Presenting content has historically been my least favorite component of teaching social studies and science. I feel that I often either overuse or underuse this part of instruction. Before we begin, let's recap where we are at this point in the series:
Organize your
Transform Social Studies and Science – Vocabulary
It's no secret that vocabulary is a major predictor for student success. Unfortunately, academic vocabulary has always been one of my students' greatest challenges. Academic vocabulary words are the words that are traditionally used in academic text, which are words that are not
Transform Your Social Studies and Science Instruction
State and federal mandates as well as high stakes testing have created a battle for time in the classroom. This battle has resulted in minimizing social studies and science instruction to focus on tested areas. While I agree that the content area topics should be reinforced and
Social Studies & Science Word Wall
Over the years, I've gone from not having any word wall at all to having entire walls dedicated to word walls. I originally partitioned my wall into grids and had a section for each content area. When I used this format, I liked using larger half page word wall cards. I created
Simplifying the Scientific Process
As a student I dreaded learning about the scientific method. I still have memories of sitting at my kitchen table in absolute tears, because I could not wrap my head around independent and dependent variables when I was preparing for the science fair. As a teacher, I don't want
Heat Experiments
Last week I reviewed my heat unit with one of my favorite science experiments. It's fairly easy to complete, and it really helps students understand the concept of insulators and conductors (which almost always gives my students trouble). All you need is a glass cup, plastic
Magnet Activities
I love teaching about magnets, mainly because it's probably the easiest unit I teach all year. My students have some magnet background knowledge from first grade, and the third grade content isn't too difficult. Plus, I get to do really fun hands-on activities with my class. I
Animal Adaptations Lessons & Activities
Animal and plant adaptations has to be one of my favorite science units. There are several fun lessons and activities that students love, and there are so many ways to make the lessons meaningful to students. This post shares a few activities you can use to teach plan and animal
