SUPER SCIENCE! Just in time for the BIG test too!

Everyone knows that science is what you make it (as is teaching all the subjects really).  You can either let those kids read that textbook and call it a day, which is not bad - just not me, or if you are a multi-media kind of gal/guy like me, then you like to incorporate everything possible and watch their eyes light up with excitement!  I am BIG on our interactive notebook and we get our information for those from anywhere and everywhere we can.  Here are a few of my go to sources that I would highly recommend to any science teacher.

 

BrainPop and StudyJams are where it is at!  If you have not checked out these videos you are missing out.  BrainPop has knowledge-packed videos along with activities and quizzes that really help the students get a better understanding or background knowledge on a topic.  Thankfully, they also have videos for all the other subjects as well.  The bummer part is they do cost money, but in my humble opinion (as my teammate would say), it is TOTALLY worth it.

 

 

StudyJams is very similar in that it has knowledge-packed videos that are a few minutes long but they also have an interactive "Test Yourself" feature that my kids love.  The beauty of StudyJams is that it's free!  They only have videos for Math and Science though, but what a wealth of videos!

 

If you teach science in upper elementary or middle school or high school and have not checked out Mr. Parr, you are missing out!?  He is a definite go to when trying to differentiate for your learners in your classroom.  He writes songs about the different topics and units of study based on popular music that your kids can relate to.  He has over a 100 songs to choose from so go check him out!  This one on the Rock Cycle is one of my favorites!

 

  
Lakeshore sells these Science Activity Tubs for the different units and inside each tub is eight different labs with everything included to set up and get started!  We only have the Properties of Earth on in our class but it filled with wonderfulness!  If you have a chance to snag one, or DonorsChoose it, it is so worth the money!  A perfect way for kids to learn through experimenting of even just review.

 Science is just so fun to teach... I hope you share the love!  There are so many amazing resources out there, you just have to look for them!  Luckily, I have brought them to you :o)  Remember how I told you I was BIG into out interactive Science Notebook?  Well a few of my BBB's have totally come through for me when I needed material for them and we have teamed up with Educents for an amazing bundle of instant downloads for you!

There are two of my products included that will surely be loved by your students (mine did)!  

 Cooking with Science: Physical and Chemical Changes is just a down right fun way to apply science to the real-world.  Through an interactive read-aloud and a delicious lab where students make homemade butter and pancakes, your kiddos will be able to detect physical and chemical changes not only on their test but in their own kitchens as well!  Check out my blog post for more behind the scene pictures and details.

 

Both labs have a homemade recipe, directions, and lab sheet that integrates reading, math, science, and critical thinking skills!  Even today when I ask the kids what they love most about 5th grade so far...  Pancakes is always on top!

 

In conjunction with the labs,  I also have SCOOT! Physical and Chemical Changes in the bundle!  The cards range from easy to what I call "thinkers."  I don't like telling kids something is difficult because then a lot of them give up without ever trying.  These require the students to stop and THINK.  This is a perfect way to reinforce the skills and apply them all while moving around the room.

 

 

For a limited time it is $10.99 from Educents which is about 65% off!  It also includes these other great products so there is sure to be things you love!  

You can also take peek at some of the other products included in the bundle at any of the links below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Have fun teaching everyone!

Texts Sets for Introducing Novel Studies (Among the Hidden)

We are starting our new novel, Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix (one of my favorites!), and I wanted a unique pre-reading activity to introduce the book.  If you haven't read this book, it is a must read!  It's about a boy, Luke, who lives in a society which enforces a population law that only allows two children per home.  Luke is a third child, one of the Shadow Children.  One day when Luke is gazing longingly out the window, because he can't go outside for fear of being discovered, he finds another "third child" in one of his neighbor's home.  His new friend would love nothing more than to leave the house and let the world know who she is...  But does Luke dare to do the same?  From there it is a very suspenseful tale and I'm not going to give any more away!  As you can tell for such a good book, I had to have a good hook!

Cue my most recent professional development!  One of our county's reading gurus came to our school to tell us all about "text sets" and how to implement them in our classroom.  Now I know the term "text sets" has been around for a while and I have always heard a few different meanings for the phrase but this PD showed me text sets in a whole new light.  Maybe it's a Common Core thing, but Florida is just starting to semi-embrace CC (we're just calling it something else) so forgive me if you already know this!

The purpose of this text set is to attempt to not just introduce a topic, but issues within the topic, and have students form opinions based on their evidence from many different sources/forms of media.  For our pre-reading activity I used video clips, articles, and maps.  One of the things that the presenter kept mentioning was that we DO NOT teach during this lesson.  This is all about the students teaching and thinking for themselves.  Using this graphic organizer (go ahead and grab it, it's FREE!) they fill out each square after each new piece of evidence and write down all their thoughts, then finally form their opinion.  I cannot take credit for this organizer.  The presenter showed us her version but I created my own and swapped the order of some of the boxes.

Step One: Introduce the Topic and Purpose Question
My topic was about population policy.  I started off by just asking some general family questions of the kids.  Who was the second child in their family?  Who was the third?  Who had more than three siblings?  Were their parents a third child?  Then the "hard hitting" questions came out.  What if I said every family could only have two children?  Who would still be here?

It was very interesting to watch the faces of the third children.  I asked them if there was any way that could ever be a rule, only being allowed to have two children, and they were very adamant that it could not!  Then I introduced my Purpose Question: "Is it ever okay for the government to "manage" your family and tell you how many children you can have?"  Unanimous "no" ladies and gentlemen.

I introduced the graphic organizer (which I printed on gray card stock and laminated so they would last me longer) and the purpose behind it and told them to only fill out the box I told them to when I tell them to.  You can actually go in any order you want but I started from the top and went left to right.

Step Two: This Makes Me Feel/Think
Our first source was a three minute video clip about what exactly is China's One-Child Policy.  It was very informative and gave the background as to how it got started and looked into one "invisible child's" life not being able to fully exist.  It was very moving.  After watching the clip I told them to read the directions and fill out the first box.

Step Three: Stop and Jot
For the last three boxes the students would be using articles that I prepared for them on a key ring.  Each pair of students grabbed one article and read it together.  I only had two articles, one that showed the benefits of China's population policy and one that was against it.  After they read their article and discussed their thoughts and opinions with their partner, they had to read the directions and fill out the Stop and Jot square based on what they just read (not the video).

Step Four: R.E.S.P.O.N.D.
You can have the students swap articles if you would like, but I had mine tell each other what they read about.  They did know this ahead of time to help them prepare key points and the main idea.  They were also allowed to reference back to the article.  After teaching each other about the other side of the issue, students chose one way to respond to what they just learned: R - rephrase, E - explain, S - summarize, P - pose a question, O - opinion, N - note your thoughts, or D - describe.  Again, this section is only writing down their thoughts and feelings based on what their partners just taught them.  They never read the other article, just learned about it from their table mates.

Step Five: Citing Textual Evidence
This is where it all comes together.  Now that students have seen the video, read the articles, made connections, etc. they write down their final answer to the Purpose Question in the last box using text evidence to support their opinion.  It was interesting to see some of their unanimous "No's" go to "well maybe..."

My kids absolutely LOVED this pre-reading activity.  They couldn't wait until we started the novel after they found out that this is what it would be about.  As I stated in the beginning, I did very little teaching during this time.  A couple kids had questions about what words meant and what not and we did end up having a whole group discussion on the two articles at the end but by that point they already knew everything.  I wasn't teaching them anything new.  It was very satisfying to watch my fifth graders be such independent learners and thinkers!

You could use text sets and the graphic organizer for SO MANY subjects!  The Reading and Writing Project has tons of digital non-fiction text sets already set up for you by subject to get you started.  It is an amazing way to cover citing evidence, differentiating reading levels, text features, social skills/communication, in-depth knowledge on any subject, and so much more!  I keep thinking of different topics I would love to use this with!  What are your thoughts and suggestions?  I would love to hear any ideas you have in the comments sections :0)

Happy Friday y'all!

Cooking with Science

As you know, this is my first year teaching science and I am really starting to like it!  I know, it's February and I'm JUST NOW starting to like it???  Well actually, I'm now more comfortable with it which makes it more fun, lol.  One of my favorite activities we did (and my student's favorite as well) is cooking to show how physical and chemical changes occur in our everyday lives.

Before we even began the cooking, we had to reinforce our knowledge of the differences between physical and chemical changes with a little SCOOT!  My kids love this game because it's fast paced and they get to move around.

Once we went over the answers and confirmed that we knew the difference between a physical and a chemical change, it was time to put on our chef's hat!  I broke the class up into four different groups and gave each of the groups a recipe/directions sheet, all the materials and ingredients and let them go to town!  This lab was very hands-on and exploratory for the students.  The only real direction or warning I gave was to hold the jar with TWO HANDS while you were shaking.  VERY IMPORTANT unless you want to be cleaning up cream and glass shards.  I mean, look how fast he's shaking this jar?!

It was really interesting to see all the different techniques and processes that the groups came up with to complete their lab.  It was also hysterical to watch the kids shake their little hearts out to make butter out of cream.  You don't want to laugh in their faces but you just can help but giggle!  Here are these little scrunch faces trying as hard as they can and their team is cheering them on and laughing and you can't help but smile :o)

Once our butter was finished (and taste tested of course) it was on to the pancakes!  Again, I gave each group a directions/recipe sheet along with the ingredients and lab report and let them create!  This lab required more observation and recording data/evidence throughout the whole process, so it was perfect for them to bounce ideas off each other!  I left them in the same groups as the butter lab because they already created a foundation of how to work well together. 

While all the students followed the directions, the recipe maybe not so much.  To be fair though, we haven't taught measurement yet, haha!  Thus their pancakes DID NOT turn out all the same.  The first group was a little rough, but the other three were spot on!  It didn't matter if they were ruined though.  These kids thought this was the best thing they had ever done and loved every single bite!  They were so proud of themselves, as they should be!

Now all that was needed was to finalize their lab sheets and eat their creations!  They smeared on their butter and drizzled some syrup and voila!  A feast for their hard work!

All in all the lab went above my expectations but also did exactly what I had hoped it would do.  It had these kids discussing every day occurrences in scientific terminology.  It had them seeing the world as physical and chemical changes and they began categorizing things as we went throughout the day.  It had them applying what we were learning in class to something other than a textbook and it had them enjoying science.  That's really all a teacher can ask for :o)

If you would like more information on Physical and Chemical Changes SCOOT or other activities including the Cooking with Science Labs, please click on their pictures above or visit my store!

Sweets for the Sweet!

I am collaborating with my girls over at A Class-y Collaboration for a wonderful Valentine's Day Freebie Link Up: Sweets for the Sweet!

 



Today I will be linking up one of my all time favorite activities to do on Valentine's Day with my big kids.  It's such a hard time with them because most of them are "too cool" for valentines yet others want to do it, so it's this fine line of what is appropriate for them and if they will even like it or find it too cheesy.

Now, the item in the pictures will be different than what you receive because my flash drive met an untimely demise earlier this school year and I lost A LOT of stuff.  This item being one of them.  Note to everyone reading this... GO COPY YOUR FLASH DRIVE NOW!!! 

This activity is called Famous Couples!  The student's wear name badges that have one name of a person or thing from a famous couple.  I make the badges into necklaces but you can also just tape them to their shirts.

Make sure the badge is on their back though!  They cannot know who they are!



The whole point of the game is to figure out who their person is by asking "yes" or "no" questions to everyone else in the room.  Using the clues they find out, they will try and guess who they are!



Once they have figured out who they are, they have to go find their famous pair.



There are a lot of different activities you could do with this after everyone has found their partner!  I usually have them write a creative story about how the famous couple met and how they became synonymous with each other.  It's hysterical what some of them come up with!



Don't forget to check out A Class-y Collaboration for more fabulous Valentine's Day freebies and feel free to link up your own as well! 

Personal Student Scales (FREEBIE!)

I don't know about y'all's county or district but ours is all about Marzano.  Scales, learning goals, the whole gambit!  While we have a whole class scale in our room that we use weekly/throughout a unit, there are still times I want to get a quick check as to where my students are without having to waste time on everyone getting up, moving their clip, and then possibly changing their mind because other people are on a different number than they are.

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of a scale and having students take responsibility for their learning as well, but sometimes this all feels like a show.  Possibly because it's not how I would necessarily do it.  There are so many different ways to gauge students understanding and learning and what might work for one, might not work for another...  AND THAT'S OKAY.  Luckily, I work with and for some amazing people who understand that.

To still stick with Marzano but make it more comfortable for my teaching I have stolen, yes STOLEN, an idea from another group of fabulous people in our county.  As fifth graders, my students go on the Mud Walk to the Environmental Center every year for a field trip.  It's a two day trip and the dry day is a more indoor learning experience and they had these fabulous little scales that the students used.  My team and I LOVED them and knew we had to recreate them for our classrooms.  In case you were wondering, the other day is the wet day.  Yes, that is exactly what it sounds like: Mud Walk Wet Day.  We literally spend an hour or so walking through mud and river water, but I love it!



Now we want to share them with you!  You don't even have to be implementing Marzano in your classroom to use these bad boys :o)  Here's how to set them up!

1.  First, click here to download your FREE personal student scale.  Go ahead, I'll wait...  Oh good, you're back!  Now print them on cardstock (they last longer).  You can laminate them but I did not because usually they don't stay folded if it's laminated, but your call!

 



 

2.  Once you have printed them off, cut down the middle to separate the two scales.  If you are OCD like me and want them to be exactly the same/perfect spacing, then measure your paper (length wise) and draw a line at the 5 1/2" mark.  Slice the paper right down the middle!

 



 

3.  Now that you have separated the two scales, fold them in half (hot dog style, as my kids say) to make a table tent.



 

4.  Cut a piece of yarn that can wrap around the front of your scale.

 



 

5.  Tape the yarn to the inside cover of your scale on ONE side.

 



 

6.  Choose a bead and string it onto the yarn.  Then tape the yarn to the inside cover of your scale on the other side.

 



7.  Your completed project should look like this...

Now your students can move their bead along the scale without distraction as their learning increases or if they are having struggles!  Another reason I really like this personal scale is because kids tell you how they really feel about their learning.  Even though it sits on their desk and everyone can still see it, this is more comfortable to them as opposed to getting up and everyone watching them decide where their clip belongs on the classroom scale.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!



Disney Baby Shower!

Even though this doesn't have to do with my classroom, it does have to do with school.  Our teammates are just one more aspect of our lives at school and usually a very important one.  They are our second family, the people you spend most of your day with and on our team we go all out for each other!

One of my teammates just had a beautiful baby and I wanted to share the super cute baby shower we threw her (if I do say so myself!) before winter break.  She loves Disney and we knew that would be our theme long before she ever told us she was pregnant, haha.

Here is our table spread!  We tried to make these super cute Mickey Mouse cupcakes that we saw on Pinterest but around 1 AM the morning of, my teammate said it best... "Meet Mickey's illegitimate cousin Ricky."  Now to be fair, we used a different word than illegitimate, but you get the idea!  In décor, they were a Pinterest fail, but in flavor a success! 

Every food item was based on a Disney movie or character: Mickey Mouse's Cheese Platter, Minnie Mouse's Cheesecake, Three Amigos Chips and Salsa, Cinderella's Pumpkin Pie Dip, Snow White's Poison Apple Slices, Rabbit's Veggie Tray, and Ariel's Ocean Water.

 

On every table we had a little Mickey head centerpiece along with paper Mickey heads (made on my Silhouette Cameo) and directions for people to write advice for the new parents.

 



 

Our gift to her was a year of monthly onesies that were Disney themed.  Aren't they ridiculously cute!!!  We ordered the printables from Etsy, printed them on iron-on transfer paper, and voila!

 

 

We didn't really want to do any games because baby/wedding showers in our county have to be after hours, and we didn't want people to feel like they had to stay too late.  Instead we just had advice cards and "Diaper Duty" messages.  That diaper castle was made by our amazing art teacher!  IN. A. DAY.  More like hours.  It's hard to tell but the stained glass windows are of the classic Disney characters (Donald, Mickey, Goofy, and Pluto).

Last but not least, my favorite piece of all!  Our art teacher created letters of the baby's name using some of the most popular Disney male characters: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo, Tigger, and Peter Pan.  Isn't she amazing?!  I couldn't get over how well these turned out!

There were Mickey heads EVERYWHERE!  You can't see them, but we even had them hanging from the ceiling.  We used black circular paper lanterns and glued on black circles for the ears to create Mickey Mouse heads.  We were going to have a contest to see who could guess how many there were in total throughout the room, but after counting over a hundred and then loosing count we gave up, haha!  All in all it was quite a successful baby shower and I think mama was very happy!

A Day Our Way Linky

Oh the great and powerful schedule!  It really can be a thing of beauty.  It can make your life go so smoothly but when someone tries to change it up on you, BAM!  It's like your children think the apocalypse is coming! Lol, luckily this year my kids are pretty good about with going with the flow.  One of the issues we have is getting back to normal after we have gone with said "flow."

It is quite the coincidence that this linky came up today because just this week my team and reading coach were discussing how our schedules seem to be ever changing and how that is one thing we would really like to focus on for next year.  Now I will have LOTS of ideas to bring back to the team to help us form a plan of attack.  Couldn't have worked out better!

This is our schedule for this year.  It's a little different for me because now I am teaching all subjects but it keeps me on my toes and it's never a dull moment!

Morning Work:
This is always such a hectic time of the day.  The kids come in and get out their planners and homework from the night before and then begin whatever morning work is up on the board.  Once they start working on their morning work, which could be ANYTHING, I am calling up tables one by one to check their homework, signed planner, and give them tickets depending on where they landed on the behavior scale the day before.  While all this is going on, the morning news announcements are also running.  Needless to say it's crazy but somehow it all gets done before we go to specials at 8:50.  If anyone knows of a wonderful morning work packet for either reading, math, and/or science, PLEASE LEAVE ME A COMMENT!  I would love to find something all inclusive that people love already.

Reading Intervention:
This is 30 minute block is focused solely on our students fluency and reading comprehension.  The slight difference in this intervention block is that their reading comprehension is a specific skill they are working on.  This two week block my kids are working on comparing and contrasting as opposed to a story with questions that encompass all the skills.  This is the time where we really target our neediest students.  What's nice is that through the books we use, it's not always the same kids every time.  I might see different kids every few weeks based on where their strengths lie and depending on what skill we are learning. 

Reading/Social Studies:
MY FAVORITE!  Through this hour we do our Daily 3/Guided Reading Groups, Interactive Notebook from Erin Cobb, and any type of Social Studies I can get in!  Sadly, that doesn't happen as often as I would like but we use Social Studies Weekly and my kids seem to really enjoy that and it's a wonderful example of informational text.

During Daily 3 is when my students work on their spelling, vocabulary, and grammar through the different stations.  I'll go more into the 3-in-a-Row next week but I will show you some of the activities that they accomplish.  If you're like me then you know that finding Word Work centers for intermediate is not always the easiest.  I switch these out every couple of months just to keep things interesting but they can be used with any spelling or vocab word so they are always changing in a sense.  For writing the complete classroom journals, amazing sentences, and reading response.

Read Aloud:
I adore this time with my kids because this is when we relax and all get cozy on the floor and read a book just for the pleasure of reading.  We just finished Janitors (a Sunshine State Book) and it was good.  It took me a while to get into it but the ending was really good!!!  Now we are reading one of my all time favorites, The Sisters Grimm: Fairy Tale Detectives.  My kids are already hooked and I just love to hear them beg for more and tell me that lunch can wait, lol.

Math:
Math usually begins with a problem of the day (a problem of what we will be working on that day) and then we share all the different ways people solved it.  From there we move into our lesson in our math journals.  We write down our learning goal for the day and then begin our mini-lesson.  After the mini-lesson, they break up into their groups and do their MATH rotations (math facts, at your seat, teacher time, or hands on).

This was the beginning of the year, now it's filled with all sorts of math goodies!

With five minutes left we write down our homework and write down our reflection for our lesson using Runde's Math Reflection Fans.  I have these fans for EVERYTHING and LOVE them!  So do the kids!  They always ask if they get to do a reflection as an exit ticket and I am only to happy to oblige :o)

Science:
The last hour of the day is science and you never know what that's going to bring!  We do a lot in our Science Notebooks thanks to the Science Penguin, digital experiments, actual experiments, breaking down the lesson and more!  This year science is also a tested subject and it is pretty intense.  I'm loving it more and more as I go but still not my favorite subject, lol.

I know it's hard to see, but they are creating a series circuit here!

Afternoon Wrap-Up:
The afternoon wrap-up is the second craziest part of the day.  Safety patrols are trying to jet out while we are still packing up, cleaning up, writing down where we landed on the behavior scale in our planner and going over last minute reminders.  At the end of the day I'm always impressed what these kids absorb on the fly!

So that's it!  That's my day.  It seems so simple when I type it out here but it never really is, lol.  I like it that way though :o)  Link up with Amelia at Where the Wild Things Learn and tell us all about your schedule!