You know when you have a little extra time to fill in your day? Okay...that rarely happens, however this week our fifth graders went on an overnight trip to what we call school forest leaving me with only one fifth grade class to teach this week instead of two. So I got to figure out a lesson that was not something I normally teach during our Mixtures and Solutions unit. I already taught my students the lesson on chemical reactions, so why not figure out a chromatography lesson to extend the excitement!
Chromatography is the separation of mixtures into their individual components so this is perfect for a mixtures and solutions unit!
Scientists use chromatography in many ways. They use it to test the level of alcohol in the body. They can figure out a crime by testing and analyzing blood and cloth samples. Arson verification is another way chromatography is used by identifying the chemicals responsible for a fire and to rule out foul play. It is even used to determine drugs and poisons in the body in the hospital.
To make it age appropriate and to help them learn about real world science through hands on investigations I made Who stole the cookies? This is a way for us to separate different markers, but in a story like way. I picked four co-workers, the janitor, librarian, art teacher, and music teacher who I asked if it would be okay to be a part of my story. With a yes from all...I set up the folders.
Time to give out the folders with a note inside that says "Thanks for the cookies!" The students use the evidence to prove who it might have been. This team cut the note and then wrote the same word to test if it would bleed out in the same way.
I wanted to pick four black markers , one for each person. The librarian got the VisaVi that she might use on the overhead, the janitor got the Sharpie because he labels boxes to leave the school, the music teacher got the Expo marker because she puts the notes on the board, and the art teacher got the Crayola markers for art projects. This evidence after testing the note eliminates two suspects because permanent markers do not bleed. Notice the difference in the markers below!
Expo and Sharpies don't bleed!
Crayola and Visa Vi markers do...this one points to...
This activity allows me to add another lesson or two to our Mixtures and Solutions unit we do with our FOSS kits! I use the rest of these lessons in an after school class as well as on line to get kids doing things at home!
The best part...I added a ton more activities based on color that I will be using right before ST. Patrick's Day..stay tuned for another post!
Interested in a fun and quick lesson on Chromatography and Color to get your kids excited about science? Grab the Chromatography Lab HERE!
Each year, I pull out my bird beak stations, and each year I love watching my first graders as they learn hands on how birds have different beaks that allow them to survive in the habitat they live in.
I love starting off this lesson by asking them to tell me what makes a bird a bird. We create an anchor chart that has a nest of great words including birds ... have 2 legs, have wings, have feathers, lay eggs, have beaks, fly, have two eyes.
I then share the book Beaks by Robin Brickman.
Beaks aren't just for eating...this book is great in showing other ways such as building, finding a mate, and digging to name a few!
I then take the first graders around from table to table to show them how they will be using their beaks to eat! I read the sheets to them, give them a check off list, but going in a circle from station to station is easy enough! I was able to get my supplies from the Dollar Store or from my classroom or home. There are seven stations in all! Here are just a few fun stations in action.
How fun to dig for worms! Wheat germ and gummy worms!
Time to crack open a sunflower seed!
Watch the woodpeckers as they dig for bugs! I use Mung beans because I had them, but rice or split peas work perfect, too! Grab the tweezers and a sponge and your all set!
My little hummingbirds love the nectar! Droppers, graduated cylinders and a little flower prop and we have a fast flying bird ready to eat!
When we are all done with the stations, because I only have an hour with my students, we finish up by having them create a bird that they saw in the book or they simulated in our stations. We add it to our anchor chart. If they get done nearly, I share with them a live eagle cam (yesterday we watched it eat a squirrel for lunch!) and compare it to a live bird cam from Cornell University!
This weekend is the Superbowl, what a great time to add some "super" fun STEM to your school day! We have had indoor recess all week, and I don't see an end in sight. If your kids are getting cabin fever like mine, STEM activities are perfect additions to indoor recess! Not too cold where you're at...then adding these STEM challenges in a math or science station to teach measurement, graphing and statistics as well as controlled experiments might be just the thing!
The Super Bowl is a perfect opportunity to get the attention of your students while adding cross curricular activities. Here are my top five ways to add some theme based lessons this week:
1. Geography: Give your students a map and have them plot different super bowl locations. Find out how far they would have to drive or how much a plane ticket would be to attend the Super Bowl.
2. Math: With the plotting of cities, have students plan a trip. Add the dollar amounts of what it would cost to travel, get lodging, buy a ticket, and purchase food or souvenirs. Younger students might like plotting the winners of the Super Bowl in a graph!
3. Language Arts: Time to design a logo for your favorite team. Write about your reasons for color choices, mascot, and why it is your favorite team! They could even write an advertisement for their favorite treat, beverage, or toy that might be featured in a commercial. They could create it on an iPad or video tape the commercial with a group.
4. History: The history of football is always fun to research. Epic books which is free for educators has some great non-fiction books. There are some great Football Themed fiction books as well, but here are a list of my free favorites!
I use EPIC books all the time to help me find access to books that I can project or share with my students. From A-Z to statistics...background of the game at multiple levels to books that can get them excited about a certain player, here are my favorites:
5. STEM and Science: Catapults are a great way to add some science of how a kicker makes a field goal or how angle affects how high or far a ball will go.
STEM Football Stations
My STEM Football challenges have three activities for your students. Creating a football kicker, a goal post, and a stadium help with a perfect little extra to add to your classroom. Each challenge includes a teacher-friendly direction and supply page that guides you and your students to know what to do to create each football themed challenge.
These activities were designed for my after school classes which range from students from grades 2nd-fifth grade. Perfect for after school, early finishers, indoor recess, homework, centers, family challenges, and gifted and talented resources for example.
I love the different ways that students are able to be creative with the supplies I give them!
Creativity, Teamwork, and Hands-on Learning are all perfect additions to the benefits of STEM!
When they add a how to or directions it is a great way to add a writing activity!
I have always loved this activity and I wanted to share this quickly in a post! I love tasty science lessons and when you can get fourth graders excited about writing and science together it is a win/win! Can I just say POPCORN CONSTELLATIONS! Yes, popcorn constellations!
Here's how it goes...
I start with a quick discussion about some super stars we will be learning about today...the constellations! I share with them the video Crash Course Super Stars!
While I do that I set out a piece of black paper for each child, along with a white crayon (or chalk), a note card with lines, and a Dixie Cup of popcorn.
Once the video is done, I let them know that we
will be making Popcorn Constellations. I demonstrate, by tossing the popcorn onto the paper, too many pieces makes it harder for them to find a figure...I then pick up a piece and pop it into my mouth! I replace it with a white star mark to show where the popcorn once was. I continue to do that until I eat all the popcorn and have white stars on my paper. I then turn the paper in all directions until I see something. I then devise a story as to how the constellation got there in the sky.
I then send them back to do the same thing on their own papers. I love how they try to help each other figure out what they see. Some are easier than others, some may need a bit of help.
When they are through with their stories, we share the title or the story with each other. While we are waiting for the class, I let them figure out their zodiac sign and read a kid friendly horoscope. We compare it to a fortune cookie or the paper at a Chinese restaurant.
I then complete my lesson by sharing an activity with flashlights comparing the closeness of stars and their brightness. We can all be super stars with this one!
It is hard to fit it all in during the school day, and with holidays approaching you might want to even add a bit of fun...why not do both! I have been playing with the idea of every new holiday I can connect Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math within the confines of my lesson and still cover NGSS Standards!
Holiday and Science Connection #1: Buoyancy/Sink and Float
What a great way to teach sink and float while sharing with the students the story of the Mayflower. I like the visuals of this video, but I will be posing a variety of questions as we watch and not listen...for older students it is perfect, but for littles it is too hard to understand. It ties in history, which you can do on your own.
1. What do you see?
2. How is a boat long ago, different and the same as a boat we see now?
3. What else is different in 1620?
4. What problems might have occurred on a ship if you were a Pilgrim?
5. Why does a big boat float?
6. What other things might float?
7. Why would someone want to write on a boat?
8. When would you travel across the sea? They left in September. Was that a good idea or not?
9. They needed to write down rules. Why was important to have rules?
Find items around your classroom that you can place in a bucket or on a tray. Set out buckets of water. Have students test the items. Have each person draw on a sticky note something on the tray. Each pick a different item. Use an anchor chart to show and display the pictures.
Holiday and Science Connection #2: Living or Non-Living with Scarecrows!
Scarecrows are a perfect connection to living vs. non-living. Scarecrows are used to help farmers ward off birds that might eat the plants in a field. They look real so it scares the crows!
This can be an easy lesson in what is living:
You can find pictures in magazines to make posters to share. You can give word cards to each child to see if they can figure it out using the definition of living. Then, how fun to create a scarecrow after reading one of my favorites: The Little Scarecrow Boy.
I give my students construction paper, straws, cups, toilet paper tubes, and popsicle sticks. I give them glue, scissors, and tape...but not too much tape!
Holiday and Science Connections #3: Traditions
My students come from a wide range of ethnicities. That means that not all of my students celebrate holidays or at least the ones that I do. So approaching the Thanksgiving holiday doesn't mean that everyone in our classes will sit down and eat the same meal we do or even celebrate that at all.
There are two ways to go about an activity where students make a Thanksgiving table. . You can tie it into the history of the first Thanksgiving and share what was served then vs. what we might eat now. Or not even share what we eat now...or you can say at a holiday you might celebrate what do you eat...or you can plain out ask, those of you that celebrate with families on Thanksgiving what is your favorite food or what do you even serve. My Hmong students typically eat rice and chicken.
We love making a special table for a meal we can eat with our families. We use toilet paper tubes, tongue depressors, unifix cubes, and cardstock/notecards. I love having the students make their favorite food that can then fit on the table. Here is the free lesson for you to use in your classroom!
One of the NGSS concepts that I now need to cover with my littles in how animals survive, grow and meet their needs. This is for our first grade friends. What a great way to show how animals are able to survive...Thanksgiving style! Turkeys do a great job camouflaging. Many of the activities out there are for turkey to hide...how does a turkey survive without building a hideout or dress in a costume? This is a prefect way to show what camouflage means, but also do some of those fun activities to make those connections!
How can a turkey survive playing hide and seek for survival? They are shades of brown and it makes them harder to spot. Try taking a coloring sheet of a turkey, have students color it to blend into their classroom as they blend in. Have a predator (school personnel) come in and see if they can find the hiding turkeys within view in your room! Give them one minute on the clock to see how many they can hunt and find!
Want to join the fun with Holiday Science and STEM? Thanksgiving Science includes connecting social studies, math, science, games, and STEM engineering projects with a sprinkle of tradition all in one spot to make it easier for you to print and go!
This pack focuses on Buoyancy with sink and float activities, Camouflage with the concept of how animals survive and protect themselves, as well as Living and Non-Living as we add some scarecrow activities to the mix! What a perfect way to tie it all together with each concept having games, activity sheets, and a STEM engineering project using simple supplies!
This week, we are wrapping up our five senses in kindergarten. What a perfect opportunity to find an inexpensive treat for some science fun! Let me show you how to integrate math, reading, and writing as well all by using Popcorn!
I went and bought a new popcorn popper for my kindergartners so that they could utilize all five. Not only can they see the popcorn popping, the can hear it, smell it, then feel it once it cooled down, and then finally taste it! I add a bit of salt to the bowl and we are good to go!
Let's Get Popping:
1. First set rules for how far they need to sit away from the popper. They will worry they won't get to see, but to be safe set up a barrier or a table they need to watch from.
2. Once popped and the senses that were reviewed and property words shared, send them back to their spots where you can set out a napkin or paper towel. I give each group a cup of salted popcorn and share that this is what they will get for the five senses activity.
3. I create an anchor chart that we then review with taste being the last one that we do. The words they describe are what I write down. We feel and describe, share what we smelled and describe, share what we see heard (it's hard to say anything, but pop...), and then we taste it!
4. While they are eating, I love popping up Epic Books, free to teachers, and finding The Popcorn Book by Tomie dePaola. I paraphrase for my kinders so they can understand the pictures.
5. When everyone is finished we head to the carpet for our Google Interactive Smartboard game! These slides are the best! I can have students come to the board after rewarding them for making good choices, listening right away, doing their work. I give out Smartboard Sticks with numbers on them. If I have 8 slides I give 8 sticks out and so on.
The students one at a time then go up and use the movable pieces to show what they know. It is a great way to assess if they understand the concepts! You can find the Popcorn digital activity and Stations HERE.
6. When we are finished, we then work on more science along with writing and math connections. I use my popcorn packet to have students use the anchor chart to fill in a five senses chart of their own. The next station, I place out a jar with salt and seeds inside for them to observe. I also love dancing popcorn. Check out this video:
7. The math activity includes giving each of my students a popcorn bucket pattern or the real things from the Dollar Store. I make the different numbers on popcorn shapes that then go in a popcorn bag or bucket or even just turned around in the middle of the table. Students then turn two cards over, use real or paper popcorn patterns to count it out. They love this!
The moon phases are one of my favorite lessons to teach. I think it is a wonderful challenge to teach students a strategy that would allow them tricks to remembering the phases! I also love all of the activities and games that can enhance the learning of another cycle and pattern in the solar system!
I have Nine Great Strategies for you that will help your students learn the cycles in a fun and engaging way! Strategy 1: Moon Phase Trick
Here
is a trick for remembering the moon phases:
Hold
up both thumb nails. Show them that on left hand we will
call it waxing, wax on by doing a circle motion, on your right
we call that waning and we will do a circle motion wane off.
Now
back to the thumb nails, on the left hand (wax on) the nail
is on the right side of the thumb nail. This will always be the
first hand (1st
quarter) and always be waxing crescent or gibbous.
On
the right nail it reminds you that it is a waxing hand, on the
left side of the nail is the white crescent or waning crescent
or waning gibbous. It helps remind us is it waxing (left hand) or waning (right hand).
Then
you tell them to ask questions, is it full or new? Waxing or
Waning? Big or little? Half? Left or right hand.
Strategy 2: Moon Phase Calendar
Use a moon phase calendar to question students on which day them might see a specific phase. I use this site because the pictures are more defined: Moon Phase Calendar
I ask questions such as, "One one day of the month would you see a waxing gibbous?", or "On which day is there a first quarter moon?" We also look at it to help us see patterns during the months and the 29 day cycle.
Strategy 3: Moon Phase Interactive Notebook
I want my kiddos to match words with the moon phases to understand their vocabulary.
We use a little interactive notebook sheet that helps us place the words underneath the pictures and add it to our notebooks!
Strategy 4: Moon Phase Memory (Freebie)
I love adding a game for my students to play and learning the moon phases lends itself perfectly to memory! So I created two Moon Phase Memory Games that I placed in my Free Resource Library! Just sign up for my newsletter and you will get the secret code that is filled with great free resources!
This resource is also found in my Moon Phase Pack in my Store!
Strategy 5: Moon Phase Anchor Chart
I create an anchor chart that will allow my students to review, use as a guide when they play the memory games, when they create the interactive notebook page, when they play the Calendar review game...you get the picture, creating an anchor chart can be very versatile!
Strategy 6: Moon and Earth Revolution Model
I always like to review the cycles and patterns that we have already learned, and with that to show the big picture I like to create a model for the students to use that gives them a great visual as to how the moon revolves around the Earth and the Earth Revolves around the Sun as we rotate!
This is a perfect activity to review the vocabulary words revolve and rotate! All you need is a pattern of the Earth, moon, and sun in proportion, scissors, glue, and two paper fasteners per student.
Strategy 7: Styrofoam Moon Phase Demonstration or Simulation
I found this great idea from the National Science Teacher's Association on a search I did that demonstrates how to use a Styrofoam ball and a pencil to show how the phases of the moon work using a light and the ball! This is a great addition to the Moon Phase lesson and a perfect visual!
Strategy 8: Moon Phase Digital Games
I love using Google Drive and Digital Science Activities such as The Moon Phases to assess where my students are in their understanding of a given topic. I can use them individually by giving them each a qr code to create their own copy, or I also use them as a whole group activity where I project the game or review cards on the Smartboard! Either way has worked perfectly for a review, test, game, challenge...
Strategy 9: Moon Landing STEM Activity
I love reading the story, One Giant Leap and then show this video!
We finish it up by create a moon landing of our own! I give each team a tray with 6 toilet paper and paper towel tubes (the path) , a marble (the Apollo Space Craft), Tape, and a pattern of the moon and Earth.
They have to make a path on the wall that has three bends, and gets the marble safely from Earth to the moon! They love this challenge. This is one of five challenges in my STEM Space Stations Pack!
Want to find these ideas, sheets, activities, and a few bonus activities all in one place ready for you to just print and go? Check out my moon phase packs by following this link: Moon Phase Science Pack and STEM Connections
