Superlative Science

4 Chicks and a Sale!

2013-05-05T22:34:00.000-04:00

We have four baby chicks! My hatching rate was not so hot this year. Last years was much better...in the 90 percent range. This year we only had 4 out of 17 hatch, but they are adorable! Teachers and students alike come by often to visit and hold the chicks. I love spring with all of the babies. We have kittens at home, also. Please check out my farm unit for more agriculture fun and activities.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Farm-Fun-Learning-on-the-mooove

Also, BIG SALE on Teachers Pay Teachers this week!

Farm Fun!

2013-04-24T19:48:00.000-04:00

Kindergarten students are learning all about farm life, where are food comes from, and all things agriculture! We have chicks in the incubator and we have been checking on their progress with our ovascope. Everyone had fun doing our egg dissection lab: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Egg-Dissection-primary.
You can download our lab sheets for free at my TPT store. Also check out our farm unit:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Farm-Fun-Learning-on-the-mooove

Chess

2013-04-20T23:57:00.000-04:00

Consider adding chess into your students' day. Chess can help develop memory, improve concentration, promote logical thinking, and promote imagination/creativity. Did you know that chess is part of the daily academic curriculum in thirty countries? More information about chess in schools around the world: http://cis.fide.com/.

One of the essential goals of education is to teach children to think critically: students must learn to make reasoned judgments. Chess is an excellent tool to demonstrate the theme of critical thinking. During a game a player must formulate a plan of attack or defense.

Chess is an excellent tool to teach problem solving skills to all levels of students especially in the formative primary years. Instructional gaming is one of the most motivational tools in the good teacher's toolbox. Children love games. Chess motivates them to become willing problem solvers and spend hours quietly immersed in logical thinking. These same young students often cannot sit still for fifteen minutes in the traditional classroom.

For more research and statistics on the benefits of chess in education:
http://www.psmcd.net/otherfiles/BenefitsOfChessInEdScreen2.pdf

Motion, Marble Runs, and More...

2013-04-13T23:13:00.001-04:00

For physical science, nothing is more fun than marble runs! In kindergarten, I have premade plastic marble run tracks that students can put together to build their own design. This can provide hours of purposeful play. Students are engaged in the inquiry process and are able to apply what they've learned about force and motion to a real situation. It also helps the younger students with eye-hand coordination and hand dexterity. In first grade, their theme during this particular unit is based on the "If You Give a _______, a _________". We write our own story about one of our lab critters, "If You Give a Reptile a Rollercoaster." And we build an amazing marble run/roller coaster. I premake tracks and turns out of cardstock and they design their own rollercoaster in teams. For 2nd grade, their theme is based around Mercy Watson books and we write our own Mercy story about her wanting to go to an amusement park. We then create, design, and build our own rollercoasters out of cardstock. If you are in need of a great marble run template set, check out http://www.paperrollercoasters.com/products.htm. There are multiple you tube how-to videos for these templates.

For the giveaway... Check out my blogger friend's birthday giveaway:

Join Antonia's B-day Bash and Giveaway Celebration in honor of 200 blog followers!

The Nature of Science

2013-04-13T10:13:00.000-04:00

I always start off the year with the nature of science, but you can teach it anytime of the school year. The students need to learn how scientists use specific skills and processes to explore their curiosities. The first skill we learn is observation. A great easy activity for observation is to line up your class in two rows facing each other. Have them turn around facing away and change one small thing about their appearance (a button, shoelace, hairbow, collar up, etc.), have them turn back around and guess what is different. Shuffle the line and repeat. You can also have the principal or another teacher stop by for something random. Have them leave, change one thing about their appearance and stop back by in five minutes. Have everyone write down what changed and turn it in. Give the winner a prize.

Another important skill is working together and collaboration. I usually give them a challenge investigation to solve while learning how to work as a team. Something that is engaging and requires the use of inquiry skills is "The Bridge." Tell them that they will be engineers for the day and build a structure that must hold weight. A great picture book to introduce the lesson is "Iggy Peck the Architect".

Next, give each group one notecard and a bunch of blocks the same size. The rules are that they have to keep two blocks as far apart as possible (under the outside edges of the notecard) and stack as many blocks as they can on the structure. The team with the most blocks on their structure wins. They are allowed to make one modification. Now the fun begins. They will try it all. I have seen it all! Don't tell them the answer! You can guide them, but it is important that they figure it out. The best way to build the structure is to make your one modification, folding the notecard accordian style. A triangle shape is the strongest! This activity can cover a range of grades. Keep it basic for primary and for the older grades, add in some tools like the digital scale and level. You can also add the design process or the scientific process.

I hope I have given you some ideas on how to incorporate simple activities that promote scientific inquiry.

Moon Craters

2013-03-19T13:41:00.000-04:00

In my kindergarten classes, we have been talking about the night sky and last week, we focused on the moon. How long does it take for the moon to orbit the earth and long does it take for the moon to go through all of its phases (29.5 days)? What are the phases? What does the surface of the moon look like? etc.

First, we used Google Earth and Google Sky to explore the moon. We learned that the moon has mountains and craters caused by different sized asteroids. Brave teacher that I am, we decided to recreate the moon's surface using flour and cocoa powder (for color). First, I let them do it inside. Each group had a round container with "moon dust" and a selection of different size "asteroids" (balls). They were instructed to drop different sized asteroids from different heights to see how this affected the size of the craters. I have since created a lab sheet for this activity which will be posted in my TPT store. After a lot of fun and a huge mess, we moved outside! :)

Whole Brain Teaching

2013-01-06T19:53:00.001-05:00

I feel like a groupie! None other than CHRIS BIFFLE is coming to my school tomorrow! Woohoo! I am actually excited about going back to school tomorrow for professional development. :) I have been using whole brain teaching classroom rules in my lab/classroom for four years and now we are using several whole brain teaching concepts at our school in some classrooms. If you have never heard of Whole Brain Teaching, I highly recommend checking out videos on you tube. It will change the way you teach and run your classroom forever! :) http://wholebrainteaching.com/

Winter Sale and linky party!

2012-12-21T14:20:00.001-05:00

Winter Sale and Linky Party with Second Grade Math Maniac!

Candy Fun!

2012-11-25T21:35:00.001-05:00

I have been doing several candy investigations and experiments with the kids lately. We are putting those Halloween leftovers to good use! It is amazing what you can do with a bag of skittles! :) I will be posting more about the experiments this week. Great activities that you can use for science and math!

Where does the time go?

2012-11-25T21:29:00.000-05:00

I have been so incredibly busy this school year! We have done every experiment or activity that I could find for pumpkins the last month. We even have our own pumpkin patch and they are growing! We cut the top off of our pumpkins and put soil in. A week later they sprouted and two weeks later, we dug our trench and everyone put their pumpkins in and covered them with soil. The students even hammered in stakes and roped their area off. We are fertilizing them with compost tea we made last year. We have pumpkin memories we will never forget and some we would like to (right, Mrs. Bowman?). These two pictures tell it all...in the first photo, this student brought in the pumpkin size that she was told to bring in and that was stated on the note home. In the second picture, well, you always have at least one student and parent who defy all rules and requests! Yes, the pumpkin was so large, she said it was too heavy to carry to my lab, but she had no problem hurling into our sink/float station when our backs were turned. It sounded like Shamu was in the room! Everything and everyone was soaked at the surrounding area! :)

P.S. Do not forget the cyber Monday sale at TPT: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Superlative-Science

Halloween fun!

2012-10-29T21:22:00.000-04:00

Need some cool science demonstration to do for Halloween? Look no more! All you need is a raw egg, vinegar, and green food coloring. You can call it "Alien Egg" or "Monster Egg". Have students make predicitons of what will happen when you put a raw egg in vinegar. You can even talk about acides and bases. "What is vinegar, an acid or a base?" "What do acids do?" "What will acid do to our egg?" Place the raw egg in a beaker or glass of vinegar. Add food coloring and wait. Students can make several observations. After 24 to 48 hours, the egg shell will be gone and you will have the coolest looking "alien egg" ever! Your kids will be amazed!

Time Flies!

2012-10-20T17:15:00.000-04:00

Wow, we are already at the end of October! The school year is flying by! We have been so busy in the lab, I am taking two classes, and I had the flu for 10 days... Unfortunately, I haven't had much time for blogging. Here are some photos of activities we have been busy with...
First, we started off the year with our first unit "Mystery Madness" (school wide theme). I use GEMS Mystery Festival
along with my Mystery Madness Detectives unit. Above is a picture of a first grade science journal. We studied fingerprints for a few days and now I think we know if everyone in the entire school is a loop, arch, or whorl! :) The students love solving mysteries and it is a great way to introduce the nature of science, inquiry, and all of the science skills/tools we will be using throughout the year.

"Let's Get Physical" is our second unit of the year. We have been slimed, gooped, and we made alien eggs (very cool!) while learning all about matter and its properties. Both found in my Halloween Science Fun packet.

My assistants: Forrest Gump, Lilo, and I are working on some new things right now, that we will be posting soon. :)

Forrest Gump

Lilo

I've Been Boo-ed!

2012-10-14T17:41:00.000-04:00

I have been Boo-ed!

By Lori Rosenberg at:

Maybe you've seen or heard of this fun "game" in neighborhoods or even at your school... but let's try a blog version! Here is how it works:

If you've been booed, copy and paste the above pic and these "rules" into your post.

1. Give a shout out to the blogger who booed you and link back to their site!

2. Share 3-5 October activities, books, products (yours or someone else),

or freebie(s) that you love!

3. Share the Boo love with 5 bloggers- make sure you check this link to make sure you don't boo someone again:
http://toristeachertips.blogspot.com/2012/10/ive-been-booed-fun-october-linky.html

And don't forget to tell them that they have been BOOED!

4. Link up {here} so that others can find you and read about your October ideas! And while you are there... check out the other great blogs!

My Favorite October Items:

1. My Monsters Matter packet: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Monsters-Matter

2. Nicole Heinlein's (http://www.teaching-with-style.com/) Pumpkin Unit: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pumpkin-Science-Life-Cycles-Experiments

3. "The Candy Corn Contest" by Patricia Reilly Giff

4. "Dancing Creepy Crawlies": http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dancing-Creepy-Crawlies-Science-Lab

5. And something to make mornings complete... :)

Passing the Boo on!

Freebie and Matter

2012-10-08T19:18:00.001-04:00

This week in the lab all grades K-3 are working on matter. K is being introduced to matter. First grade is reviewing matter. One of my first graders said to another on the carpet this morning, "Can you believe my brother is in highschool and doesn't know that there are more then three states of matter?! He had never heard of plasma or Bose-Einstein condensate!" To this my other first grader replied, "I know, my dad (a highschool science teacher) says I know more than a lot of his students!" I love how the little ones soak up knowledge like a sponge! This group did my "Monsters Matter" packet last week and loved it! Second grade is working on attributes/properties of matter and we are making slime and gooblin goop on Wednesday!

This weekend, I attempted a cootie catcher...
I have all but given up on making cootie catchers. :) So here is my first attempt.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwO4fqwIC0ztbWFhMVNaTG9LOE0

Acceleration and Enrichment

2012-10-07T20:55:00.000-04:00

I am taking a curriculum class right now for gifted learners, so I have been putting a lot of though into how I differentiate learning in the lab. Science is actually a great subject to differentiate learning and a great subject to challenge your high students in. Science instruction can be differentiated to allow students to explore topics of interest (huge plus for the gifted student), expand their research skills, and receive instruction on discrete science and inquiry skills. I try to do tiered lab sheets as often as possible. I usually do three levels, making the highest one challenging in science and math skills. I also try to let instruction be student interest driven. Real world problems and applications are always popular. I also group my highest students together at one table. You could also use learning contracts. I have not used them yet, but I am considering it.

I found an interesting article tonight: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1653653-1,00.html

I included different level lab sheets on my Monster Madness update: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Monsters-Matter

Pictures are from Monster Madness labs this week. :)

Great Giveaways!

2012-10-03T03:00:00.000-04:00

Check out Jen's Ghostly Good Giveaway!

and Kerri's 500+ celebration giveaway!

October is here!

2012-10-01T14:25:00.001-04:00

October is here...I just we had the cooler weather to go with it! It is hot in central Florida! I am happy to be thinking about fall activities and Halloween! Halloween can be so much fun in the lab. We definitely are mad scientists! I have a new item on TPT filled with 6 fun, easy, exciting Halloween Investigations. Check it out... http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Halloween-Science-Fun
This week in the lab, we are beginning our chemistry/matter unit in grades 1 and 2 and of course, pumpkin investigations in K. We might actually make a pumpkin explode this year. :)
Today, we did "Dancing Creepy Crawlies" in first grade. We replaced the traditional raisins with broken up cooked spaghetti dyed different colors with food coloring. The red ones looked so gross... just like real worms. Mystery potion A was sprite and B was tonic water. They had to determine which made the worms dance more.

Sick, Sale, and Sleepy!

2012-09-21T21:29:00.000-04:00

I have had a cold which turned into bronchitis...I was managing. Until yesterday, when the stomach bug entered! Needless to say I have been ill and confined to the house for two days. I think *fingers crossed* that my stomach woes are over, but I have this lingering cough! Being asthmatic, this means I am having a serious relationship with my nebulizer!
Enter fall...although it still feels very much like summer in central Florida! I am having a sale and I have joined a blog hop..."Happy Fall Y'all!"
Thank you to Casey@ http://secondgrademathmaniac.blogspot.com/
I love her blog!
Finally, my meds are making me very sleepy...goodnight!

Publisher Secrets

2012-09-18T20:33:00.002-04:00

Did you know that there are airplaine templates on microsoft publisher? Yes! And there are also origami templates...get this...with directions! They are in templates under "paper folding." You can edit the words, pictures to be whatever you would like. :) There are four aircraft designs. I usually give one design to each group and we go through the scientific process or engineering design process (or both!) with them.
Problem- Which aircraft goes the greatest distance?
Hypothesis- I think that _____ design goes the greatest distance because _________.
etc.
We do 3-5 trials and the kids love it!

A great giveaway...

2012-09-08T08:53:00.001-04:00

http://surfinthroughsecond.blogspot.com/

Check out Corinna's great giveaway! Each day she will feature some fabulous bloggers and give away items from them. Congratulations, Corinna!

Science ipad apps

2012-09-06T20:53:00.003-04:00

I am so excited! I finally go the cord to connect my ipad to my smartboard. My first favorite science app is National Geographic Kids. You can download free explorer magazines for grade levels from K-8. They have embedded video and pictures/facts and for the younger kids, it has audio to read it to them!

I also like Science 360. There are unlimited science photos, videos, and more!

Next week, I will post any new apps that we explore in the lab!

Science Resources

2012-09-03T19:15:00.001-04:00

I thought I would share some of my favorite online science resources.
I love scholastic's studyjams! They have short math and science videos about many topics and the kids love them. I usually use a short clip for an activating strategy.

Next, I love simulations! PhET offers FREE fun, researched based online simulations. http://phet.colorado.edu/
My husband loves BBC for the show "Top Gear" but I love BBC for all of the free education resources. They have games, lesson ideas, video clips, and more! http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks2/

PBS has great short videos on cool science jobs! They also have science experiments and science fair help. The kids love the games. http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/

Check out these sites...they are full of science fun and information!

My TPT store:

I am currently working on science units (force and motion with Mercy, prediction, observation, and inference with Epossumondas) to go with several of my favorite books:

If you have never read a Picture Perfect Science book, I highly suggest it! A great resource for teachers!

Also, check out my latest post on "Critters in the Classroom"!

FIRE Florida International Reptile Expo

2012-09-01T21:03:00.001-04:00

Big Daddy got a new scarf!

Big Daddy ready to go to FIRE today!

We had some ups and we had a bad down at FIRE today. I am a science lab teacher. I have a lot of lab critters for the students which for the most part, I fund out of pocket. We loaded up on crickets, wax worms, horned worms, fruit flies (premium crickets). We purchased a new small zoomed habitat, bought "dumpy" white tree frogs (thank you, Hang Ten reptiles!) Visited Pinellas County Reptiles and picked up some supplies for "Forrest Gump" our chameleon we bought from them in June in Tampa. Our oldest beardie got a scarf from "Neon's" mom (sorry, can't remember the name). And unfortunately, bought 2 dart frogs from House of Reptiles Jacksonville (for a tank my husband has put about $500 into). They died before we left Orlando (within 2-3 hours). We went back to the vendor and "all he could do was offer us two more at half price." He said they got too hot and that I should take responsibility for that. I say he should take responsibility for educating a new pet owner! If I had known how sensitive they were, I would have bought them right before we left and rushed home. All of our other purchases survived just fine. These frogs did not leave us. We carried them around the expo and by the time we left and stopped to get gas, they were dead. My daughter cried all the way home, and my students will be sad come Tuesday. Shame on that vendor! Now I have this beautiful habitat and NO frogs! I am going to have to figure out a new way to fund our dart frogs...any ideas? They are very expensive and we just threw away $100 today on dart frogs. Update... We went to Pinellas County Retiles and got two beautiful frogs who are thriving.

The Science Penguin

2012-08-22T07:00:00.000-04:00

Make sure to head over to "The Science Penguin" to check out my guest post! I love how Ari incorporates Daily 5 into science. "The Science Penguin" has great resources, check it out!

Critters in the Classroom

2012-08-18T22:19:00.001-04:00

Head on over to Critters in the Classroom to check out my post on reptiles! :)