Thursday, 15 August 2013

Science Blog

For our Science course we were required to build a portfolio that demonstrated our understanding of teaching science, so I created a blog. Below you will find the link.

Smartboard Math Cat in the Hat

As part of our 3D shapes unit, I created a booklet that showcased different 3D shapes and their names with the theme of the week, Cat in the Hat. In order for the students to practice writing the 3D shape names, I turned this activity into a Smartboard activity with the help of my cooperating teacher and the teacher librarian. The students’ enjoyed learning how to use the Smartboard and was a great fit into our theme.


Word Wall for Five Senses Unit



As a way to tie the studies of the individual senses, I created a word wall using pictures and words we used to describe the sense we were study. I also referred to it in following lessons in order to promote the students to use it independently. I would use it again with other topics and in other subject areas.

Plants Unit



The students had to learn about plants – their parts, needs and caring for them. We did numerous activities that included an experiment on the importance of water, planting and caring for our own plants, and recognizing the parts of plants. Many activities fit well with different subject areas and had an interactive portion that helped solidify the concepts being taught. 


Ear Diagram for Five Senses Unit



I created a mock up of an ear so that my Grade 1 students could see how sound travels through the ear in the form of vibrations.  The students responded well to “the ear”, everyone wanted to test it out and this was a good connector for our study of the sense of hearing. 

Dental Stations

After completing our study on dental health, I created learning centres for the students.  Each station was a skill or activity we had done earlier and it was my chance to see how much they had retained.  They would brush their teeth, floss their teeth, sort good and bad foods for teeth and, for fun, a word search.  This interactive conclusion was a lot of fun for them and for me, and had them on task the entire time.

Lost Tooth Activity for Dental Health



After a discussion on the number of primary teeth they had, the students were given mirrors and asked to count how many teeth they had lost.  They had to draw pictures of themselves and given marshmallows to represent their smiles and their gaps of missing teeth. It was an interactive activity that had the students’ full attention and they were excited to use marshmallows for teeth.