-6. I am pleased with this lesson that it lists the lesson sequence, materials needed, and the objectives. I really like the variety that this lesson includes. It allows students to get up and move in acting out an electric circuit as well as get up close and personal with electricity and how it works with the activity. Not only does this lesson involve interactive components for students, it also provides many videos that correlate with the lesson. This lesson plan seems easy to follow with the instructional sequence and I think it would be easy to fit within the McKendree lesson plan template and add a bit of flair from the teacher candidate. I think this lesson also allows teachers to impose his or her own spin on the lesson and choose what parts to include or omit as well as what might need to be added to the lesson. A lesson like this with so much instructional variety helps to reach students that learn from hands-on activities, students who learn more visually, as well as students who learn best from discussion and instruction. I would follow the instructional sequence if I were to use this lesson in the classroom, but I would tailor it to fit my time allotment for teaching Science, thus it would be done in smaller segments. I would choose one or two videos to share with the class, but post the rest on our class website so the children could view them if the wanted to.

This website includes lesson plans and activities to use in conjunction with Weather Channel's classroom program "Elementary Weather". Specifically, it includes weather concepts, scientific method, climate, weather terms, and the water cycle. It gives five lessons with background information, objectives, procedures, outcomes, prep time, materials, and standards. I chose this resource for a number of reasons. It's cross-curricular in at least one other area, provides handouts, has extension and modification plans, includes hands-on lessons, assessment tools, and a long-term project. I see myself using this in the classroom because there are many different directions each lesson can take. Modifications and extensions are important in our districts to meet the needs of diverse learners. I put a $ in the tags in case purchase of the videos is necessary.

This pdf file provides many different lessons on weather for many different grade levels. The pdf file assist the students in understanding the meaning behind the weather as a whole and gives great insight into what students need to do during these weather conditions. I believe that these lesson while give students great insight into how weather works as well as provide the teacher with many different ways to teach the lesson or grade level.

This website provides several resources for teachers. There are several science experiment lesson plans along with supplemental materials. There is also a JustAsk section that addresses classroom issues such as bullying.

This site has a lot of neat experiments where you can choose the grade level and content. For my unit plan I would select "Earth and Space Science" in order to get ideas on different activities and experiments to do in class with my students. I picked this site because the activities are ones where the students could use their creativity to come up with something unique. For instance, they could make a homemade planetarium, make a spaceship using old CD's, or even make a solar system of students. I would use this site in the classroom to get ideas on how to get the students out of their seats, but yet keep them interested. The activities from this site are ones that the students would definately enjoy.

When teaching a lesson about the earth and its natural disasters the teacher can perform this activity to get younger students more involved in the lesson. Students will see the teacher mix the ingredients together in a clear container. When the material is mixed together the teacher can ask the students what they think will happen, referring to what they have been learning about. After explaining what the substance is supposed to be, quicksand, they can demonstrate that poking the substance slowly the substance is runny while poking it quickly makes the substance hard.

Remove "science" and "earth" tags and use " " around "earth science" to keep that phrase together in one tag. Same with natural disaster. Nice job on the grade level taggin!

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 interactive activity assist students in understanding the main parts of the plant cell. The students have to assist the conductor by getting the train to the right part of the plant cell, which provides memorization and practice skills for the student. This resource is valuable because it provides a lesson about the plant cell and how the plant cell parts work and what they are. I see my students using this resource as a fun way to study for their assessment, it's a wonderful memorization material.

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 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 is a lesson plan that helps teach the water cycle. It has the students acting as water droplets and moving through different stations in the room to represent them moving through the different stages in the water cycle. I like that in this lesson it gets the students out of their seats.

This lesson/activity introduces students to interesting new topics such as the ecosystem, the Artic peninsula, and the food chain. All of these topics come together through the discussion of animals from the Arctic sea and how they live and thrive based off of each other. First the general animal life of the Arctic sea is discussed, then a broken down description of each animal in that particular food chain is provided. The students are able to cut out and color these pictures, and make their own mobiles to help them remember the food chain in the ecosystem. I chose this lesson/activity because I think it had a good mixture of knowledge and activity which allows the students to learn without even realizing it. Animals eating each other tend to be exciting to younger students, and by explaining these topics they will be able to understand wildlife a bit better. This is a great source to use during an ecosystem unit, that will make the class interested in learning the new material and excited about the project at the end.

This is a website to show children ways that they can help the earth by recycling. There are 5 main ways that are offered, and clicking on "Kids for Saving Earth" takes you to another website. This is interactive and very child friendly. I think both of these are good and helpful for both the teacher and the student.

The five ways aren't really so much all about recycling as different ways of conserving materials. For example, using cloth napkins doesn't result in recycling, but in reducing what is consumed. I see this as more of a resource for adults or older children than a website for kids. The "Kids for Saving Earth" is a bit more kid-friendly.

This website includes several different lesson plans on recycling. The one that I enjoyed the most is teaching them how long trash lasts, discusses decomposing along with other things. The lesson plan includes what subject areas are included in the lesson, a brief description, grades, objectives, keywords, materials, along with many other key components. It is a very good lesson for teachers to use as a guideline.

While this is interesting information, the activity focuses on a lot of guessing without linking to prior experience or involving students in finding out for themselves. You say "guideline" as a use, and I would suggest it be only that, perhaps related to a unit on food chains that involves the concept of decomposition. Students could design their own experiment to observe the decomposition of different objects over time.