Easiest and Engaging Science Vocabulary Review

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!

Make Your Own Slime: The Easiest Recipe Ever!

I have always been afraid of slime.

As a teacher. As a parent. As a person.

Sure, it looks like a lot of fun, but using borax? It just didn't sound great. 

And the mess? Um, no, thank you.

Anyway, my little one wanted to use the Elmer's glitter glue I had laying around in our craft bin, so I googled some ways to use it and the easiest slime recipe ever came up. I thought, why not?

Here it is:

6 ounces Elmer's glitter glue

1/2 tablespoon baking soda

1 1/2 tablespoons contact lens solution

(You may need to add more contact lens solution if your slime turns out a bit sticky, like we did. We just added a little more and stirred until it was not...well...ooey and gooey and messy.)

Click here for thorough directions and experiment activity pages!

This is right after mixing the ingredients. The moment when I was panicking because it was a huge mess. A few minutes later, as we mixed and kneaded and it was not becoming the mess-free slime I wanted, I brought my kiddo in the bathroom to wash her hands and hopefully forget this slime mess.

When we came back from the bathroom, with clean hands, the slime had been sitting for a few minutes and seemed less, goopy? So, I added a bit more contact lens solution and we got back in there mixing. It worked! It got to the point where we could play with it and just peel it off our fingers without a goopy mess!

The look of success!

And pretending to eat slime even though I asked her not to.

So, good luck, if you try it! It really is easy!

Click here for thorough directions and experiment activity pages!

A science experiment to remember: Make your own LAVA LAMP!

MAKE YOUR OWN LAVA LAMP!

This is a really easy experiment - it's likely that you have all of the necessary materials right in your own home. Now, if you're letting every student in your class do it on their own, you MIGHT need to run out for some materials!

I just love a good, quick, and EASY experiment to hook those kiddos and get them writing up a lab report! This one is exciting, low prep, and engaging. Kids are given some background on chemical and physical reactions. (Check out some cool Brainpop, Generation Genius, or Flocabulary videos for extra background knowledge) Your class will then create their own lava lamps using a mini plastic water bottle, vegetable oil, water, food coloring, and alka-seltzer tablets.

I've done this at home with my three-year (The expression on her face when we dropped those alka-seltzer tablets in!) and in the classroom with 20 students. When teaching fourth grade, I used mini pint-sized water bottles and let each student do their own. In second grade, I used regular-sized water bottles and pairs kids up. Either way, it was super cool, and really fun!

Try it today!

Magic Milk...or Magic GLUE! Another science experiment we revisit...A LOT!

Violet and I have reused this science experiment from my fourth grade classroom A LOT recently. She loves it. It's magical. AND...it's SO EASY to set up. I literally have all of the materials in my house at a moment's notice! 

This quick and easy science experiment can be set up in a matter of minutes!

Everything you need to launch experiment writing in your classroom/home and hook your kids immediately! Get kids engaged and WRITING!

THIS IS AN AWESOME ACTIVITY!

You will need:

-Milk (whole is preferable, or 2%)

-Food coloring

-Shallow dish or bowl

-Dish soap

-Toothpick or q-tip

Pour milk into the shallow dish or bowl so that the bottom is completely covered. Next, add a few drops of food coloring, about 2-4 drops of each color.

You can add the dish soap right to the center of the milk, or you can dab a toothpick/q-tip in soap and then gently touch the middle of the milk with it.

Watch as the colors DANCE and move quickly across the surface of the milk. Continue to swirl the colors. Eventually, it will no longer work.

Want to try a TWIST???

SUBSTITUTE TO MILK WITH WHITE GLUE. WOW!!! Blow your kids' minds! They will be amazed and request to try this one again and again. Science will be their new favorite subject.

Click here for this experiment!

NAKED EGG EXPERIMENTS: Make your own rubber eggs with materials you probably have handy

How many times will my daughter ask me to make naked eggs? She literally can't get enough! Science experiments have consumed our lives as my three-year old engages in every single experiment I used my in second, third, and fourth grade classrooms over the years!

This quick and easy science experiment can be set up in a matter of minutes! The actual process is a few days, but it gives kids plenty of time for observation and to see the scientific method play out.

Everything you need to launch experiment writing in your classroom/home and hook your kids immediately! Get kids engaged and WRITING!

THIS IS AN AWESOME ACTIVITY!

First, place a raw egg in a cup filled with vinegar. Leave it for at least 3 days. After 3 days, take the egg out. Run it under warm water and rub the shell off. You will be left with a RUBBERY egg. It will also be enlarged. Simply writing this experiment and keeping an observation journal is a great activity.

To go even further, after the naked egg experiment writing and observation journal, have the kids write their own experiments to conduct on their individual naked eggs. Some ideas include putting their naked eggs in salt water, regular water, food coloring, Mountain Dew, Cola, vinegar and baking soda, and more.

BE CAREFUL when rubbing the shell off the egg. Sometimes the eggs do POP. Have a few back up eggs, just in case. :)

Click here for the experiment!

Magical Milk

THIS IS AN AWESOME ACTIVITY!

You will need:

-Milk (whole is preferable, or 2%)

-Food coloring

-Shallow dish or bowl

-Dish soap

-Toothpick or q-tip

Pour milk into the shallow dish or bowl so that the bottom is completely covered. Next, add a few drops of food coloring, about 2-4 drops of each color.

You can add the dish soap right to the center of the milk, or you can dab a toothpick/q-tip in soap and then gently touch the middle of the milk with it.

Watch as the colors DANCE and move quickly across the surface of the milk. Continue to swirl the colors. Eventually, it will no longer work.

Violet literally wants to do this experiment DAILY. Multiple times a day! (Check her out down below, doing the experiment with me last weekend.)

Also, for the older kids, you can definitely go into MAJOR science details about the surface tension, how the soap and milk interact because the soap is attacking those fat molecules in the milk (AKA why whole milk works best), and more!

Here is my link for the experiment, if you want more structure for students or kids.

Happy experimenting!

Mentor Text Alert: An Egg is Quiet

Time! Never enough, right? I find myself working hard to focus on cross-curricular units, read alouds, lessons, anything to tie Science and Social Studies into every other subject because there just isn't enough time in the day.

Mentor texts are the easiest way to do this! Read alouds are research-based for fostering a love of learning, developing vocabulary, increasing comprehension, and exposing kids to new topics, as well as developing a strong classroom community, of course. So, why not tie in your Science and Social Studies content while you're at it? Sneaky, but it works!

An Egg is Quiet is just one example of a book that touches on life cycles, camouflage, adaptations, and more through a beautifully illustrated picture book. Kids will love listening to the story, but they will read it again and again and again as well, soaking up all of that juicy Science content. Check it some snippets below!

Happy reading!

LEGO STEAM/STEM Building Blocks Challenges for Every Child!

Hi everyone!

I'm here to talk LEGO! Now, if you are anything like my husband, you literally have TUBS AND TUBS of Legos from your youth. Just taking up space in the basement. Waiting for your children to be interested or old enough to enjoy them. (Our kids are 2 and newborn - we're not quite ready for the little Legos.)

I have used Legos with my students more and more over the years. For EVERYTHING! It started as a STEAM/STEM challenge. I did it with summer school students because I didn't know if I could fit Lego STEAM challenges into my regular school day during the year. The kids were completely engaged and into it. We used to have a Lego club at school, focusing on MindStorms, but that went away with budgetary reasons. So, now the kids finally had something similar back in their lives. Now, I structured it. Each day we engaged in a different Lego building blocks challenge or activity, such as building a marble maze or a rubber band powered car. Every child had a plastic tub with Legos plus extra materials they might need for a challenge, plus their Lego design book, which laid out all challenges, space for ideas/blueprints, and reflection. It became my go to summer enrichment activity in summer school.

Flash forward. I started to realize that I could integrate Legos all over. Busy bins. Recess tubs. teaching science and social studies! Literature units. You name it, I figured out a way to use Legos to teach it. Some of my favorites included morning tubs for kids when they came in. Each child got their own tub and a challenge. I also taught landforms using Legos to create them as we learned each. I also had kids setting up settings of texts with Lego scenes, practicing following directions and writing How To pieces with Lego creations, and learning all about fractions. We've done plenty of science experiments: density, water displacement, hurricane tables, and more!

Click here to check out the full array of Lego activities I've integrated into grades 2-5 classrooms over the years!

Spark Student Motivation Saturday

I'm here to link up with Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching for Spark Student Motivation Saturdays!

I downloaded these great science kits for Valentine's Day this year. Instead of loading my kiddos up on MORE sugar, I made these science kits. It worked out really well because our Valentine's Day celebration was the day before our week long winter vacation! So, the second graders had some great science experiments to get them through the vacation!

Now, that was so successful, that I decided to purchase more of the Science kits from TPT and send science experiments home for the next vacation that's coming up, too! My school does not give second grade a time to teach science (we teach it through our ELA time), so we do not get to do as many experiments as I would like. Kids love hands on experiences!

Click here if you're interested in Teach-a-Roo's Science kits!