One of my colleagues has been holding onto a resource for years called "It's My Zoo." This activity, from Teacher Created Resources, is a great time killer / critical thinking activity that students enjoy doing. The activity asks students to design the layout of a zoo following certain pre-set rules. The students can do these zoos either on a sheet of butcher paper, or in 3D using boxes, scraps, etc. I am sorry to say that I neglected to photograph my students finished zoos, but they did come out great and I was excited with the work they produced.
To sum all this up, I decided that the document we've been copying from was getting pretty rough. It was a copy of a copy of a copy or something like that, and was showing its age. So I updated it.
Now that we're approaching the end of the school year, it's time to get the 5th graders working on their science fair projects.
I think it's a great end of year project to do, because it gives students a chance to show off the knowledge and skills they've acquired during the school year. We will be presenting these projects to families and community members in about 3 weeks time.
I look forward to showing off some of the exemplary (and even not so exemplary) projects here on the blog, but for now, I'm going to list some resources for anyone out there who is thinking about doing science fair projects. So here you go:
Elementary Science Fair Planning Guide: I consider this to be the best resource I came across online. In fact, the document I created for my 5th grade is based on pages from this pdf document.
My Science Fair Document: I made some changes to the document listed above, and added my own things to it. This is what we're using for our science fair.
Today I was thinking about what it is that makes us feel so small. Our students, mostly still egotistical children, don't conceptualize the greater world and universe that exists out there. I like to take a moment each year with my students and discuss the concept of other people, other cultures, and the fact that our lives are quite small in the scheme of things, and that we must make every effort to become productive members of society, and to learn to co-exist with others.
But yeah, it's hard to get this concept across in a simple little lecture, so I like to show these amazing, world-view-defining videos. So, for tonight, enjoy:
Ascent, by Brian Eno: This amazing little piece of music that is accompanied with photos of the earth. Its 4 minutes really put me at ease and show me how small we really are.
Pale Blue Dot, by Carl Sagan: If you want to prove that we're a speck of dust out there in the universe, here you go:
This animal identification game is very simple, and very effective to have 5th graders play. The concept is very simple. Each student will be given a card, that they will paper clip (or tape, or whatever works best) on their back.
They must then ask other students questions about the animal on their back, questions that must be answered yes/no. It can be a 20 questions game, or just an "ask until you figure it out" game. The goal is for students to get enough information on their animal to be able to guess what it is.
I searched online for free animal information cards, and didn't come up with much. The easiest way to do this, for free, is to download the templates that I list below and use them. I prefer to give students the blanks, and have them find the information for the cards on their own using encyclopedias or the internet.
I utilize this activity at the beginning of the school year in a series of science inquiry games that we play to get in to "the science way of thinking." There are various activities that we do, and this one gets students using the right vocabulary, and gives me a quick picture of what they can already do in terms of questioning and inquiry. The vocabulary I want students to use during this activity includes: predator, prey, carnivore, herbivore, omnivore, camouflage, nocturnal, toxic, and hibernation.
ANIMAL BASEBALL SIZED CARDS: This first pdf is a link to some animal cards, and the last page is blanks. I use this page and have students list the information on each animal on the back of the card. The information they must find is:
Animal name
Region of the world it lives in
Diet
Life expectancy
Classification (basic level of classification)
Their place on the food cycle (predator, prey, etc.)
I've been focusing on making sure that these unit pages are full of information that I can use to assist in my own planning, and making sure that it's a service to other teachers. There are links to the content, some activities, many pdf documents that are freely available for printing, and some great videos that I use in this unit. Let me know if you have any other suggestions.
Zoom, by Istvan Banyai, is a great picture book that teaches students the concept of zooming. Many reading teachers use it as a simple activity in which students look at the concept of moving into a picture, and it induces some neat discussions, even in smaller kids. I use this book in science, when teaching about atoms and molecules. I normally use it during my initial lesson, as it shows simply the concept of objects within objects. I have my students view the book, then make their own "zoom book" afterwards, using a simple flip book made out of three sheets of construction paper folded into fourths, cut, and stapled together.
If you don't have access to the book, you're in luck, because you can view the entire book HERE on Slideshare or at the bottom of this post. Trust me, it's great stuff. Take a look!
In the state of New Mexico, Earth & Space Science has a prominent place in the standards and benchmarks, especially in 5th grade. This being one of the primary topics students learn about in science class, as well as being the yearly focus for students participating in the after school science program run by SEMAA, it's important to have a few resources ready to utilize.
---------First, there is the ubiqutous Google Earth. It's a free download, and I've found that it runs pretty well on school servers. The great thing about Google Earth is the vast amount of ways it can be utilized. When using Google Earth, the first thing kids will want to do is locate either their own home or the school. It's important to give them this freedom. It helps them learn the controls, and get used to the software. If your computers have the capability, let students put pins on the places they find for future reference. Also, you can turn it around and get detailed renderings of the Moon and Mars, as well as the stars from a distance.
The first activity I usually do with Google Earth, and the students are still learning it, involves zooming to a certain point, taking a screen capture, then pasting that screen capture in a Word document (I have students push the print screen button, crop the resulting image in MS paint, then paste that in MS Word). I ask my students to start with a picture of the Earth, and zoom in using major points of reference, evenutally reaching their house or the school. This usually results in students zooming from earth, Western Hemisphere, North America, United States, New Mexico, and then into the county, city, neighborhood, then the final image is the target. This does a great job of teaching the controls, and how to do some simple copying, cropping, and pasting between the Google Earth program and a document.
---------Next up is Celestia, an awesome free download that is similar to Google Earth. What makes Celestia different from Google Earth is that instead of focusing on Earth (as well as Mars and the Moon), is that you can zoom in on the cosmos, and see the stars up close. Celestia helps drive that point home that the universe is really big, and the Earth is just a speck of dust in relation.
--------Now for a couple of great videos:
Cosmic Zoom is by far one of the most endearing videos in terms of teaching about the immense size of the universe, and our place in it. It's made even better by the fact that it's narrated by Morgan Freeman. The last few minutes of this video zoom into an atom, so it's great for teaching both about the scale of the universe and the atomic scale as well. It's eerie how similar the two seem in the end:
Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan might not hit kids as hard as it does adults, but it really puts the overall scale of the Earth as it relates to our galaxy and the greater universe in perspective. I've found that even elementary school aged kids enjoy watching this video and have a lot of great questions afterwards:
The Hubble Deep Field is a stunning video that nearly brought this science nerd to tears the first time I saw it. I show this to students because it's just amazing to see (if you're in a hurry, fast forward up to the 5 minute mark to catch the deep field portion of the video).
I always like to start out the school year by teaching my students a little bit about the human brain. It's good to know what's going on in your own head, in a way, it might even make you a better learner. Over the course of the school year, we will talk about cells, the brain, and how the human body works. We will also discuss learning styles, and how each particular brain is different.
First, we will start off by learning a little bit about the human brain. So CLICK HERE to read about the Control Centers of the brain.
Next up, it's time to make a model of the human brain using a fun potato flake mixture. (for you teachers out there wondering what this looks like, here's the recipe:
1.5 cups instant potato flakes
2.5 cups hot water
2 cups clean sand (can be found at home building stores or landscaping stores)
1 gallon Ziploc bag
Place
all the ingredients into the Ziploc bag and combine thoroughly. You can
squish the mixture around with your hands or you can use a spoon to
stir it. After mixing completely, the bag should weigh about three
pounds and have the consistency of a real brain.
Here are a few videos (a TED Talk video that maps the brain, and a video with cool facts about the brain):
A Map of the Brain:
10 Amazing Facts About the Brain:
Now, we're ready to take a closer look at how our own brains work.
The Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park is located just four miles west of Las Cruces. A bosque is a riverside forest. When it rains, water runs off of the Rio Grande river and provides the area with enough water to form small lakes and marshes. Many animals live here, animals that don't live anywhere else in our area. So let's check some of these animals out:
The park rangers use motion sensitive cameras to capture images and videos of the animals roaming the park. Trail cameras photos
This video shows a coyote attacking a beaver at the bosque (it's a little violent, but that's nature!).
I use this book in science, when teaching about atoms and molecules. I normally use it during my initial lesson, as it shows simply the concept of objects within objects. I have my students view the book, then make their own "zoom book" afterwards, using a simple flip book made out of three sheets of construction paper folded into fourths, cut, and stapled together.
---------Next up is Celestia, an awesome free download that is similar to Google Earth. What makes Celestia different from Google Earth is that instead of focusing on Earth (as well as Mars and the Moon), is that you can zoom in on the cosmos, and see the stars up close. Celestia helps drive that point home that the universe is really big, and the Earth is just a speck of dust in relation. 
