Polar Animals Habitats Snow Globe!

I am so excited to share this super cute activity with you!  Here in central Texas, we don't get much snow, but students can still learn about animals that live in snowy climates.  This activity can work great while studying nonfiction or habitats, or can be just for fun!

Students can create a snow globe booklet that includes 5 different animal snow globes, a cover page, a page for writing , and a blank page for extra animals.  There are cute animals for your students to color and plenty of blank space to draw the background showing the habitat.  There are also writing pages for use on a bulletin board.

Click the pic to check it out!

Soil: The Capacity to Retain Water

 It's almost soil time!  Students get tricked on questions about retention of water by soil all the time.  The best way to help them understand is to use the vocabulary while testing the capacity to retain water themselves!

 This activity includes 3 student recording sheets that can be glued in their science notebooks.  Students record observations in pictures and words, calculate the amount of water retained by the soil samples, create a chart and graph of their data, write a conclusion, and determine what would increase the reliability of the experiment.

I hope this helps you plan your soil unit!  Grab your freebie at my TpT Store.

Thanks in Pictures and Sale Time

I have a lot to be thankful for this year.  Here's my Big 5.

1. I got to move to a new city to be with my boyfriend.

2. I was able to find a great job at a great school where I love my students and coworkers.

3. I was able to go on a cruise to Turks & Caicos and the Bahamas.  It was just what I needed!

4. I finished my Master's in May.  Woohoo!

I didn't go to my graduation, so I used a pic of the boy's graduation.

3. I found TpT and Bloggerland which has been such a blessing.  I've "met" so many awesome educators and felt a wonderful sense of accomplishment and empowerment.

Thinking about #5 on my list, my whole TpT store will be on sale, with an additional 10% off when you use TpT's special code on November 26-27.  Be sure to check out my new products and freebies...there are a lot.  I've been a very busy penguin!  Get those Wish Lists ready!

If you can't wait til Monday, my TN store will be on sale starting Saturday the 24th until Monday the 26th.  At TN, you will get an additional 10% off your purchase in addition to the discounts I have for you!  Go to Teachers Notebook.

Shoutout to my primary science friends

Kinder kids scare me.  I say kinder and first teachers have a "gift" because it really takes a special person to handle all you guys have to deal with.

While I'm not ready to sign up to teach kindergarten, I have worked on some science centers for the primary grades (K-2).  I've sold a couple, but I would really love feedback.  Please have a look and let me know what you think!

Bringing Back Bingo!

My first year of teaching, I relied on Bingo...a lot.  Too much.  But it worked.  My class played Science Bingo at least once a week that year.  This was pre-TpT, so these were hand-made.  Ick.

We had 3 sets of cards for physical, earth, and life science on 3 different colors of paper.  When we played, the class had to be silent or else they couldn't win.  I would call out a definition and if they had it, they'd mark it.

Since then, I've used partner bingo with the whole class and bingo in small groups, as well.  Still silent, though.  :)  I started changing up the way I would describe a word, too.  For example, for "mass" I might say "measured with a triple beam balance", "measured in grams", or "how much matter is in an object."  It keeps them on their toes...I like that.

Yesterday, I decided to make a nice Bingo set to use since we are wrapping up physical science.  Then, I kept going and made ones for life science and earth science, too!  Each set has 24 *different* cards that can be printed in color or greyscale.  There are 24 vocabulary cards to read off and cute little space markers, too.

You can save some $$ and get them in a bundle at my TpT Store and TN Store.

Click the pics to check them out!

Science Vocabulary Posters and Quizzes

I'm free for a week!  I think everyone in my class needed the break.  If you're still in school this week, I'm sorry to gloat.  I'll stop.  :)

I completed something I've been compiling for a while now: Vocabulary Posters and Quizzes!  There are 9 matching quizzes divided by topic and 68 illustrated half-page vocabulary posters for your word wall or focus wall.

Words included:
Properties of Matter: matter, weight, mass, solid, liquid, gas, volume, relative density
Changes in Matter: mixture, solution, dissolve, solubility, melting point, boiling point, condensation, evaporation
Energy: conductor, insulator, circuit, current, light, sound, reflection, refraction, friction, force
Changes to Earth'S Surface: landform, weathering, deposition, earthquake, erosion, sediment, canyon, glacier
Soil and Natural Resources: retention of water, nonrenewable resource, fossil fuels, hydroelectric, biofuels, geothermal, decomposers, loam
Solar System: orbit, revolve, rotate, new moon, full moon, axis
Food Webs: carnivore, omnivore, producer, consumer, herbivore, scavenger
Adaptations and Traits: inherited traits, adaptation, dormancy, hibernation, migration, camouflage, instinct, extinct
Life Cycles: species, incomplete metamorphosis, molting, complete metamorphosis, life span, reproduce

Check the pic to check it out!

Penguins + Nonfiction = Fun!

There are times I miss teaching multiple classes of science now that I'm self-contained in 4th, but I've really grown to LOVE teaching reading.  Now that we are going deeper into nonfiction, I have the opportunity to bring in some more science with my reading instruction.  I've been working on a variety of resources for small group/centers time that include science!

I created some FREE Ocean Nonfiction Text Structures Activities as well as my Penguin Nonfiction Pack.

Click the pic for the Penguin Pack.

Freebie Alert

I've got a cute, useful, versatile freebie for you all about nonfiction text structure and ocean animals.  I'm using these in stations, but they will work great as independent work, group work, small group lessons, or minilessons!  There are 5 graphic organizers to use with any books about the ocean as well as a text structures sort about dolphins.

Click the pic for your freebie.

More Interactive Science Notebooks

If you're looking for great activities for notebooks to add to your labs and reading for science,  you've come to the right place!  You can create these with your students or get the templates from my TpT store.

I've finished  my physical science interactive notebook kit and created a 72 page Ultimate ISN Kit with all of my notebook activities included!  Templates for all of these foldables and activities are in my Ultimate ISN Kit.  You can also get the Physical, Life, and Earth sets separately.

This unique foldable is included in my Physical Science and Ultimate files.  Students write what they know about mass, volume, and weight.

 This Cut and Paste activity helps students remember how to calculate mass when presented with a situation shown in the picture.  For lower grades, the fire truck can just be placed on one side without any gram cubes with it to have the mass calculated.

The following foldable is for Earth Science.  It reinforces important vocabulary terms.

 This  foldable is a take on the fortune teller.  The outside has a term, then on the inside describe the term and draw a picture.

This foldable is a triangular version of the one above and is used here to show 3 stages in a cycle. 

 This is a simple booklet foldable about adaptations.

Click the pic to check out the Ultimate ISN file.

5th Grade STAAR Science Review

I made a Physical Science Review pack based on station activities I've used in the past to review for state testing.  While I've used the activities in stations to review while I pull small groups, they can also be used for small group or whole class review.

3 pages of vocabulary charts for students to fill in on 15 important terms
15 sets of vocabulary matching cards
STAAR test-taking strategy poster with a student copy
4 mini-lab cards with student recording sheet
6 student pages with a foldable, 3 vocabulary graphic organizers, boiling/freezing point thermometers, and Write Your Own Test Question
8 practice questions with answer key
Review Folder cover page
Ideas for Use

Click the picture below to check it out!

Here's Earth Science:

Life Science is on the way!

Electromagnets Freebie

Howdy, teachers!  Last week, my class investigated the strength of electromagnets.  This is a super fun and easy lab activity to do with your students!  This freebie includes teacher suggestions and a student recording sheet.  Enjoy.  :)

Click the picture below to get your freebie!