EVERYTHING in my store will be 20% off plus the TpT discount.
I know I"ll be buying some items as well!
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Sale Sale Sale!!
If you haven't heard yet, Teachers Pay Teachers is running a sale 2/27-2/28. It's starting tomorrow!!
EVERYTHING in my store will be 20% off plus the TpT discount.
I know I"ll be buying some items as well!
EVERYTHING in my store will be 20% off plus the TpT discount.
I know I"ll be buying some items as well!
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Cell City
I wish I could say that the idea of cell city was my own, but this is definitely not true. I have no idea who come up with the idea first, but Google helped me put this project together for my students.
I gave my students the options of building a model of a cell city or a drawing. They had to include the important organelles (they were given a list) and everything had to be labeled. This was my first year doing this, and I was very excited!
There were a few things I would change:
1) I placed students into groups of 4. I wish I would have assigned them to certain "jobs".
2) This was an in-class project, so I wish I would have emphasized time-management a little bit more.
3) I also teach math, so my tables are in rows. I wish I would have taken the time to place the tables into groups to prevent group-to-group conversations.
4) I told my students the cell city analogies, and I wish I would have given them the opportunity to come up with the analogies on their own, or at least try to match them.
If you plan to do a cell city, take the time to plan it out, and you will be grateful for your results!
Here are pictures of my students' work!
I gave my students the options of building a model of a cell city or a drawing. They had to include the important organelles (they were given a list) and everything had to be labeled. This was my first year doing this, and I was very excited!
There were a few things I would change:
1) I placed students into groups of 4. I wish I would have assigned them to certain "jobs".
2) This was an in-class project, so I wish I would have emphasized time-management a little bit more.
3) I also teach math, so my tables are in rows. I wish I would have taken the time to place the tables into groups to prevent group-to-group conversations.
4) I told my students the cell city analogies, and I wish I would have given them the opportunity to come up with the analogies on their own, or at least try to match them.
If you plan to do a cell city, take the time to plan it out, and you will be grateful for your results!
Here are pictures of my students' work!
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Lever Lab
Now, I love all science, don't get me wrong, but I am super excited about starting the biology unit with my 7th graders! It's my all time favorite. Hopefully I will be doing a lot of exciting activities in this unit so that I can share!
We ended our physical science unit with simple machines. There were so many things we could have done with this unit, but with the lack of time we had to choose one activity. We chose to do a lever lab! It was a very simple lab, but covered the important concepts of levers.
We first gave the students a stack of 5 pennies (taped together), a ruler, and they could use a pen or pencil. They used this to construct a lever.
We ended our physical science unit with simple machines. There were so many things we could have done with this unit, but with the lack of time we had to choose one activity. We chose to do a lever lab! It was a very simple lab, but covered the important concepts of levers.
We first gave the students a stack of 5 pennies (taped together), a ruler, and they could use a pen or pencil. They used this to construct a lever.
The objective of the lab was so that students will understand the relationship between effort force, resistance fore, and the location of the fulcrum. In this lab, the pennies represented the resistance force, the student's finger representing the effort force, and the pen represented the fulcrum.
Students would follow these steps:
1. Construct a
lever using the ruler as the straight bar and the pen as the fulcrum.
2. Place the
pen beneath the ruler at the 6 inch mark. Place the stack of pennies over the 1
inch mark.
3. Push down
on the 12 inch mark on the ruler. When you push on the ruler, you are exerting
an effort force.
4. Move the
fulcrum to the 8 inch mark and repeat step 4.
5. Move the
pen back to the 4 inch mark and repeat step 4.
And then, we students were to answer these questions before discussion:
Conclusions:
1) How did your effort force
differ between the three trials?
2) Explain how increasing and
decreasing the distance between the effort force and the fulcrum affected the effort
force. What type of lever is this?
3) How does this relate to
where you push on a door when opening it?
Also, I will be throwing a SUPER BOWL SALE on my TpT websites as well as my TN site.
My Teachers Pay Teachers sale will run from 2/2-2/3 and will be 20% off!!!
My Teachers Notebook sale starts today 2/1 - 2/3 and will be my 20% off plus an additional percent off from teacher's notebook!
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Science Fair
Our school just finished up our science fair. All of our projects were due last Friday, and I'm so proud of my students' work! They did great!
We had a plasma ball!
Along with the posters, some of my students brought in part of their experiments, even though I told them not to. I really didn't have room for any other items besides the posters and reports, but I'm glad a few brought them in. We had a ball!
I had a student bring in their electromagnet they created.
We also had a lava lamp.
We had a plasma ball!
This was one of my favorite boards. Super girly! Unfortunately, it did not place. We figured it needed more data, and also, the pictures should have been taken in the same lighting. But no matter what, it is a fantastic poster!!
Thursday, October 31, 2013
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.
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.
Monday, October 21, 2013
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!
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!
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Great Start to the Year!
I am having a great start to the year! I just began the third week of the school year, and it has been a blast. I really wanted to share some of the things that are going on in the classroom.
The first thing I want to talk about is something that I haven't done this year, but I did it last year, and it was great! I definitely cannot take credit for it, but I will provide the link.
http://www.geosociety.org/educate/LessonPlans/Layers_of_Atmosphere.pdf
Thank you to Jack Fearing for providing. This is a great activity!
This activity helps to teach the layers of the atmosphere. Students will have to graph points, which will ultimately show the patterns in the atmosphere. From that, students have to determine where each layer begins and explain how they can tell. It can be a little challenging for those students who cannot plot points well, but overall, it is a wonderful activity and visual tool to remember the layers of the atmosphere! I love it!
In math class yesterday, I did one of my "closures" at the end of class. It is called a "Snowball Fight". I have never in my life seen students so excited that they were able to throw a piece of paper across the room. Their faces were priceless, and they were SO into it! I had them to get out a piece of paper, write down a problem like the ones that we did that day. We were working on adding and subtracting integers, so they could have written 6 x (-7). They were not to write an answer, but then to ball the paper up and throw it across the room. They then had to pick another one up and answer it. I was so proud :)
I have created closure cards with 50 different closures, including the snowball fight! They are on sale on my TpT and TN sites. They are great for filling in the end of class and lesson plans!
The first thing I want to talk about is something that I haven't done this year, but I did it last year, and it was great! I definitely cannot take credit for it, but I will provide the link.
http://www.geosociety.org/educate/LessonPlans/Layers_of_Atmosphere.pdf
Thank you to Jack Fearing for providing. This is a great activity!
This activity helps to teach the layers of the atmosphere. Students will have to graph points, which will ultimately show the patterns in the atmosphere. From that, students have to determine where each layer begins and explain how they can tell. It can be a little challenging for those students who cannot plot points well, but overall, it is a wonderful activity and visual tool to remember the layers of the atmosphere! I love it!
In math class yesterday, I did one of my "closures" at the end of class. It is called a "Snowball Fight". I have never in my life seen students so excited that they were able to throw a piece of paper across the room. Their faces were priceless, and they were SO into it! I had them to get out a piece of paper, write down a problem like the ones that we did that day. We were working on adding and subtracting integers, so they could have written 6 x (-7). They were not to write an answer, but then to ball the paper up and throw it across the room. They then had to pick another one up and answer it. I was so proud :)
I have created closure cards with 50 different closures, including the snowball fight! They are on sale on my TpT and TN sites. They are great for filling in the end of class and lesson plans!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)