Search results matching tags 'science' and 'literacy'

Food Chain and Food Web Vocabulary Words - Literacy Station for Science

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 07:03:00 GMT

What is a food chain or a food web? What is a carnivore, herbivore, omnivore or scavenger? To answer question like these I made a set of food web science definition cards for my students. Each card has a picture of an organism to represent each term along with a simple, easy to understand definition. See the sample picture below. It is a total of eighteen cards available at TpT and Teachers Notebook for $3.00. I color coded each card so that the words match the colors of the theme in the definition. What do I mean? For example, the green cards have words like producer, herbivore, and photosynthesis. These cards encourage reading and will be a great addition to your science literacy station. Here is a list of all of the food web terms in this set: habitat, organism, producer, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, consumer, scavenger, decomposer, predator, prey, food chain, food web, micro-organism, fungus, energy and photosynthesis.

Speaking of reading, I also have these word wall cards that have the following terms: habitat, organism, producer, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, consumer, food chain, food web, scavenger, decomposer, predator, prey, energy, and photosynthesis. This illustrated word wall set is perfect for helping your students to remember the spelling and meanings of key food chain and food web terms. I used cute but realistic clip art of animals, plants, and micro-organisms. Some of the clip art used were created by Oxana at Teacher’s Clipart. Here's a preview (below) of one of the word wall cards - the food chain card. This one shows the words 'food chain' along with an actual food chain starting with a leaf that is by a caterpillar which is eaten by a bird which is eaten by a snake. Wait till you see the food web card. Yikes! You can click here (TpT) or here (Teachers Notebook) to see more sample pictures of this set.

If you need some books that you can have as supplementary information for your students, you can check out the full range of food chain book series available at amazon. I saw these "What if..." books that will take learning to a deeper level as students discover the calamity that happens when one organism is removed from the food chain. These are some of the books below.

What if there were no Bees? What if there were no Sea Otters? What if there were no Lemmings?

What if there were no Gray Wolves?

Here are some other things that can be included in your food chain science station...

Food Chain Bulletin Board Set Food Chain Craft Kit

Cut out each piece and make a food chain! I love this idea for younger students.

Chomp! - Food Chain Card Game

This won the Gold Seal award for best educational toy.

I will be doing a new post soon which will teach you how to teach students to make their own food chains and food webs so look out for it. It should be really helpful.

Food Chain and Food Web Vocabulary Words - Literacy Station for Science

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 07:03:00 GMT

What if there were no Bees? What if there were no Sea Otters? What if there were no Lemmings?

What if there were no Gray Wolves?

Here are some other things that can be included in your food chain science station...

Food Chain Bulletin Board Set Food Chain Craft Kit

Cut out each piece and make a food chain! I love this idea for younger students.

Chomp! - Food Chain Card Game

This won the Gold Seal award for best educational toy.

I will be doing a new post soon which will teach you how to teach students to make their own food chains and food webs so look out for it. It should be really helpful.

Let's Dance About Plants! The Carrot Seed Dance Story

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 10:00:00 GMT

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Happy Spring!

Here is a dance story based on the classic children's book The Carrot Seed, by Ruth Krauss, that I have developed and danced with many groups of children. This dance story is in my book, Dance, Turn, Hop, Learn! Enriching Movement Activities for Preschoolers (Redleaf Press, 2006), as part of an expanded movement lesson about the spring season. It is a wonderful way to celebrate spring, as well as to give children an appreciation for the outdoors, gardening, and of course, the optimism that seeds will grow and flourish.

Let's Do a Free Dance About the Carrot Seed Story!

The Carrot Seed Dance Story

Title: The Carrot Seed, by Ruth Krauss, Pictures by Crockett Johnson

Musical Selections: Two or three upbeat instrumental selections, and/or a song about gardening (such as “Dig, Dig, Dig” by Debbie Clement, or "In My Garden" by Raffi)

Props or Other Materials:

1. The book The Carrot Seed, by Ruth Krauss, pictures by Crockett Johnson

2. Seed packets (small envelopes) -- draw, or have the children draw, a carrot on the front:

Carrot Seed Packet

Directions for the Activity:

Gather the children together and read the book aloud. Tell the children that they now will dance the story of the little boy who plants the carrot seed. Pass out the seed packets. Continue with the following ideas:

1. (Play one of the musical selections) and say to the children: A little boy planted a carrot. Let’s plant our carrots! Let’s dig a big hole with our imaginary shovels. Now, shake your seed packet into the hole, and cover up the hole with lots of soil.

2. Now that we have planted our seeds (set the packets aside), what is the next thing we should do? We should water them! Hold your pretend watering can or hose, and give your seed lots of water.

3. Plants love the rain, don’t they? Let’s imagine we are outside when it rains! Let’s run and jump in the rain. Stomp through mud puddles! Move like the rain as it falls slowly, then very fast and hard. Now let’s imagine we are running inside to get dry. Dry off your arms, head, and body with a pretend towel. Now let's go out and feel the warm sunshine, because it stopped raining!

4. We need to give the carrot seed lots of space to grow, so now we will weed. Take out your ***, and weed all around your carrot plant.

Digging the Dirt!

Let’s get down on the ground and take the rest of the weeds out with our hands, just like the little boy in the story.

5. Stop the music, and take the next few minutes to create a little sound improvisation. Borrowing the idea from the book The Carrot Seed about the little boy who is so sure his seed will come up, but everyone else doubts it, say to the children: “I don’t think that seed you planted is going to grow!” And encourage them to say, “YES IT WILL!” Repeat this exchange several times. You can further develop this idea with non-verbal gestures, such as folded arms, head shakes, stamping feet, etc.

6. Now say to the children: Let’s count to three slowly together, one…two…three! Look! A carrot plant came up! It is a giant carrot! Now, let’s count again, and we will pull the carrot out of the ground! Repeat several times, as you encourage the children to explore what it would be like to pull a very large carrot out of the ground. The same idea applies for trying to carry the big carrot. Point out to them the difference in body movements when we are carrying something very heavy versus something very light.

7. We will finish our dance story with a free dance. I will play some music (another lively musical selection), and you can use all of the ideas we have talked about in the story: planting the seed, watering, dancing in the rain, the sunshine, pulling out the big carrot, and trying to carry it home. You may also add any other ideas you wish as you do your free dance.

8. Let’s finish by picking up the big carrots that we grew, very carefully so that we don’t drop them, and take a bow for the end of our Carrot Seed dance!

Happy Spring, and keep on dancin',

Connie

www.movingislearning.com

Fall Fun: Leaf Explorations!

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 08:00:00 GMT

Hi! I'm Ayn and I am a Ga. Pre-K teacher, serving 4 and 5 year olds in an inclusive setting. I share my classroom adventures on my blog, little illuminations.

Fall has begun here and it's the perfect time to explore nature. We've recently discovered the book, "We're Going On A Leaf Hunt" by Steve Metzger written similarly to the favorite "We're Going On A Bear Hunt".

We enjoy taking nature walks and collecting interesting leaves, acorns, gumballs, pine cones and other natural items along the way. We often bring items back to class to put in our science center for independent exploration, as well as in our art center.

We measure our leaves, both with standard and non-standard measures. Of course, as a true scientist would do, we hypothesize about what we think our results will be. (This is a great time for me as a teacher to ask questions and try to prompt critical thinking.) We use math cubes to measure length.

We cover the leaf with pennies and try to guess how many it will take to cover it completely.

We explore the properties of buoyancy. Do leaves sink or float? What if we weight it down with pennies? How many pennies will make the leaf sink?

We explore how the leaves travel through the wind to land in various locations on our playground and recreate the wind with a fan.

On the playground, leaves and natural items are an integral part of our play.

Gumballs are everywhere this time of year, and feature prominently in our outdoor play. The children often call them "meatballs".

Sometimes, they are featured in our art, as well.

In our art center, we make leaf rubbings.

After I saw this idea on Pinterest, we painted the back of leaves and made leaf print paintings.

Some of the kids made nature wreaths with found items.

Sometimes, we take the art materials outside to create with what we discover there.

One of our favorite fall books is "Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert.

The "Leaf Man" book often inspires the children to create their own "leaf people".

Leaf explorations are often a great way to help children begin to notice the world that surrounds them. I get as excited as the kids when I hear, "Hey, Mrs. Ayn, guess what I found?!" They are always excited to share their finds.

There are so many ways to explore the nature that surrounds us. Sometimes, a simple nature walk can lead to so much more!

Stop by and visit me anytime at littleilluminations.blogspot.com or visit the little illuminations fanpage on facebook!

Down on the Farm Activities, and a Freebie!

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 00:19:00 GMT

I have always been inspired to teach kids by theme. Since I was raised on a farm, I have always enjoyed teaching my kids about what it's like to be on a farm. I especially like cows, and so today I'm going to share my favorite activities that have a "cow theme" to them.

To begin, I'd like to share some terrific books about cows!

The first book, I'd like to suggest to most teachers is "The Milk Makers" by Gail Gibbons

"The Milk Makers" is a Reading Rainbow book, because it teaches kids how milk is processed. Most kids only know that we buy milk at the store, and put it in our refrigerators. They don't understand that milk starts out on a farm. This book will help them learn how milk ends up on their fridge.

Another great book by Gail Gibbons is "Farming".

"Farming" gives children an idea of what it is like to be on a farm. The illustrations show what it looks like to be on a farm, throughout the entire year. It shares what kind of chores a farmer and his family must do, during each individual season. Another fun thing about this book is; it describes different kinds of farms, and the animals in each one.

I would use both books to help introduce this theme!

The first activity is my favorite, because I love ice-cream! Especially, homemade ice-cream! Now, most of you know that I encourage parents and teachers to get messy with their kids. So that's exactly what I'm going to do! I encourage you to take your kiddos into the kitchen to make homemade ice-cream!

This is a wonderful activity because kids put their math, reading, and science skills to the test! Before doing this, I suggest that you read "From Cow to Ice Cream" by Bertram T. Knight with your kids. Then explain to them that they will get the chance to make some ice-cream with you!

Here is what you will need to make your ice-cream:

Pint size zip-lock freezer bags (1 per child)

Gallon size zip-lock freezer bags (1 per child)

Crushed Ice

Rock Salt (6 tablespoons per child)

Liquid Measuring Cups

Paper Towels

Plastic Spoons

Whole Milk (1/2 cup per child)

Sugar (1 tablespoon per child)

Vanilla Extract (1/2 teaspoon per child)

Instructions:

1) Pour your milk, sugar, and vanilla into your pint-size freezer bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible. Seal your bag and shake to mix the ingredients.

2) Put ice into your gallon size freezer bag so that the bag is half full. Add about 4 to 6 tablespoons of rock salt to it.

3) Put the pint size bag with your milk mixture into the gallon size bag.

4) Close tightly and shake. If the bag gets too cold, you can wrap it in paper towels to keep your hands warm. Your mixture will become thick, when it is ready.

5) Open your bag carefully and enjoy!

While eating, you will want to make sure to review what food group ice cream comes from and what milk does to help our bodies be strong. You can also talk about what causes the ice cream to freeze. The salt lowers the freezing point of the water so that it can get colder than ice. The cold water and ice mixture cause the milk (a liquid) to freeze and become a solid.

Do you remember, how I suggested reading "The Milk Makers" by Gail Gibbons? Well before this next activity, I would read it, because you'll be teaching kids how to "milk a cow" the old fashion way. {If you are not sure, how to do this... Make sure to "Google It", and learn how before proceeding!}

What you will need is:

One or two Latex-free gloves

Twist Ties

White Tempera Paint and Water

A Bucket

A pin

Smocks/Aprons

Instructions:

1) Fill your glove with a thin mixture of white tempera paint and water. Tie the glove closed, at the top, with a twist tie.

2) Poke tiny holes in the fingertips of the glove with a pin.

3) Place the bucket underneath, and let the kids take turns "milking the cow".

** Make sure to do this activity after discussing the "old fashion" way of milking a cow- explain to the kids that cows are no longer milked that way. You may show pictures of how cows are milked today. Another great idea is to see if a local dairy farm will allow you to make a video of their milking process. You could then show your kids the video and talk about our modern day technology.

I hope you liked my ideas, and suggestions! If you visit my blog, you can grab a "Rebus Story- Barn in the Country Printable". I hope all of you enjoy it, and can use it to teach your kids about being on farm!

How We Love to Learn

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:30:00 GMT

One thing that I've observed that makes a huge difference in student motivation is HOW the students learn the content. I've written other blog posts on this subject (see An Afternoon in Pleasantville and A Tale of Two Tools and Learning Inside the Box) but this past week, we've put a little different twist on it. We are working on the 10th Edition of the Coast to Coast Chronicles. The students wanted to learn more about the scientific method for this edition.

One of the collaborative projects we are doing is a Voice Thread of poetry on different science topics.This is a way for the students to connect, broaden their horizons in the field of science, and sharpen their poetry writing skills. We are working directly with a 3rd grade class in our building along with the students across the country. For this activity my students and the 3rd graders were put into heterogeneous groups across the grade levels. The first day, they brainstormed different topics that interested them in science. Because my students had just had Innovation Day, they were really thinking outside of the box. My learners did an amazing job of guiding the 3rd graders into topics in which they were unfamiliar. The conversations were amazing. When the groups had a time to add their ideas to a words splash, because of the way that my students had encouraged and nurtured their ideas, all of the students participated in sharing their thoughts and why that topic was of interest to them as a group.

The second time we met, the learners began building context and meaning with different types of poetry. Because SimplyBox has closed their site, we moved to LiveBinders. Some of my previous students (who are now in 6th grade) and I created a Poetry LiveBinder of examples of different types of poetry. As with all genres of writing, I want my students to read real examples (mentor texts) to building their understanding of the characteristics of that type of writing. As one student said, "If I want to write great poetry, I need to read great poetry." With the LiveBinders, you can create a collection of URLs, files, images, video or text on a particular topic. It is a great collaborative tool because you can invite collaborators to add to the binder. It also allows the user to embed it into another site, which made it easy for my students to access.

As the writers were reading and discussing the different genres of poetry, the 3rd grade teacher and I were moving around the room, joining groups, listening to their conversations and asking guiding questions. They were already selecting a genre that they wanted to compose. What was validating to hear was that they weren't just choosing a particular genre randomly, they were thinking about how that genre would support their science topic. All 50+ of these students were engaged in deep and meaningful conversations. With their previous experience, my students already knew where this was headed and guided their younger partners who stepped up to the challenge and joined right in the conversations.

Before they began composing, the learners set the criteria for their writing. This is where the real evidence of the learning manifested itself; not just my students but also the 3rd graders had a clear understanding of not only their genre of poetry, but also what things needed to be included with their topic, the audience and the purpose. As they began creating their poetry, they divided up the work. In most groups, you had a researcher to check facts, a recorder to write the ideas, and editor/time keeper, and an illustrator. With this lesson, everyone, no matter their exceptionalities, were able to successfully participate.

Of course the enthusiasm was intoxicating...all of the learners enjoyed themselves and they gained a much deeper understanding of poetry and their science topic. When kids complain about having to pack up to go home because they want to keep reading and writing, you know you've found a winning idea.

Topmarks - Excellent resource for Interactive Whiteboards for...

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 13:24:05 GMT

Topmarks - Excellent resource for Interactive Whiteboards for many subject areas.

#elemchat #spedchat # IWB #Christmas

Lots of educational interactive games. Browse by subject and age group. They include Christmas themed educational games too.

Added to Educational Game Sites

You may also like…

Shine and Write

TES iBoard

Exploratorium

Click to Read - Aimee Solutions #spedchat #spedtech

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 12:00:00 GMT

I have written before about Aimee Solutions and love all the products they have offered. While they continue to offer their Take and Teach Language kits, they are adding more to their catalog. These ladies who are a technology facilitator, speech therapists and an occupational therapist in a Chicagoland special education cooperative have outdone themselves with their new offering - Click to Read!

The Click to Read series is a set of early literacy programs available for use on your computer. Each CD contains 4 stories centered around a topic. These stories can be read, interacted with, retold, and expanded upon with games and other materials. They also include printable materials for you to use off-line. The programs are written to be used with students from pre-K to high school and beyond. They have tons of options for switch access (both automatic and step scanning), P.A.C.T. highlighting, feedback for switch access, and much more.

The programs also include several different levels for retelling from simple fill in the blank to recreating the story page by page. The games can be set to different levels like picture matching, word to picture matching or reading words. All games include audio prompts and corrective feedback when needed.

There are 3 different Click to Read programs to choose from:

Animal Habitats

The Desert - Animals, birds and plants that live in the Southwest Desert
A Home in the Forest - Animals that live in the forest and where they make their homes
Pond Life - Animals, insects and plants found in the pond habitat; focus on prepositions "in, on, around"
Ocean Creatures - Familiar ocean inhabitants; 1:1 correspondence through 5

All About Me

I am Me - all about self awareness & qualities that make us unique
How Do You Feel - Real life examples of activities & interactions that make us happy, sad, mad & excited
Using my 5 Senses - Making Kool-Aid is used to teach students about the 5 senses
Looking Good - personal grooming and hygiene

Life Skills

Ben Goes Shopping - Help Ben find what store to buy items at
Community Signs - Signs found in the community and what they mean
What Time is it? - Time of day and common activities associated with each
How Much is it Worth? - Introduction to money values, saving and spending

I have to say that I have used both All About Me and Life Skills with my students, and they love them. The stories have predictable phrases and engage the students from the start. They especially enjoy retelling them. The programs can be used on any computer, but excel on a SMART Board, Promethean, or other touch screen. They become so much more interactive and the students really get into the stories and activities. I highly recommend these programs!

Check out all the Take and Teach Language Kits & Click to Read programs at Aimee Solutions.

- Patrick

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Have your OWN Shark Week!!!

TechGirl — Tue, 31 May 2011 00:03:00 GMT

This Science & Literacy Unit explores the world of sharks by going through their adaptations, 6 of the most common types of Sharks, 10 most popular Fact/Fiction, a Shark Attack Graphing Activity, Shark Word Scramble, and a Shark story starter! Super Shark Fun!

Only .75 cents!!!!
http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=48548&it=1

Teacher Appreciation Give Away! May 5th

TechGirl — Wed, 04 May 2011 23:26:00 GMT

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Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!!!

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