Search results matching tags 'science' and 'vocabulary'

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.

Egg Drop...Hold the Soup!

Anonymous — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 21:51:00 GMT

Thursday was an exciting day for the second graders at Cheerful School. Yes, it was the day for the Egg Drop! An egg drop in case you aren't familiar with it is a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) project. For our egg drop project, the second grade students had to design a container to hold and protect a raw chicken's egg from breaking. The containers were tossed off the roof of our one story school and on to the asphalt playground by a very brave guidance counselor, a courageous instructional coach and a hard working parent volunteer. (Note: Mrs. Gumby was NOT on the roof. I am afraid of heights! Ugh, ugh, ugh!) Other parent volunteers opened the containers after the toss to see if the egg inside was unbroken, cracked but still intact or "scrambled" while another volunteer recorded the data.

Here's a Teacher Tube video clip of a similar egg drop at a school. This is not my school. However, it is a great way to demonstrate an egg drop.

Egg Drop Video on Teacher Tube

The students were required to make their egg drop container at home with their families. The containers could be no larger than one foot wide by one foot tall. Plus, the containers had to be disposable after the conclusion of the egg drop.

However, it's difficult for our ESL parents to understand long or involved directions in English, especially when they're written in idiomatic language. After talking it over with my student Happy Girl, I decided to make the egg drop container an in-school ESL class project. Happy Girl and I read over the directions and highlighted important words. We talked about raw eggs and what we could use for the container. We brainstormed ideas on how to cushion the egg. I also rummaged around in my cabinets and found a small box, styrofoam and felt. I knew I had some air cushion packing pillows from a recent shipment of hockey safety equipment at home and promised to bring the pillows in to school.

Knowing Mrs. Pokey's two tutor level students might need help as well, I emailed her at her other school and updated her on the project. She thought it was a great idea and promised to look through her craft items at home for additional materials. On Monday, we combined our materials and students and started to work. At the end of the period, all three students had a student designed container for the egg drop. As we worked, we encouraged our students to talk about their designs and containers. It was a great way to facilitate authentic conversation and vocabulary!

Finally, the great day arrived! On Thursday afternoon, all of the second graders had to announce to the others how they designed their egg drop container. After the explanation, one of the brave folks on the roof of the school tossed the child's container from the roof! Some containers shattered, others exploded on impact while still others floated down gently via parachute or bounced.

However, I am happy to report that all three of our English Language Learners were sucessful with their egg drop containers. Three unbroken eggs! Three unbroken eggs and three very very very proud young "engineers"! Hurrah!

Science Fair Fun

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 03:39:00 GMT

Between sports, music lessons, homework, and more sports, things have been a little crazy around here. We were just wrapping up a time intensive select basketball season, when my son came home from school with a plan. "Hey, Mom, We decided that we're going to sign up for the science fair at school."

Keep in mind that everything for the science fair is done at home. Kids come up with their own projects, do the experiment, keep a journal, write a hypothesis, document their methodology, and the list goes on. My initial reaction was, "Um. Seriously? I'm so spent right now. There's no way we can do this in two weeks!" But here's the kicker. He and his sister wanted to sign up together...as a team! Now, let me tell you, my kids don't do ANYTHING together unless it involves wrestling, arguing, or fighting. So, I jumped at the chance to provide a happy time of togetherness and learning. All in all, I think it was pretty successful too.

I borrowed a few science fair idea books from a teacher at my school. My kids looked through the books and settled on a project. The project involved putting hot water inside a bottle, ice around the bottle, and air pressure eventually crushing the bottle. The did all of the work themselves. My son did the typing. My daughter wrote some of the explanations by hand. I was very impressed with their teamwork.

Another area that had me impressed was my son's desire to use his increasing science vocabulary. His 5th grade teacher really works with the kids on vocabulary development and spelling. The past few weeks, the lists have been all about science. As my kids were composing their paragraphs, my son would stop, think, and then reword with more scientific terms. I was just about jumping up and down when I saw this learning transfer into his science project! It was really a great science and literacy experience for both of my kids.

Here are a few other projects we enjoyed.

Happy experimenting!

States of Matter DIY

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 02:38:00 GMT

Hop on over to my blog to see how to make a really easy model that helps students learn the properties of the states of matter (solid, liquid, and gas). Click on my button to visit!

Top 3 Games

Anonymous — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 11:40:00 GMT

Regular readers among you will have noticed that I use Purpose Games a lot, and, no, in case you're wondering, I don't earn anything from them. I use them because the tagging games are relatively easy to create, they're free, I haven't found any better, and they suit my purpose (no pun intended) just fine. If you're having students play the games there (linking through here first, I hope), I'd

Parts of a Wind Turbine: Labelling Game

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 21:32:00 GMT

The largely unknown tiny Canarian island of El Hierro will soon become anything but that. By next year, it will become the first island in the world to obtain 100% of its energy needs from renewable energy. A combination of wind and hydroelectrical power will supply electricity to its 11,000 residents and its floating population of foreign workers and tourists, which, no doubt, will increase

Electric, Electrical or Electronic?

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 22:05:00 GMT

Why do we say an electric shaver but an electrical engineer? Although most native speakers use electric, electrical and electronic correctly most of the time, chances are that they will find it hard to tell you why! So, it's hardly surprising that non-native speakers sometimes make mistakes on these. Electric refers to things that use electricity in order to make them work. Examples

Chemical Elements Symbols: Fun Online Games!

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 17:04:00 GMT

Games Competition in Purpose Games

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 22:45:00 GMT

Purpose Games have regular tournaments and some of my games are being featured in two of their current ones: Advanced Science @ Not About Speed and The Great Human Anatomy. Games featured in Advanced Science are: Ecosystems, Laboratory Equipment while The Muscular System is featured in Human Anatomy. Are you game for it? You'd need to register first before you can participate. Let me know how