Water Cycle in a Bag

In science class the other day, we did an activity based on the following YouTube video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WQBtAJxMbY
- thanks for creating this video (side note)


The activity all together was fun, engaging, and the students really enjoyed it. It's a very cheap activity to do, and, I want to add, out of all of the content I have taught this year, I believe they understand the water cycle the most.

This is the order in which I conducted my activity:

1) I showed the first part of the video where the instructions were given.

2) I passed out zip-lock bags, poured water in the bags, and then went around with the food coloring.

3) As I was pouring the water and food coloring, I had 2 students assist in taping the bags to the window. (I only allowed four students at a time to go to get their bags taped.)

4) While the bags were on the windows, I had the students answer the following questions:
          -Write a hypothesis to explain what you think is going to happen to your "water cycle".
          -Draw a picture to represent your hypothesis.
          -Explain the reasoning behind your hypothesis.

5) I also had a mini-lesson explaining evaporation, condensation, and precipitation using a burner and a pot! They loved to see me make it rain with the lid!

6) We went to observe our bags and then had a discussion about what happened.

7) We finished the rest of the video and compared our bags to the video's bags.

Overall, it went well. Our bags never did much due to the fact that the sun was not out most of the time, it was cold, and I teach 45 minute classes! However, it made a GREAT discussion when I asked them why our bags didn't look like the video.

Number Lines

In math class the other week, my class did an activity that I really think helped my students understand converting fractions and decimals as well as placing them in order from least to greatest.

I cannot take credit for this idea because it came from our math book, but although it was very simple, my students enjoyed it.

My students were placed in groups and given a long piece of duct tape. They had to label the tape from -2 to 2 and count by halves. They were given several problems with about 5 decimals and fractions in each problem. Students had to convert the numbers into fractions or decimals to make it easy to place them in order from least to greatest. After they did the math, they had to physically show me on their number line the order that they would be in. They did a great job!