Science Notebook Freebie

I wanted to hop on today and share a little science notebook freebie that I made for you all. I thought it would be helpful to create a little science cheat sheet for students to glue onto the inside of their notebooks.

I included the basic metric units, some other scientific units that I thought would be helpful, the steps to the CER and Scientific Method, the types of variables, the equation for force = mass x acceleration and the periodic table!

I hope this helps your science students this year!

Just click the image to download your free copy!

End of the Year Science Freebie

I think we can all agree that this school year didn't end quite like we had imagined or hoped. I always look forward to those final days with students.

This year, since I am teaching 8th grade, it makes me extremely sad because they will be moving on to high school next year and I won't see them again.

I wanted to put together a little something for my students to keep the science going this summer, if only for a moment. I also wanted to find something that wouldn't break the bank!

So, I assembled little bags with the materials to make a balloon rocket at home.

This project cost me less than $20! I might have spent a few hours putting them together, but I think it's worth the time and effort to give students a little science in their summer.

The Materials to Purchase:

• balloons
• string
• straws (I used paper straws from Dollar Tree)
• snack bags
• colored paper to print your freebie on

Download the freebie by clicking the image below.

I only provided students with enough to make one balloon rocket. You could provide them double the materials and allow them to have balloon races. Students will also need tape, but I did not include the tape for them. That would have cost a little more than I wanted to spend and I figured most kids probably had tape at home. 

Here is a little video for assembling your bags!

I am hoping they enjoy this fun little STEM activity! I hope you can use it for your students too!

5 Fun Games for Digital Learning (Free Downloads)

This time has been incredibly difficult for teachers. Being away from our classrooms, our students, our colleagues, and our school communities has taken it's toll on us all. But, as teachers, we do what we do best. We do anything we can to serve our students and make learning online as much like our own classrooms as we can. I have been trying to find that perfect balance between the right amount of work on virtual meeting time to make sure my students are successful.

However, it is SO important to keep those connections with students going and let them know that we miss them and love them. One great way to do that is to play games with them when you meet on Zoom, Google Meet, or WebEx in my case.

I am going to talk about some really fun games that my students and I have played that I also tried to make relevant to my content area. These games could be made relevant for any content area as well.

Some of these games are a culmination of ideas I've seen on Instagram or versions of things I've seen. I will credit teachers where I can.

Scavenger Hunt with a Twist
We have all seen the typical scavenger hunt where you have students race to find items in there house and bring them back. Students LOVE this! But I was watching my IG stories one day and Kimberly from The Science Stalker suggested having students find items that started with specific letters. She had a word in mind that the first letter of each item would spell. For example, if you wanted them to unscramble the word science, you would have students hunt for things that started with each of the letters in that word (sock, clock, etc...) You would have them search for the items out of order and then have them try to unscramble the word.

I did this on Earth Day for each of my science classes. Each class had a different word related to Earth Day because you know middle schoolers like to talk to each other! Anyway, it was a big hit and they loved it! This would be a great way to introduce a lesson topic.

The Points Game

My girl Rachel at the Tattooed Teacher shared this one. This game is just a great way to connect with your students, build relationships, and just have a little fun. You will explain to students that they can earn and lose points for doing the activities that will be presented to students. If they have not done the activity, they do not gain or lose any points. You will want to give them an example like I have not yelled at anyone today so I do not lose 10 points, but I do not earn points either because this is a negative activity.

Then you present slides of different scenarios. (ie. If you have argued with someone -10, If you are wearing shoes or socks +1 per size on one slide) You can come up with as many different scenarios as you like. You can give the winner with the most points at the end a virtual prize!

Simon Says Science 

You can really do this with any subject area, but everyone knows how to play Simon Says. Just call out a statement like Simon Says touch your nose if Alfred Wegener propose the theory of continental drift. Offer some false statements like the following --> Simon Says hop on one foot if the crest is the lowest part of the wave. If students perform the action, they are out of the game.

Guess the Science Gibberish

This is another fun one that I got from Kimberly at the Science Stalker. However, I added the science twist to mine! You can download her free game HERE. For this game, it is a like the game Mad Gab. There are seemingly nonsense phrases, but when said together quickly sound like a word or phrase. I created some of my own based on our science vocabulary. You can download my editable science version by clicking HERE. We played this as a class last week and it was hilarious!

Five Second Rule

This last game is one that I plan on playing with my class this week and I think it will be a blast. You show a student a topic and they will have five seconds to name 3 things that fit the topic. For example, name three brands of shoes. My students and I will be playing this with a science twist. It will be a great way to review what we have learned and have a little bit of fun! Click the image below to download your free copy!

I hope this helps make your virtual teaching a little bit easier and little more fun! I would love to know what fun games you are playing with your students!

Science Podcast Episode Guide

So as many of you may already know, I made the switch this year to teaching middle school science and I absolutely LOVE it! I don't know why I spent so many years teaching elementary. I won't go on and on about the many reasons WHY, but just take my word for it.

Podcasts have become a big thing in education in the last couple of years. I know personally, I love listening to podcasts on my way to work every morning. True Crime is my favorite genre! My Favorite Murder and Sword and Scale are my two go to podcasts that I listen to on my daily commute.

When I taught third grade, we listened to a podcast called Six Minutes each day when we came in from recess and the students loved that time. You could hear a pin drop....It was a daily story that kept their attention and left them wanting more each day!

As a science teacher now, I've been looking for a way to incorporate podcasts into my science classroom, but just hadn't found the time to really look into all the science podcasts out there and what they have to offer. There are so many wonderful science podcasts with SOOOO many episodes.

I had a thought that I just needed to comb through each podcast and come up with guide broken down by podcast, topic, title, episode, and length so that when I want to use one, I can just go to my guide and pick one. I know this is going to make it less daunting for me to use a podcast in one of my lessons instead of spending hours (which is literally what I did creating this guide) looking for just the right episode to correspond to my lesson.

I created a Google Sheet and added tabs across the bottom for different scientific topics. At the top, I listed the title of the Podcast, the topic that the episode covers, the title of the episode, the episode date, and the length of the episode. You can see in the example below how it is set up.

Science genres included are:

• Earth and Space
• Biology
• Earth (plate tectonics, oceans, atmosphere, volcanoes, earthquakes)
• Earth's History (fossils, dinosaurs, evolution)
• Ecology
• Light and Sound
• Environment
• Weather
• Health
• Scientific Method
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Geology
• Genetics

The podcasts that I used are:

• Science Weekly
• 60 Second Science
• Brains On Science
• Science Friday
• Tumble
• Fun Kids Science Weekly
• But Why
• Wow in the World
• The Show About Science

As new episodes are added to each podcast, I plan on updating the list each month. I hope you all find this document helpful for your science classrooms. If you would like to make a copy, please download it HERE. 

For future updates, you will need to come back and make a copy again. If you know of any other great science podcasts for kids, let me know and I will check them out and consider adding them to the guide!

Science Survey

As I prepare for my first year as a middle school science teacher, I felt that it was important to survey my students and get their general feelings on science and assess their science knowledge.

I have always done back to school surveys for students as a way of getting to know them, so I felt like this was a great way of getting to know my students in a more scientific sense.

For a fun twist, you can also use the second version of the survey and do it gallery style! Get students up and moving to answer the questions. This is something that I have always done with my third graders at the beginning of every school year and it is such a fun way to get to know your students.

Grab this free survey by clicking my blog button below!

Teaching Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning {Freebie Included}

Hey there friends! I am absolutely terrible about keeping up with this little ole blog, but I wanted to come and share with you all that I will be making the move to middle school this year to teach 8th grade science! (I know, I am a crazy person.) I have taught third grade for so many years that I just needed a change. I am VERY excited about the change and I have tons of ideas rolling around in my head.

After diving into the standards, I knew that students would need to learn to make claims and support them with evidence. This seemed to be a large theme throughout the standards so I scoured Pinterest like any good teacher and found the Claim, Evidence, Reasoning method for teaching argument writing in science.

I developed a set of resources that I think any science teacher would find helpful in teaching students to use this method with their middle level students. I love this also because the method of writing can be used in any content area! 

The unit includes:

• A powerpoint to teach your students about the Claim, Evidence, Reasoning method
• Claim, Evidence, Reasoning posters
• Claim, Evidence, Reasoning doodle notes (filled in, guided, and blank versions)
• Claim, Evidence, Reasoning guided notes mini posters for science notebooks
• Anchor chart pieces
• Claim, Evidence, Reasoning reference wheel
• Claim, Evidence, Reasoning foldable
• 2 different graphic organizers
• Claim, Evidence, Reasoning sorting activity
• Claim, Evidence, Reasoning Song lesson 
• Claim, Evidence, Reasoning Candy lesson
• 2 Claim, Evidence, Reasoning passages with writing prompt to practice the writing method

Below is a preview of all of the resources that are included in the file! I hope you find them useful! I am excited to start my year off teaching students this important skill!

As a way to thank you for sticking around, please download a copy of the doodle notes for free! Just click the image below to grab your free copy!

Monday Motivation {Daily Schedules}

Hey friends! I am back today sharing about my daily schedule! In truth, I haven't had a schedule that I have been truly happy with in some time. We don't really have much control over when we do certain things (recess, activity, lunch) and this year, we were required to give up an additional 30 minutes to do RTI four days a week. Our Friday schedules are also different do to PLC time. I will not be including that information here, but here is what the layout of our day looks like.

When I was setting up my room a couple of years ago, I found these ADORABLE daily schedule cards from Amy Groesbeck! You can grab yourself a set HERE!

This schedule ended up changing as the year went on. Here is the schedule that I ended up sticking with for the year.

When students come in, they have a this message on the board.

We are a Title I school and offer free breakfast every day. We didn't always use morning work, but when we did, we used this, from Kiki's Classroom. You can purchase the yearlong set HERE!

Sometimes, students would just get on the computers and do Reflex Math or work on Cursive Workbooks. Eating breakfast in the classroom made it difficult to complete the morning math fully. We would try to finish it later on in the day.

 After morning routine, we jump right into Reading Workshop. I had the resource students this year and we did inclusion, so the resource teacher pushed in each day. In our district, we use the Fountas and Pinnell balanced literacy model and we also use Literacy By Design. We also have the freedom to supplement our mini lessons with whatever resources we choose. I only use the LBD leveled readers during my Guided Reading time. Each week, our mini lesson focused on a specific standard. During our Guided Reading group time, students do Daily 5. You can read more about that HERE. As students are doing Daily 5, they have the week to respond to the skill we are focusing on in their reading notebooks.

After reading, we go straight into writing. Because of our tight schedule this year, I felt like writing was always where we had the least amount of time. Guided Reading would always run over. I really am hoping our schedule allows for more writing time this year. 

I used Ashleigh Swinford's writing units this year. They follow the writing workshop model and they are wonderful! You can purchase those in her shop HERE! The one thing that I feel like I really didn't do a great job with was teaching grammar. Ashleigh's units do have a small grammar focus, but they are not lessons. This coming year, my team will be using Rooted in Reading and I am excited that they will have a grammar focus each week.

After writing, we had a 45 minute activity block. These are our specials, related arts, whatever you call them at your school!

We are required to have PE twice a week in order to abide by state law, so library isn't an official activity block. We have to carve out 20 minutes once a week to go. I would prefer that it be a full activity time, but hey....I'm not the one running things!

When we return from activity, we have one of our favorite times of the day - Read Aloud!

These are just a few of the novels we read this past school year. We also read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and The Swamp Fox. I would love some more 3rd grade novel suggestions for next year!

After read aloud, we have math. 

About a month into the school year, I discovered Hope King and Amy Lemon's Magic of Math for third grade and it totally transformed our math time! Students have never been more engaged in math in my classroom. I will say that it required lots of copies and preparation, but now I have a ton of it ready for reuse for next year. 

If you are interested in purchasing the third grade Magic of Math, just click on the image below!

You will certainly not regret it! These movable fraction number lines took me some time to assemble, but now I have them for years to come!

After math, we had recess, lunch, and a quick restroom break. 

When we returned, we had about a 45 minute content block. We had to alternate between Science and Social Studies because we didn't have time in our schedule to do both in one day. For the sake of grading, we usually alternated after completing a concept, instead of a whole unit. 

We tried our best to make this time as hands on as possible. We did have a couple of Science Kits to use and we pretty much planned our own curriculum for Social Studies as the text books don't make for much excitement. 

The last 30 minutes of the day was reserved for our intervention time. While I was meeting with these four students, the rest of the students would be on computers or devices working on Reflex Math or Imagine Learning. 

This coming year, I plan on using these progress monitoring cards from Mrs. D's corner! You can snag her freebie HERE! 

After RTI, we pack up and dismiss for the day! 

I hope you have enjoyed this insight into my daily schedule! 

The verdict is in...No Prep Center Ideas Freebie

Well, my interview went great. I pretty much knew I had it in the bag when the principal took one look at my my test scores and his eyes got all big and said, "I think that's all we need to see." HAHA

The positions were orginally for a 0.6 third grade teaching only reading and a full time fourth grade teaching reading and writing. I was scared about that part time thing, not gonna lie. I told him I just didn't think that was an option with a baby on the way, but that I felt more comfortable teaching third because that's where I've been for the last four years. 

So, he walked me out and said, "I didn't tell any other candidate this, but I could probably make that part time position 0.8." That made me feel confident.

I went home and within hours my principal called me and said that she just spoke with the principal that I had interviewed with and said that he was trying to make me a full time third grade position! She told me that if they offered it to me, I should take it. 

So, the next morning the principal called me and offered me a third grade full time position teaching only Math and Reading! My heart skipped a beat! He even moved a teacher out of the grade level just to accomodate my new position.

I am seriously still in shock that he went through all that just to hire me. I have to say it felt so good and reassuring to hear how they couldn't believe I hadn't already been snagged up by some other school! I'm on cloud nine right now. 

My position doesn't become official with the new district until the 11th, but in the meantime I'm able to begin moving into my new room Monday and I couldn't be more ecstatic for this exciting new change. 

Yes, it kind of sucks that I have to move classrooms for the second time in a year and I probably won't have access the amount of technology that I'm used to being in Title I, but I think I will love this new school. 

I am considering writing a Donor's Choose grant to purchase some tablets for my classroom. Does anyone recommend ones that work great and run around 100 dollars?

With all of that being said, I feel like there will be so many changes in the way I organize and do things in my classroom since I'll have two classes that switch. 

If anyone departmentalizes and has any words of wisdom or suggestions for organizing supplies and materials, I would love to hear them! =)

In other news, I have been working on a little something when I thought I was going to be teaching 2nd grade. They do centers during their guided reading time and so I came up with a little document compiling some ideas for little to no prep center ideas in each subject area. Just click the picture below to head on over to my TPT shop to download it for FREE! 

I am sure these are all ideas that everyone has thought of or used before, but sometimes my brain doesn't work right and I just need a list to choose from! So I hope this is helpful!

And, don't forget that TPT will be having their big back to school sale and you don't want to miss out!

Idioms

I think this is a record this year. I'm actually posting for a third time in a week! Gotta celebrate the small things sometimes!

Last week, we worked on idioms. Let me tell you...my kids KNOW how to identify some idioms! They don't always know what they mean, but by golly, they can tell you when they hear one! HAHA

One of my students has even been keeping a list of all of the idioms he's found at home. He carries it everywhere and shows me his list like EVERY afternoon! Another one of my students told me at lunch today that he and his rowdy classmates were just trying to keep me on my toes!

Anyways, I wanted to share a cute little Idiom Poster that I created to assess the students at the end of the week. We brainstormed all of our favorite idioms on the board and then I asked them to pick their favorite for the poster activity.

Here are some cute examples!

(Sorry it's blurry! He illustrated "party animal." HAHA It was my fav!

I have found myself having a really hard time at school this year...with everything. I have felt defeated and unmovitated. So...I stumbled upon this blog post tonight by Elizabeth from Kickin' It In Kindergarten and it's just something to inspire a little some hope and comfort in those moments when we feel like we can't do anymore.

Sometimes we just need a little list to remind us of the importance of what we do!

Happy Hump Day!

I'm back, Jack!

Oh. My. Word. It's been an eternity. This has by far been the craziest school year. Between my grad class, planning to teach my class, teaching my class, dealing with my class (haha), and meetings out the wazoo...I haven't had much time for anything blog related. I have only had time to focus on my what's before me. 

With that being said...I'd like to catch you up on the happenings in my classroom in pictures. =)

I think that brings you all up to speed! 

I am so overwhelmed this year, but I wanted to check in with you all and let you know I'm still alive and I'm going to make a very good effort not to neglect you all for so long!

And this week, we are working on physical and behavioral animal adaptations so I made a flipbook to go along with our unit. I wanted to share it with you all! 

I also made a flipchart to accompany the flipbook! 

Important Note: that you must have Promethean Activ Inspire software to download and use! You also need to download the following fonts from Jen Jones, Hello Sunshine and Hello Poppin Tags!

I hope to be back later this week with the behavioral adaptation version! 

I hope you all have a fabulous Sunday! It's almost Walking Dead time!!