Introduce your students to animal habitats and their own environment at the same time. Explore the neighborhoods of birds, mammals and sea creatures with the Animal Tracks Activity Set. Ask students to describe their own neighborhoods. Use Animal Tracks Stamps to map out the daily paths and activities of different creatures. Students can trace their own footprints and count how many steps they take around the room, around the playground or at home. Roll the Ocean Animal Cubes and let students write a story about the sea animal pictured. Little hands will love to hold the Jumbo Ocean Animals, so pass them around and have students chart whether each creature lives on land or sea, eats meat or vegetables, or prefers warm or cold weather. Keep track of their responses and introduce new vocabulary on your word wall. Finish off the unit with a game, matching tracks or habitat to a creature.
Bring the solar system down to Earth by integrating hands-on, cross-curricular activities. Flip4Science ™ kits lead students through scaffolded inquiry lessons and activities, each aligned with National Science Education Standards. When you reach Lesson 3 (“What Causes Night and Day?”) in the Sun, Earth & Moon kit, show how the location of shadows on each planet in the Solar System Floor Puzzle determines where to place each piece. Keep the puzzle together for Lesson 4 (“What Causes the Seasons?”) so they can trace the orbits of each planet by constructing a compass with a pencil and a string measured to match each orbit ring. Try giving tables or groups planetary names, then use the Solar System Foam Cubes for assigning tasks or even for classroom management. Or, roll the cubes and assign teams to research four facts or write two descriptions about the planet named or pictured. This unit can be a truly out-of-this-world experience!
Is it magic or magnetic? Natural curiosity will draw students to the Magnetism Science Station to test their Guided Inquiry and Full Inquiry hypotheses from the Flip4Science™ Magnets lessons. Pour iron filings on the station and see if students can draw the patterns created. When studying the magnetic properties of ordinary items (Lesson 2), demonstrate by trying to pull items away from the large Horseshoe-Shaped Magnets. Give students Science Journals to record their observations and chart their findings. Tie in map skills by studying how a compass works (Lesson 3). Using their results from Lesson 2, give students an opportunity to construct a compass out of unusual components, like paper clips or sand. They can decide whose compass works best after a scavenger hunt!
Playfully teach 100 interesting facts about insects with Caught in the Web™, an insect game. Older students can draw the true/false cards for research topics or for compare-and-contrast essays. Build bug knowledge when you set up the Observation Science Station to display real insects through its window. Have students use the Magnetic Science Tiles to assemble and label a dragonfly on one side of the Write-on/Wipe-off Tabletop Center. On the other side, ask questions such as, What effect have bugs had on our food, health or economy? Or, What is the life cycle of a silk moth? Science Journals are just right for recording and drawing their individual observations. Let teams post answers on the Tabletop Center, then listen to the buzz as teams discuss their findings with each other.
Introduce the parts of the body by playing Spill Your Guts™, piecing together organs inside a clear plastic model. After students see the length of the large intestine or the color of the liver, follow up with personalized practice using the Radius™ Audio Learning System and Radius™ Interactive Science Kit: Human Body. As this tool teaches students about the digestive system, their comprehension will soar because they will relate their direct experience to the interactive reading. Keep the Human Body Flip Chart with clear layering pages in plain view to showcase how the systems work individually and together. Reinforce learning at P.E., identifying the bones and muscle groups as they play. Determine the proportions of bone size to height, and research how human skeletal systems have enlarged throughout history. Point out that even hard bones can be shaped and changed—just ask the kids with braces!
