Below are some activities we have done in science...."Help Save Fred" is below and can be googled to fit your grade level.
These pictures are from our mixtures and solutions activity in class!
These pictures are from our mixtures and solutions activity in class!
I love to draw and I must give credit where credit is due. Lee Anne Jones' cscope science workshop is where many of these vocabulary picture posters have come from but occasionally I have come up with some on my own. I also, in later lessons, had students provide input and create their own vocab poster and then we used ideas from each group to make one for the class.
Below is a picture of the candy cane experiment display we did before Christmas. I had 3rd grade with my 1st period and 2nd grade with my 2nd period. We talked about the scientific process, colors, experiments, mixtures, solutions, variables, and many other science topics that were all grade level appropriate. Once the younger grade left I gathered my fifth graders around the table and we talked about ways that we could unrobe on the experiment and control the variables better and more higher level thinking. I went in kinda going with the flow of just the scientific process and was able to tie in multiple topics flying by the seat of my pants. Many great things are created and done this way In my classroom. I'm pretty blessed with being able to think quickly for extra extension ideas when needed.
Here is one of my latest creations! I accidentally as we were writing water cycle vocab in our notebooks forgot to do transpiration. And it dawned on me that If I put in after all the other vocab words it wouldn't make as much sense so I quickly grabbed green paper and cut into fours passing out a square to each student. I then instructed them to draw a leaf big enough to put a definition on it. I thought about doing a tree but realized that was already in the vocab word as a visual and that since transpiration is moisture leaving a plant, for my own giggle I did a play on words using a leaf. I did this thinking I was funny and didn't really think fifth graders would pick up on the joke, but they did, and LOVED it! The second best thing was I addressed a READING tek in science!!!!!!!
I love to do all kinds of visuals for science and here is a vocab page from my science notebook and the following visual (it is a draft so far I will probably add a colored ecosystem picture at the top part of the "E") that I use to help my students understand.
