Oalf....What are you doing in Science Class!!!

So to learn about conductors and conduction this year. My super cool teacher BFF, Jakil and I create an explorations for our kids. 


So here you go: 
Materials:
mini pie tins (1 for each group)
small Styrofoam plates (1 for each group)
small paper plates (1 for each group)
small plastic plates (1 for each group) We used the tops that came with our pie tins.
Candy Melts Note: *** (after doing this lab, I believe small chocolate chips will work better and they are cheaper)***
Styrofoam cups (4 per group)
Hot Water

As a side note, something I love about this lab, is if you was the stuff, you will only have to replace the paper plates and chocolate the next year. 

This experiment for me was done at the end of heat transfer unit, after a radiation and convection experiment. 
So here you go. Heat up the water while the students set up, and make their hypothesis.

Question: Which material will melt the chocolate the fastest?

I put the students in groups of four. Students created a chart to keep their data. (We talk about whether this will be qualitative or quantitative.)

The teacher comes around and puts hot water in the cups. The students then top with the different types of plates the the melts (or chocolate chips). I assign each student to one cup in the group. The students simply count how long it takes the candy to melt, and then record. (you could use stop watches if you had enough, I don't though)

After the lab, the students share out their results and we record on a class data chart, and take averages. We add in vocabulary: conductor, insulator, conduction. We right a conclusion to our lab together. Then I leave up sentence stems and key words and students write their conclusions on their own. 

Later in the week this Exit Ticket Appears, and I have to say it is one of my favorite exit tickets of all time. 

Here are some of their response! lol!!!

Well I hope you find the lab helpful. Oh and as a heads up I'm thinking of changing the name of my blog, and starting a TPT. Still thinking it through, but hopefully I will decided soon.

Let the Summer Post begin!

It's Summer time here in Tennessee, which means it is abnormally hot!! I missed you all!
However, it being to hot to go outside means, I get to post more of this years shenanigans.

As, you prep for next year maybe these ideas over the next couple of weeks will strike your fancy, or maybe you will just sip Mai Tai's at the beach. Which ever is fine with me ;)


So one of the Tennessee State Science Standards is to understand human and natural disasters impact on the environment. Well, I found that my students understood that humans impact the environment, but the vocabulary in some of the questions and answers in the sample questions in the state assessment really throw them for a loop.

So, there is a lab called Oh Deer;
link to original lab: http://arvinapes.weebly.com/oh-deer-lab.html
It is a study in population, and I thought the questions could be easily modified to focus on vocabulary and help my students towards mastery of this standard.

Well, this activity requires a lot of space, and THUNDERSTORMS ruined my life because we needed to go outside!!! or so I thought!
I modified the lesson into an indoor playable table top game, and the kids ate it up!!

Game set up: (all was just typed and printed on card stock)
Each student gets a set of deer (you can determine the number I did 12)

A game board that has three survival needs (food, water, and shelter)

The group gets a set of scenario cards

1. At the beginning of each rounds the students must put all there deer out on the game board choosing how many deer need water, food, and shelter)

2. the students must put at least one deer on each of the needs unless they have less than 5 deer; then they may distribute as the choose.

3. Once all cards are placed. The reader for the round draws and reads a scenario card.
Sample Scenario Card:
                                                                    Oh Deer!

A local farm has used pesticides that have leaked into the local river and poisoned the water. All deer that drank water this turn have died.

4. The students then take all the deer that have "died," and move them to the side. 

5. Students repeat steps 1-4 until all, but one player (the winner) has deer left.

Before the students played the game I asked them to take down observations in their Science notebooks about what happened to the deer in terms of quantity and well as how they died. 

After playing we went over key vocabulary from the cards and did a Science Reflection.

It was all a big hit and more importantly it increased the amount of students who mastered this standardized by an average of 40% per class. 

Here is a link of the printable (deer, cards, and game board) and ppt I used for FREE!! Happy planning, and keep having a great Summer!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5AmFXrzxffpTWN4aS1kUWt0Y2c/view?usp=sharing

Love,

Mrs. Beasley

Science Workshop, and SMART SWAG

Soooo, my summer has not actually summer since I spent my entire month of June in PD, but hey its what we do for a better classroom.

However while I was in PD something awesome happened I was inspired to design a new Science block. Teachers please keep in mind at my school we are departmentalized and now only teach Science and Social Studies (but if I see something awesome in one of the other subject areas I will blog about it just for you guys) :)

Back to Science, oh my ADD. Anyway I thought of making a Science workshop, the lesson would begin with inquiry minutes (what questions do we still have), then Vocabulary review game, then lesson and language objective overview, and then the students would break into 4 rotations

1. Guided Practice (with the teacher)
2. Seat Work
3. Hands-on (perfect for Science)
4. Research (At this station the students will use books, etc. to find the answers to the questions we have come up with in our inquiry minutes and site them (good R/LA practice)

Finally we will have a closure activity.

I feel like it is going to make my classroom even more student driven!! HOORAY!

Here is a picture of the pieces for the board I am making

inspired by this board from Clutterfree Classroom . Her site is awesome the one she did is Math, but I thought it could work with Science.



Here is are my pieces they are done picking which room in mine yet so it will have to wait to go up.

I also was inspired by another teacher Mrs. Brown at Mrs. Brown's Blog, and made something else this week. A no name board to hold no name papers. Mine is not quite as cute, but it will do.
Hers

mine

And finally my most exciting project that I have really thought about, and was just able to complete. EEEEEE!!! This one is from Dandelions and Dragonflies she gives her kids Smart Beads for various things, so I thought I would put my own twist on it.
Hers 

and wait for it mine..........................SMART SWAG!!! OMG!!

I got the idea by watching the The NBA playoffs, and these men where seen like this, and then every time I go to the mall all the kids are wearing them. 

 
(all of the above images were from google images)

So I asked local movie theaters to donate their use 3D glasses and painted them, and Viola. I also left some of them black. Different theaters have different types of 3D glasses, so be aware. My favorite to use are the Real D kind that I am wearing above.

Anyways I'm sure that is enough for today. Thank you again for reading!!

Tis' the Season for cramming before break.. fa la la la la :)

Snowman DOOR, Snowman DOOR!!! How cute you are in my classroom!

Okay for ideas now, cause that's what you want.

Well have been studying the water cycle, and we did a song and anchor chart and so on. Then I had the students write from the point of view of the raindrop, telling someone about their life in the water cycle. I required them to use their vocabulary words. Then they got to color and decorate their raindrop. Here is a pic.

I love his hat and bow tie.

I also change up my class a little bit. Part of our rubric for TAP evaluations is to an classroom environment evaluations. So, I thought I would Jazz it Up! So to speak.

I added this to the wall behind my Guided Reading table, the different color books represent my different reading groups. The are attached to clothes pins. My kids are really enjoying hanging there small group work on them.

I also added these bird clips in the back, to hang up anchor chart. It makes them easy to switch out and I can hang a bunch of them. I have them on my other back wall too! I am obsessed, and my students like to put them up there, it is their new favorite job.

Okay last on promise, out in the hall I did the same thing so that I could hang up those big poster we let the kids make on butcher paper. I don't know about you all, but I can never get them to stick with anything, so you can imagine my excitement when this worked.

Alright tune in soon for our fourth grade Christmas activities: Reindeer, Gingerbread men, and snowmen oh my!!

Long Time No Post, Freebies to make up for it :)

Okay so I'm so sorry I have not been able to blog lately, I don't know if anyone has been reading the papers or watching the National News, but Tennessee's new evaluation system is really different from our old one, so we have a lot of meeting, and we have to write and turn in really long lesson plans. So I am really sorry, but to make it up to you I am going to try and post some freebies.

First I have a recording sheet for a game that I came up with when teaching Predators, Prey, and Competition. Originally I wanted to just use a Hungry, Hungry, Hippos game to illustrate that you would get more the less player (predators) there are. Well Hungry, Hungry, Hippos cost 20 bucks a piece and it was not going to happen on a teachers salary. So I  came up with a game called Hungry, Hungry, Birds. 

Each student will have cup (stomach) in front of them with Two Spoons in it (bird beak) or my teaching partner used straws for her beaks (the kids had to suck up the food). The student dump a cup full of counters (prey) in the middle of their circle. The students must try to get as many counters (prey) as they can into their cups (stomach) as possible only using their spoons/straw (bird beaks) until all the couters (prey) is gone. They students then record who ate the most food, and how much did they eat. The player with the least is out (dies) of starvation. After everyone has played, we discussed wheather the number of prey the winner was getting increased or decreased and why they students thought that was. Synthesis OoooOooo!! lol. Then we discussed what might happen if we added more predators to the mix. If you would to do this and use the recording sheet, please click on the link below.  Sorry I don't know how to make the picture the link.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5AmFXrzxffpOGM1NzM2OTctMDJlZS00YjU5LTliNzItZDkwY2UyNDkwZGQz

Also, we did a fun game in Math called Line and Angle Hunters after finishing learning lines and angle we searched our hallway for real life examples. My little angles loved, loved, loved it. Here is the recorder sheet for that if you would like to do it. It has the instructions on it. Like I said sorry the link isn't the picture.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5AmFXrzxffpYzRiNzgxYmUtMzlmOS00YWEzLWI1MzQtZTA3MjgyY2FhYWIx

Oh we also did greatest common factor turkeys. You all are so good with your designs, you put me to shame. I don't know how to use photoshop so I just draw and copy, but I think that my drawing turned out okay, and the kids didn't seem to mind. Here is that if you would like to do your own with all you guys crazy Photoshop and Vistaprint skills.

Aren't they cute my kids really liked this way of organizing their facts and coming up with common factors.

More, More, More, okay so we also have been reading the book Shiloh, So I decided that my kids could do a dog research project. They had to make a poster and give a speech it was great. One of my main goals was to get my kids to use book and not just the Internet, and I did mini-lesson on reference books, appropriate source, etc. It was great well, if you would like to do a similar project here is a link to the rubric I used to grade my kids, and the concept of the lesson.

Rubric

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5AmFXrzxffpMDQ2Y2RiMmYtMGVjNS00MDA5LWE4ZmQtNWQ5MWNiNzY5Njlj

Outline - We wrote this together to help guide their research

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5AmFXrzxffpNzY1ZTNiMjQtOGQyNi00OWJjLWI0MzEtZGRhYjI2ZmYzOTkx

Here are some of there posters

I love the Border Collie saying the facts about Border Collies. So Cute.

And here is a sample of one of the papers. Take into account this is one of my highest students, who attends gifted classes.

Well  I think that is plenty to mull over. I hope the freebies make up for my lack of blogging the last couple of weeks, and I hope you all continue to read. Have a great time with your kiddos!!

Mrs. Beasley

Open House

So we have had open house this past week and I would like to share some of the things my class featured

So above is the door to my classroom, my theme this year is paisley, polka dots and partridges. So I did a "Partridge Family" door (cause we're a family) with the me being the Mama Partridge and a baby partridge for each kid. I also cut out ovals and used scrapbooking scissors to make them look like cracked eggs, and put them over some left over birds nest from those buddy cut outs that you buy at the teacher store. All with the tag line "Get happy in 4th grade"

This week we have been working with nouns. These spiders had a common noun on the body such as, "spider" and then had proper nouns that matched on each of the eight legs, (i.e. Black Widow, Grand Daddy Long Leg) They were placed on a web with a sign that said, "Our class is weaving webs, of common and proper nouns." This web is drawn on chart paper due to time constraints, but it could be made really cut by twisting bulletin board paper and hot glueing it in a web pattern.

In Science we have been doing the Scientific Method, in addition to a rap that I found on youtube.com to Nelly's "Just a Dream," thank you Mr. Lee!! :) love his songs. We did a simple experiment using apples to help the kids understand controls, varibles, hypothesis, etc. Using and apple slicer you simply cut the apple into equal slices. The question is "What is the best way to keep an apple fresh?" With the student we go over Test subject A, the apple being left out is the control the apple they will be comparing the rest of the apples to. You place the other slices in different containers as the varibles. (i.e. cling wrap, tissue, zip-loc bag, foil). The students then make observations and record data on the color, softness of the apples, etc and graph that information. Finally, the students come to a conclusion on which apple slice remained the most fresh, and see how that compares to their hypothesis. These apples were done in addition to a longer sheet were they log the information I spoke about above. It is just an apple that ask for the control, varibles, and conclusion. They were hung up in the hall under a sign that read, "Hey Newton, How do you like these apples?"

Oh and if you look in some of the pictures you'll notice the borders hanging. At our school we have those paper slider hanging things, but they are just gray so my teammates and I put border in them and then some colorful paper to put behind students work just to jazz it up. (Mrs. Dunlaps idea)

Hope you find these thing helpful, have a happy standard driven year...lol!

Mrs. Beas