Another tip for next year....organizing!

Ah...the dredded prep work....

What makes a science lesson run smoothly or go over like a lead balloon? Whether or not the teacher has her/his materials prepped and ready for the lesson.

I know some teachers complain about the time it takes to get materials ready. I know we are all fried at the end of the day...But if you simply spend 15 minutes making sure you are good to go the next day, the lesson will run 100% smoother. And if the lesson runs smoothly, the kids will learn more.

So let me share a few of my tips and what works for me!

First, I make sure that I have a consistent materials spot. I have two desks pushed together and covered with a vinyl tablecloth (to hide the crap educational materials underneath.)

Second, you need each group to have materials easily accessible. As you see with this unit, I put each groups materials on a tray. Then when I ask the Getters to go get the materials, they simply get their trays and any additional materials.

Sometimes you need to put things in baggies. When I do that for my FOSS Magnetism and Electricity unit, I make sure to put them in a large ziploc and number them by group. So for this lesson each group needs 2 batteries, a switch, 4 wires, 2 light bulbs and a light bulb holder. I put those in the bag and stack the circuit boards next to them. So much easier for the getters to grab and go.

Third - where do you house the materials? In a nicely labeled tub of course! I actually have two tubs side by side right now because we need the bags, the circuit boards and occasionally the balance scales. This makes clean up for getter 2 a breeze. It also makes prep work that night so much easier because I can easily see what needs to be added or removed for the next lesson.


Hope these three tips helped you today!

Organizing supplies....

Ah...the dredded prep work....

What makes a science lesson run smoothly or go over like a lead balloon? Whether or not the teacher has her/his materials prepped and ready for the lesson. 

I know some teachers  complain about the time it takes to get materials ready.  I know we are all fried at the end of the day...But if you simply spend 15 minutes making sure you are good to go the next day, the lesson will run 100% smoother.  And if the lesson runs smoothly, the kids will learn more. 

So let me share a few of my tips and what works for me!

First, I make sure that I have a consistent materials spot.  I have two desks pushed together and covered with a vinyl tablecloth (to hide the crap   educational materials underneath.)  

Second, you need each group to have materials easily accessible. As you see with this unit, I put each groups materials on a tray.  Then when I ask the Getters to go get the materials, they simply get their trays and any additional materials.

Sometimes you need to put things in baggies.  When I do that for my FOSS Magnetism and Electricity unit, I make sure to put them in a large ziploc and number them by group.  So for this lesson each group needs 2 batteries, a switch, 4 wires, 2 light bulbs and a light bulb holder.  I put those in the bag and stack the circuit boards next to them.  So much easier for the getters to grab and go.

Third - where do you house the materials?  In a nicely labeled tub of course!  I actually have two tubs side by side right now because we need the bags, the circuit boards and occasionally the balance scales.  This makes clean up for getter 2 a breeze. It also makes prep work that night so much easier because I can easily see what needs to be added or removed for the next lesson. 


Hope these three tips helped you today! 

Cooperative Groups need to be structured...

Science Groups 

It is time for a repost...I can not stress enough how important it is to have science groups set up for hands-on exploration.  Each child NEEDS a job and a responsibility.  It makes the lesson run so smoothly....  Take a peek into my Science jobs the FOSS way!

For more information about the curriculum I use, check out www.fossweb.com
 

1.  GROUPING:  FOSS recommends you have your students into groups of 4.  I usually group them this way - one high student, one lower student and two average students.  I also pay special mind to personalities as well - sensitive, high energy, etc... Laura Candler has a really good resource for cooperative learning where you make cards to help you keep record of who is grouped with who.  I recommend you go to her website: www.lauracandler.com and search for more resources under cooperative learning.

2. POSTER WITH NAMES:  Once I determine who is in the group, I make a poster that shows the students names and group number.  Each child's name is in a certain color - red, green, blue or yellow.   That is because the color will denote the job of the day.

3.  JOB CHART: Next, I put the four jobs in a pocket chart:

Getter1 - gets materials
Getter 2 - puts materials away
Reporter - reports what they did at the end of the investigation
Starter - starts the investigation first

4.  ASSIGN JOBS:  Finally, I put a square in the pocket chart next to each job.  The squares are red, yellow, green and blue.  This way if your name is red, you do the red job today.  Each day the squares rotate so that the jobs rotate.

Hope this works for you as well as it works for me!

Exploring with Rollercoaster tubes

What can we learn about force and motion by creating our own roller coasters?

Today, students will work in their science groups.  Getter one will get the materials – tube, a cup, tape and a marble. The cup is important because it catches the marble at the end of the run.   The starter will begin to explore with the tubes for a while to see what the group can do… Can they make a loop? A curve? A drop? 

           Extend:  Pass out a challenge sheet (from More Picture Perfect Science lessons)  with several challenges to attempt to try in their exploration. Can you move a marble to the cup using one loop? a twist? etc???  Getter two will clean up when the time is over and the Reporter will share what the group was able to do.  The science jobs is an extremely important part of any cooperative group activity because roles are defined and arguing over who does what is not an issue.