Science Week Day 2- Favorite websites and videos

I missed out yesterday on favorite science books, but I am linking up today to share some of my FAVORITE Science Websites and Videos. Teaching Science is one of my favorite parts of the school day. I am fortunate to team with another fabulous teacher (author of Learning In 4th).  I get to teach both of our classes Science and she teaches both of our classes Social Studies. LOVE this arrangement!

My ALL TIME favorite website with videos to use is Scholastic's Study Jams

Study Jams has many Jams/videos on a variety of Science and Math topics. Many of the videos have karaoke style songs to help teach concepts. Each video also has interactive quizzes at the end of each segment. My kids love Study Jams and are always excited to hear we will be watching one!

Discovery Education is another favorite! It is a subscription site, but I know many schools who subscribe. This website has thousands of videos! The videos are broken into segments making it easier to choose the exact parts I want to use!

Wonder of the World- has great activities and experiments!

Looking forward to seeing everyone's favorites and adding some new ideas to my Science bag of tricks!



Science Fun!

Ok..... so yes it has been several weeks since I've posted. No... I don't really have a valid excuse, other than school started! However, I am finally feeling like I am getting into the swing of things! Hopefully I will do a better job keeping up with blogging now. Lots of exciting experiments and fun has been happening in science! (I do admit it is probably my favorite subject to teach.)  I am lucky to get to teach 2 sections of Science!
We began our year with plant structures and functions and have now moved into animal classification.

Our first experiment involved the students creating clay structures to represent vertebrates and invertebrates. Students created vertebrates using clay molded around a straw to represent a backbone, and invertebrates using clay without a straw to mold around to represent the lack of a backbone. They were quickly able to see the differences!



We moved on to classification of vertebrates. I was fortunate enough to find a frog in my coffee pot while camping over Labor Day weekend. (Don't worry...the coffee was cold!) He was the perfect way for the students to make observations of an amphibian! His name is Max...short for Maxwell. Afterall, it was Maxwell House Coffee!  We will be setting him free on Friday!

Maxwell

And if you think that was luck...imagine our surprise when a grasshopper decided to attach himself to our classroom window screen at the precise moment we are completing a compare/contrast activity of insects (a grasshopper) and arachnids (a spider). Ok...so he only hung around for one class period, but he was captured with my iphone to share with the other class!

                      I LOVE Life Science!

First Week Fun... Saving Fred

School started on Wednesday and I am tee-totally worn out now that it is Friday! I have a great new group of 4th graders and am looking forward to watching them learn and grow this year!

As one of two 4th grade science teachers, I am always looking for new ideas. I think I hit the JACKPOT! One of the terrific ideas I got this summer from either bloggy friends or pinterest... (can't remember which since I stalked both on a daily basis) was the Saving Fred experiment for my 4th grade science classes. WOW! What fun and a terrific team building and problem solving activity! The plan I followed comes from here.

The goal is to save fred (a gummy worm) by retrieving his life preserver ( gummy life saver) from under the boat (clear plastic cup) using only 4 paper clips. Fred is stranded on top of the cup!

See what I mean... Poor Fred!

But never fear..... I am happy to report that ALL 20 Fred's were saved today at Huntertown Elementary, thanks to some amazing 4th grade problem solvers!

A SAVED Fred!

After the students completed the experiment, they completed a flowchart, in their Interactive Science Notebooks, showing the steps they took to save Fred. They then had to include a written description, and answer questions about problems they encountered.

All I can say is this is a definate repeat experiment for next year! I can not wait to get all my photo releases in so I can post pictures of the kids. If you could have only seen their faces! And of course each pair wanted their picture taken with Fred once he was saved! I do admit that their affection for Fred did not last long... he and his life preserver ended up in their tummies! What fun!