As a primary teacher, reading, writing, and math seem to take up most of our time! But, did you know that a child's understanding of science concepts can actually make them MORE capable in these areas. Yet, there just doesn't seem to be the time, right? This blog post shares how we have a weekly science box that is highly engaging, teaches the scientific process, and develops schema!
Each week, I pack this box filled with all of the things that will be needed to conduct our experiment.
Before beginning the activity, we must get ready! We dress like a scientist! If you want to read about how we introduce our science lab coats and build excitement, you can find that in this blog post!
We display our scientific method charts in the room within easy reach. As we conduct each experiment, we follow our flow map to see what to do next. This blog post shares how we teach the scientific method.
The first things the kids find in the box is the letter from Dr. Science! This letter tells the children their challenge as well as gives them the background knowledge they will use during the activity.
Next, they find an easy to read chart with the steps for the experiment. We added these to give our kids a relevant nonfiction text experience. So often, we have kids read nonfiction text that teaches them how to do something, yet we don't follow through on the DOING.
In this experiment we were talking about winter sports. The kids watched video clips of skiing to see the skier jump from the ramp. We then set to making ramps for our skiers--we used cars!
After constructing several different ramps, the kids measured to see how far each car traveled once it left the ramp.
The last thing they find in the science box will be the recording pages. This is where we record our process and our learning.
Here are a few other activities that we did in our weekly science box. We used magnets to make our ice skaters mover along our paths.
We drew the water cycle on a baggie and hung them in the window.
Here's a close up.
We used flowers and different colors of water to see how the water traveled up the stem to color the flowers.
These activities are included in this unit that I wrote with my good friend Adam.
If you are looking for MORE science box activities, you can find some in this unit.
