We have just begun the Geology unit in CKLA.  One of the first things the students learn about it Pangea, the idea of continental drift, and plate tectonics.   Super heavy for a 4th grader!  Though they really do seem to be into learning about geological theory, it is a bit hard for them to conceptualize.  To make it a bit more engaging and real for the students, I thought I would bring in a bit of food into the mix. While reading about the three types of plate boundaries, and the geologic formations that appear because of them, I gave the students three Oreo cookies.  For each cookie, I had them twist the two halves apart.  The top part represented the crust.  The creme and bottom cookie represented the magma inside the Earth.  Then I had them carefully break the top crust in half. As we read the information in the book, we used the Oreos to demonstrate each of the three boundaries.  Here is what we did for each boundary: Divergent --......

Teaching about the Water Cycle is something that I do year in and year out, so each year I try to do something new and different if, for no other reason than to keep my own brain active and engaged. This past year, I combined the science of the water cycle with narrative writing and technology and, dare I say it, came up with a winner! Of course we started with learning all about the Water Cycle during science lab.  You can see some past science lessons here   and how I incorporated the Teach Me Something projects into those lessons to get the kids creatively thinking about the way the water cycle works h ere. Once the kids knew all about how the water cycle works, I asked them to apply that knowledge by writing a narrative.  They were to pretend that they were a water droplet making their way through the various stages of the water cycle.  Within the context of a fictional narrative, they needed to include all of the science words that we had learned up u......

Every year, when teaching things I have taught in the past, I feel the need to change things up, if only for my own sanity.  I take an idea that has worked with other classes, and tweak it just a bit so it is different from what I have already done.  Then there are other years where I just turn everything up on their head, throw all of the old stuff to the wind, and try something new.  So this year, I tried some new things with the Water Cycle. First, I decided to just ask the kids to teach me about the water cycle.  I didn't want them to just color a picture or all do the same artsy thing.  Instead, I took a page out of my Teach Me Something file and told them to teach me about the water cycle.  I gave them a 17" x 17" piece of paper (because I wanted them to fit on my windows and that was the size of the window pane) and said they could do anything they wanted as long as it taught me about some part of the water cycle. The kids got to work immed......

The 5th grade science standards in my state are...well....hard.  Especially Earth science.  I go from having a fairly good grasp of what is going on (ie: evaporation) to somewhat knowing what is occurring (ie: wind and convection) to completely lost (with the weather maps and predicting weather). After scouring the internet, watching video after video, reading article after article, I finally got enough grasp on it to effectively teach my students.  One site I found is called Study Jam.  Study Jams is GREAT!  I had never seen this site before but there are a ton of kid friendly videos (cartoons) that explain these really difficult concepts in simple language.  *I* learned a lot from it, as did the students.  Click on the picture below, it will take you to the videos. However, I wanted them to be able to show what they learned in a fun, constructive way.  So I came with this fun little activity that the kids really did enjoy....Weatherman F......

We are now in full swing with our water and weather unit.   Evaporation, condensation, and the water cycle are key elements of our learning.  Since it is just a basic overview of the water cycle at this point (we get into more detail a bit later on in the unit), I wanted my students to have a bit of "fun" with it all. So we started with watching The Magic School Bus in the Water Works.  It really does a cute job at explaining the water cycle without overwhelming the students. As they were watching, I had them take notes on the cycle.  Afterwards, we created a class chart of the cycle.  The students noticed a lot of the vocabulary that we have discussed in science lab throughout the movie. Using the movie notes, the vocabulary, and previous knowledge from science lab, the students then created their own water cycle diagram.  On a piece of paper, folded into 8 sections, the students drew a picture and wrote  a few sentences about each part of ......