When you teach a grade level with a state science test, and you never have enough time to teach science, what do you do?
A few years ago, I printed the massively long list of terms that might be on the state science test. Okay, not massively long, but definitely more words than I had time to teach my kiddos. Plus, most of them were already taught - in NY, our state science test is focused on science from first through fourth grade (soon to be first through fifth grade). So, my kids knew a lot of these words. How did I decide to jump start the review?
Art.
Yup. I am the teacher who rarely pulls out the coloring supplies, honestly. And my kiddos do not complain. We work hard and we play hard. So, during our guided reading block for one week in May, before our state science test, I made one of the May Do activities (things kids can do after their finish their Must Do activities), to pick a word from the list of science vocabulary and make a poster. The poster must include the word, a picture showing the word, the definition in their own words, and a sentence that they create. And kids can make as many as they would like. If the posters were correct, legible, and neat, I would hang them in the hallway for all to admire....and learn from.
Can you believe that this was a tremendously popular early finisher activity? And recess activity? And activity kids took home to continue working on? Seriously, give a kid some poster paper and miracles can happen. Anyway, I don't think I've ever had a kid fail the NYS Science test (I mean, it's really easy, honestly....) and the review activities can be a serious blast!
Check out some of our examples below!
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