Go2Science Blog
  • About Us
  • Get In Touch
  • Go2Science Main Page

12/30/2020

Anatomy of a Lesson

0 Comments

Read Now
 

How to use our lessons to meet your goals!

To help you understand the features of our lessons and how they can help you help your students, we've put together this overview of our lesson structure and features.  The predicable format makes planning easier and gives you the flexibility you need to implement lessons in a way that works for your classroom.  Read on for information about:
  • an easy way to select lessons your students need.
  • framing lessons though a science, ELA, or math lens.
  • extending the learning with Service Learning and Arts Integration.
  • sharing student pages in the pdf through your learning management system.
  • using Go2Science growth mindset rubrics to support all three CCSS writing genres.
We craft each lesson to be both flexible and robust!  Every lesson can help you address NGSS DCIs, Common Core ELA and Math standards, and a Sustainable Development Goal.  Read on for more details!  
Picture
​All of these standards are listed on the cover of each lesson so you can quickly choose if the lesson will help you meet your goals and if so, how you'd like to frame it with your students.  Look ahead to the materials list on page two, and Main Event on page three to quickly determine if a lesson looks like a good fit for your group.
Each lesson helps students build science process thinking as they explore phenomena related to the mission, however it is quite possible to skip any or all lessons and still investigate the overarching hypothesis for the mission.   It can also be helpful to look at other grade level lessons if you need to differentiate further for your students. 
PreK lessons do not address these same sets of standards but are an excellent way to build critical thinking, language, math, and problem solving skills and are a good fit for many kindergarten classes too!
Picture

​Each K-2 lesson opens with an objective that aims high on Blooms Taxonomy hierarchy focusing on analyzing, evaluating, and creating!  We lead with NGSS Cross Cutting Concepts because we believe science process thinking is more important than specific facts and figures for the early elementary grades.  

The base knowledge, misconception, and vocabulary sections serve as a quick reference for you.  For more info about the terminology, download the full vocabulary list on the premission  page.

The Materials and Preparation section lets you quickly see if you have all the supplies you'll need for a lesson and how much set up is needed.  
Picture

The third page of every lesson walks you though the main activity and always follows this three part format.  Setting the Stage is where you introduce the lesson to your group and hook students for the activity ahead. 

The Main Event is the heart of any given lesson.  It's helpful to re-read this section prior to doing a lesson with students.

The Encore section often includes extensions in addition to a wrap up for the main lesson.  This section is flexible and can help you adjust the pacing and time needed for a lesson.
Picture

The fourth page of each K-2 lesson presents integration opportunities for grade level specific ELA and Math standards.  These integrations are helpful in extending the lesson beyond your science block or using science content to teach vital skills in application.  Teachers who "don't have time" for science in their schedules find framing lessons though literacy or math an effective way to get science into their day.

This page also has a suggested service learning activity.  The goal of this section is to inspire you to take a lesson or two a year to the next level and give back to the community in some way.

Finally, the Arts Integration section provides another learning modality and opportunity to hook learners!
Picture
Most lessons have some supplemental pages.  These can include a more visual description of all or part of the lesson as well as game components, other lesson printables, and journal pages.  These pdf pages can be shared though your learning management system.  Just delete the teacher pages and share the remaining file.  If you have questions about sharing materials within your specific LMS, we'd be happy to help.  Reach out to us at Curious@Go2Science.com!
We also include journal pages and growth mindset writing rubrics aligned the the three CCSS writing genres.  Many teachers report that Go2Science inspires students to write!
Picture

Share

0 Comments

12/30/2020

Mission: Penguins? Bonus Materials

0 Comments

Read Now
 

Survey Sheets and Animal Cards

Dr. Steinfurth wants us to look for evidence of penguins, but she also wants us to do an animal survey by keeping track of ALL the animals we see.  These bonus materials will help you organize the data and increase student engagement!
​
Click to download survey sheets and animal cards

Tips for using these files:

  • Maintain a master class list using the first three survey pages.  Give students the same pages for their science journals. Compare student counts and build a consensus.  Record this data on the aforementioned master list.
  • Simply your counting task by counting only endemic animals and recording them on page 4 of the pdf.
  • Print two sets of the animal cards and use them to play "Memory" so students gain familiarity with the different animals.
  • Give each student a different animal card indicating which animal they should be in charge of counting throughout the mission.  Consider having several students work as a team to count sea loins as we'll see LOTS of them!
  • Use the animal cards in a pocket chart to create an oversized survey sheet.

Share

0 Comments

12/30/2020

Comic Formats

0 Comments

Read Now
 

Videos and pdfs give you lots of ways to interact!

We're thrilled to share video versions of our weekly comic series with you on the comic page!  You can view the comics with your students directly on the comic page or grab safe links to share on the Mission: Penguins? Comic Tips page each week.  The videos are great for all ages and include sound effects and character voices to bring the stories to life!  These videos are just 3-4 minutes long and are a great compliment to the pdf versions!

Each week's comic is also available to download as a pdf in several formats on the comic page.  Just click the button below the video to grab the file.  You can print just the pages you want or delete the formats you don't need then push the file to student devices or your learning management system.  Each pdf has the following formats:
  • Ten page, full page, color edition - ideal for printing as a big book, projecting for choral reading, or pushing to student devices.  If your students use iBooks, these files can be found in the books app!
  • Three page, little book, color edition - ideal for printing class sets of books for reading groups or book bag/boxes.
  • One page, full color, nine panel comic book style edition - ideal for projecting or printing for advancing readers.
  • Ten page, full page, blackline edition - ideal for coloring pages for a sensory break
  • Three page, little book, blackline edition - ideal for saving color printing costs when printing a book for each student.
Picture

Share

0 Comments

10/28/2020

Mission: Dinosaur! Field Video Links

0 Comments

Read Now
 

Student access made super easy!

Update 10/28/2020:  As of yesterday it appears that Safari requires you to enable viewing on some devices to see links through Video.link.  This is a nuisance, but we have two solutions for you!

Solution 1: If only a few of your families are impacted, use these steps to resolve the issue: viewing-videolink-on-safari.html
Solution 2: Instead of sharing the links below, download the videos here (gg.gg/MissionDinoVideos) to add to your SeeSaw or Google Classrooms.  Each video is compressed to be less than 250 MB in accordance with See Saw's file limitations.
School may look quite different to some of your learners this fall.  We want to give you the tools to meet student needs no matter how (or where) they are learning!  Each week, we'll post links to field videos on this page so you can push them to student devices or post to your learning management system without having to set up accounts or passwords for your students.

The internet is a wonderful way to explore the world, but kids need to be safe!  That's why we're sharing links for our videos via Video.link
 to support your distance learning this mission!  You can send parents here to collect the links or copy and paste them and share via the platform of your choice.  The videos are also visible by clicking on the video thumbnail.   To ensure kids' safety, we advise teacher and parents not to share this page directly with your young students if they are unsupervised.  Children should also be supervised if watching videos or livestreams directly on the site.  
Picture
Hypothesis Video
​Day 0: Hypothesis
Curtis and Beth's paleontologist friend, Dr. Wallace, needs help searching for dinosaur fossils in Wyoming! He thinks we may find fossils of the sickle-clawed predator, Deinonychus! Be sure to watch the hypothesis video for the full story. We are thrilled to have you come along as part of our research team!
http://bit.ly/DinoHypothesis
Picture
Day 1 Video
Day 1: To Wyoming!  Beth and Curtis head to Wyoming to investigate Dr. Wallace's hypothesis. They are thrilled to bring you along for the adventure!
http://bit.ly/DinoDay1FieldVideo​
Picture
Day 2 Video
Day 2: Superposition!  Curtis and Beth tie their boots and pack their bags so they can scramble down the cliff and travel back in time!
http://bit.ly/DinoDay2FieldVideo​
Picture
Day 3 Video
Picture
Day 4 Video
Day 3: Gastroliths!  Beth and Curtis hike into the Bighorn Basin and discover lots of shiny rocks. Could they be gastroliths?
http://bit.ly/DinoDay3
Day 4: Down into the Basin!  Beth and Curtis venture down into the Bighorn Basin. They find a cool critter and discover evidence of a living animal.
​http://bit.ly/DinoDay4
Picture
Day 5: Dinosaur Bones!  Will Beth and Curtis EVER find a non-avian dinosaur fossil?  Don't worry.  They have perseverance!
bit.ly/DinoDay5
Picture
Day 6: Even MORE Dino Bones! Beth and Curtis find lots more dinosaur bones and show how they fit together. They also hunt for scorpions!
​bit.ly/DinoDay6
Picture
Day 7: A New Location Curtis and Beth take a wild car ride to a new location. They find evidence of life from long ago AND spot a living critter too!
bit.ly/DinoDay7

Picture
Day 8: Jaws! Curtis and Beth return to the new location and find some fossil jaw pieces. They take careful notes and even collect some of the fossils for Dr. Wallace!
bit.ly/DinoDay8

Picture
Day 9: Two Terrific Teeth!
Curtis and Beth found teeth from two different non-avian dinosaurs!  Do they help support the hypothesis?
​bit.ly/DinoDay9
Picture
Day 10: Stone Trees and Waves
Beth and Curtis check out a new location and find fossils of a different sort.  Plus, they spend some time looking for snakes, the winner of last week's vote.
bit.ly/DinoDay10
Picture
Day 11: Bite Marks
Beth and Curtis discover a fossil that puts some teeth into the hypothesis! They also find a very interesting insect.
​bit.ly/DinoDay11FieldVideo
Picture
Day 12: Is this Deinonychus?
Beth and Curtis do their best to identify an important find! Now it is up to YOU to analyze the evidence and decide if the hypothesis is true!
bit.ly/DinoDay12FieldVideo

Share

0 Comments

10/21/2020

Viewing Video.link on Safari

0 Comments

Read Now
 

Trouble shooting at the device level.

Due to some recent changes to the Safari browser and Video.link (formerly Safe YouTube), some people are having issues playing the safe video links we shared.  If you are blocked from viewing our safe links, try the steps below to resolve the problem.

Step 1: Open a new Safari tab or window and paste in this link: bit.ly/DinoHypothesis.  You should see something like the image below.  If you press continue and it loops you right back to the same page again, don't despair!  Just follow the remaining three steps.
Picture
Step 2: Click on the word "Safari" at the top of your screen and click "preferences" from the drop down menu.
Picture
Step 3:  Select "Auto-Play" and then "Allow All Auto-Play."
Picture
Step 4: Finally,  click on "Content Blockers" and make sure video.link is not blocked.  If video.link is listed, highlight it and click remove.  That's it!
Picture
 If these steps do not resolve your issue, take a screen shot if you know how and contact us at Curious@go2science.com.

Share

0 Comments

10/21/2020

Mission: Dinosaur! Livestream Archives

0 Comments

Read Now
 

Need to share livestream sessions with students?

This is the place!  If your students are working remotely and you need to share our livestream archives with them, simply grab the link and share it through your learning management platform.  Each bit.ly link takes students to a Safe YouTube version of the archive.  If you need an alternate format, please drop us a line at Curious@Go2Science.com ​and we'll do our best to accommodate!  

Day 1:
​Beth and Curtis kick off the fall mission.  Join them in mobile head quarters for a motion break, vocabulary building, and lots of awesome student questions!
Safe Link: ​bit.ly/DinoLivestream01
Picture
Day 2:
Curtis and Beth play a compound word game and talk about superposition.  Student questions lead to a comparison of canyons and basins.
Safe Link: bit.ly/DinoLivestream02
Picture
Day 3:
Beth and Curtis talk about gastroliths as they answer student questions live from mobile headquarters!  But first they share the field video and pretend to be prairie dogs!
Safe Link: bit.ly/DinoLivestream03
Picture
Day 4:
Curtis and Beth talk about evidence.  They have a silly motion break as they try to be both bendy AND fast.  Best of all they respond to student questions!
Safe Link: bit.ly/DinoLivestream04
Picture
Day 5:
Beth and Curtis talk about bones break down the word vertebra.  They explore walking on two and four limbs.  AND they answer loads of interesting questions!
bit.ly/DinoLivestream5
Picture
Day 6:
Curtis and Beth answer student questions and break a small word down into even smaller parts.  They celebrate the middle of the mission with a special motion break!
bit.ly/DinoLivestream6
Picture
Day 7:
Join Beth and Curtis in mobile headquarters to check out the latest field video, take a very bumpy motion break, get information about the latest vote and hear answers to some very interesting student questions!
​bit.ly/DinoLivestream7
Picture
Day 8:
Curtis and Beth compare the upright stance of mammals and dinosaurs to the sprawling stance of certain reptiles like crocodiles and monitor lizards!  Plus, they break down a VERY long word and answer intriguing questions.
bit.ly/DinoLivestream8
Picture
Day 9:
Beth and Curtis talk about osteoderms and answer some very interesting questions about teeth!  Along the way they look at a shark jaw and a deer tooth.
​bit.ly/DinoLivestream9
Picture
Day 10:
Curtis and Beth wonder if we have enough evidence to support our hypothesis yet.  What do YOU think?  They talk about snakes and some really different fossils!
​bit.ly/DinoLivestream10
Picture
Day 11:
Beth and Curtis design a test to help analyze an important bit of evidence.  Of course, they also answer student questions, share the field video, and have a fun motion break!
​bit.ly/DinoLivestream11
Picture
Day 12:
Curtis and Beth talk answer questions about a very small, but rather important piece of evidence.  They also celebrate the end of the mission with a special motion break! ​
bit.ly/DinoLivestream12
Picture

Share

0 Comments

10/21/2020

Working together...apart

0 Comments

Read Now
 

Lesson adaptations to support social distancing.

Each week, we provide two new lesson opportunities.  Some will be very easy to adapt to a distanced classroom setting.  Some require a bit more thinking.  We're here to help with that!  Remember, you can skip any lessons you choose and still provide your students with a great mission experience.  Even under normal conditions, it is rare that a class do EVERY lesson associated with a mission, so be kind to yourselves.  Less really can be more!

That being said, I'll add to this page weekly so you can find adaptation ideas for the lessons you DO choose to do.  
Picture
Day 1: To Wyoming!
In person with distancing:  This lesson is essentially a treasure hunt used to reinforce the concepts of mapping and scale.  Students move around the classroom to find tiny treasures.  Adapt this for distancing by taking the activity outdoors to your playground!
Remote: Parents need to be your partners for this one.  Have students and parents or older siblings work together to create a map of one or more rooms in their house.  Then direct parents to set up the treasure hunt in the mapped rooms.
Picture
Day 2: Paleo Play Dough
In person with distancing:  Instead of having students work in groups, provide each student their own lumps of play dough.  A walnut sized lump of four or five colors should suffice.  Students can share their work in a gallery and take turns viewing it, or use a document camera for students to project their work for distanced class viewing.  No document camera?  No problem!  Try this hack using an iPad and milk crate!  Click the link to view the hack (Caution! This link is to third party content, we have no control over it.): ​https://youtu.be/u-toQVzw-TQ​
​
Remote:  The challenge for your remote learners is sharing!  If your learning management system makes video sharing hard, consider trying FlipGrid.  Students can record short videos and their classmates can post questions and comments.  
Day 3: Gastroliths
In person with distancing: Like Paleo Playdough (see above) this lesson can be easily adapted for individual exploration and group sharing.  Each student will need their own ziplock bag, bowl, and leaves.  The remaining materials can be gathered outdoors!  Each child will need a few smooth(ish) rocks and two blunt sticks.  Pointed sticks can be blunted by rubbing them back and forth while held perpendicular to a concrete sidewalk.
Remote:  At home learners can extend this activity by testing different types of leaves.  (Make sure they check with adults before picking leaves from outdoors so they do not make a police of poison ivy!)  They can also vary the stones or sticks they use, but encourage them to compare each variation to their original materials as a control.  
Picture
Day 4: Whose Poop!
In person with distancing:  It’s all about materials management.  Instead of printing a field guide to scat for all students, print one or two copies and scramble the pages face down having students select a single page to  take back to their work space.  Alternatively, if you have 1:1 devices, push the pdf to students to use electronically.  If you choose to share recipes for shades of brown, collect photos of the recipes and project for all to see!
Remote:  This is activity is also easily extended by remote learners.  Chances are, they’ll want to create MANY model poops.  Their limiting factor is likely to be play dough!  Homemade play dough is an inexpensive way to get it in quantity.  Students can mix their shades of brown with food coloring as they make the dough, or by mixing the finished dough as described in the lesson.  
Picture
​My all time favorite homemade play dough recipe is the one my mom used to make play dough for me as a child.  She wrote the recipe out for me when I started teaching.  I’ve yet to find one I like better!
Picture
Picture
Day 5: How Long was this Dinosaur?
In person with distancing:  All the bones for this spine are available over nine pages.  Give students a number of bones to carefully trim in their socially distanced place.  Place about a yard of painter's tape (sticky side up) in your assembly area.  Display the assembly guide, then have the student with the atlas come place it a the beginning of your length of tape.  Next comes the axis.  Continue for the rest of the spine.  Add more tape as needed.  The tapered tail bones will be tricky to order without direct comparison so consider giving sections of those to one or two students who can order them at their space before adding them to your model.
Remote: This activity makes a great family project.  The spine uses nine pieces of paper and the skull three more for 12 pages of fun and learning!  Challenge students to work on this over time at home.  Encourage siblings and adults help with the cutting and assembly.  Make sure they share photos comparing their spine to things around their house and yard!
Picture
Day 6: Candy Bones
​In person with distancing:  Adapt this one by scaling down your tub size and giving each student a mini tub to explore.  Alternately, have students take turns at a larger tub and use tools like tweezers and paint brushes for collecting.  Those can be washed or swapped out between students!
Remote: The materials for this one can be gathered and assembled by adults at home or you can send candy bone studded sand to students in small, sealed containers.  Depending on the materials strategy you use, sharing will look a bit different.  If you sent materials have students compare their finds to the fragments you reserved.
Day 7: Wind Erosion
In person with distancing:  Ask students to bring in a small box from home (have a few extras available) so that every student can make their own small model.  Instead of using cardboard boxes, recycle the rigid plastic boxes from salad greens.  This way students can simply close the clear lid to contain the sand, reducing the need for you to tape the plastic wrap onto every single box!  When it is time to insert straws and blow, head outside and spread far apart!  Circulate among the students and record the results for sharing back in the classroom. 
Picture
Remote:  Tape yourself setting up a box with sand for exploration of wind erosion as described in the lesson materials.  Then challenge students to build a similar device at home.  The variety of box sizes and shapes, straws, and objects within the model should lead to some interesting follow up discussion!  Bonus challenge: What can be used in place of the sand?  Flour? Sugar? Potting soil?  Be sure to celebrate the learning from models that “fail” as those are great learning opportunities!  
Day 8: Seed Dispersal
In person with distancing:  Our original lesson is an active class game.  Depending on the specific considerations in your community, you may feel comfortable playing this game with students outdoors.  Alternatively, take a socially distanced nature walk around school grounds to seek out sticky seeds as well as look for other examples of seed distribution strategies.  Burdock, milkweed, and thistles were easy to spot around my playground.  We could often find some well aged maple seeds that had fallen in the spring.  Compare the traveling seeds you spot with the sticky seeds on Beth’s pants!
Picture
Remote:  If students have access to the food and seed cards, you can adapt the original game to be a table game a child can play with two or more household members. 
  • Place all food and seed cards face down on a table. 
  • The first player selects one food card and the second player “sticks” a seed on them by handing them a seeds card. 
  • The recipient of the seed (first player) does not look at that seed, but places it face down in front of them on the table. 
  • They do, however, look at their food card.  If it is good for raccoons to eat they place it face up in front of them.  If it is not good to eat, return it face down to the center of the table. 
  • Now the second player takes their turn collecting a potential food card and mystery seed card. 
  • Play continues until a total of nine raccoon foods have been found. 
  • Now, flip a coin!  Heads indicates a dry habitat and tails means wet habitat.  Turn over all the seed cards now.  The player with the highest number of seeds matching the indicated habitat wins!
If students can not access game cards, challenge them to engage in the service learning opportunity and make a difference in their community!
Picture
Day 9: Water Erosion
In person with distancing: This is a great lesson to take outdoors if weather permits.  Students can spread far apart and clean up is a snap!  Have students work in tubs containing their dirt and sand or directly on the ground.  To facilitate sharing and discussion, take videos of the children’s final demonstrations to share back in the classroom.  Alternately, run this as a demonstration in class.  
Remote:  Share the directions with your students through your learning management system.  If possible, tape yourself creating a setup as a model for your students.  Invite students to share videos, photos, or journal entries of their experiences.  Be sure to talk about what changed and what did not.  How would they change their setup if they repeated the activity?
Picture
Day 10: Sun/Shade
In person with distancing: Instead of working in groups as described in the lesson, have students work individually.  Most materials for this activity could be found in your recycling bin and need not be identical across groups.  
Remote: If needed, provide students with a water soluble maker and paper towels.  All other materials can be scavenged by students in their home.  The variety of materials can lead to vastly different solutions for the same challenge!
Day 11: Bite Marks
In person with distancing: This lesson works quite well as written in the distanced classroom.  Students can label their plates and bite their apple slices at their own seat.  Provide a cup of colored water in a centrally located station so students can dye their bite marks then place their plates in a central location for a display students can visit one at a time.
Remote: Many students will have the original materials on hand, but working at home gives them the opportunity to try making bite marks in different materials.  Have students share photos of their toothy smiles and their bite impressions with you.  Compile the smiles as a pdf hand out, then share the bite mark photos during your virtual meeting.  Alternatively, have students share and evaluate the different materials they attempted to save bite marks in during your class meeting and determine which materials were most effective.  This changes the focus of the lesson a bit, but requires less file management.
Picture
Day 12: Publishing
In person with distancing: After a group planning session determine which students will make which elements for the final display.  Students can complete components individually, then add them to the group display.  Remember to share your results on the Publish It! page.  We’d love to see what you create.
Remote: Instead of creating a physical poster, try creating a slide show or even a BitMoji style poster session.  Students can take screen shots of the evidence or write and draw about it in their journals.  Have students determine which elements they will contribute to the collective final display.  Remember to include a statement of the hypothesis, a description of the testing method, the evidence collected, analysis of that evidence, and conclusions!  We can’t wait to see what you create!

Share

0 Comments

10/21/2020

Story Time with Beth and Curtis: Comic Edition!

0 Comments

Read Now
 

Here's one more tool for your digital learning tool kit!

​Update 10/28/2020:  As of yesterday it appears that Safari requires you to enable viewing on some devices to see links through Video.link.  This is a nuisance, but we have two solutions for you!

Solution 1: If only a few of your families are impacted, use these steps to resolve the issue: viewing-videolink-on-safari.html
Solution 2: Instead of sharing the links below, download the videos here (gg.gg/MissionDinoVideos) to add to your SeeSaw or Google Classrooms.  Each video is compressed to be less than 250 MB in accordance with See Saw's file limitations.
We're trying something new for this mission!  Each comic will have a Story Time with Beth and Curtis edition.  As we create each video, we'll link it below and provide you with a Safe YouTube link to share with students directly or link to our Mini Mobile Headquarters!  Want more Story Time with Beth and Curtis content?  Click here!
Picture
Week 1:
This multi-level reading adventure is great for all ages!  Subscribers can download printable pdfs of all our comics!  
Safe  link: ​http://bit.ly/DinoComic1
Literacy tips for Week 1 here!
Picture
Week 2:
The adventure continues as Curiosity Cat and Data Dog try to find out the real color of a non-dinosaur!  Do you think Data Dog found a dinosaur THIS time?
​Safe link: http://bit.ly/DinoComic_2 
Literacy tips for Week 2 here!
Picture
Week 3:
Data Dog is off again! Will he find a non-avian dinosaur in the water?  Will he listen to Curiosity Cat?  Join us and see!
​Safe link: bit.ly/DinoComic03
Literacy tips for Week 3 here!
Picture
Week 4:
Data Dog returns with a fishopod!  Is it a dinosaur?  Will our feline friend's curiosity be satisfied?  What will the fishopod do?  Tune in and find out!
Safe link: bit.ly/DinoComic4
​
Literacy Tips for Week 4 here!
Picture
Week 5:
With Curiosity Cat ever find the answer to her question?  She wants to know the color of an extinct non-avian dinosaur! Data Dog returns with another critter.  Will she get her answer this time?
Safe Link: bit.ly/DinoComic5 
​Literacy Tips for Week 5 here!
Picture
Week 6:
This is the final episode of the comic and Data Dog discovers an amazing critter with four wings!  What could it be?  He's too hungry to keep searching for dinosaurs!  Will his feline friend have her curiosity satisfied at last?
​Safe link: bit.ly/DinoComic6
​
Literacy Tips for Week 6 here!

Share

0 Comments

10/15/2020

Mission: Dinosaur! Week 6 Vote

0 Comments

Read Now
 

 Making Data-Driven Decisions

By the end of next week we will have collected all the evidence (data) we can for this mission.  This week's vote will remain open until shortly before we launch our next mission so you and your students have lots of time to analyze the evidence whether you joined us synchronously or asynchronously.  Remember!  In order to say a hypothesis is true you must have evidence to show that Deinonychus was actually in the Cloverly Formation!  Did we find that evidence?
Picture
click to get this week's Google form to copy, adapt, and share

Share

0 Comments

10/14/2020

Mission: Dinosaur! Comic Week 6

0 Comments

Read Now
 

Sounds Like FUN!

Sound effects are a great way to engage students in all sorts of reading skill work!  I had an "ah-ha" moment early in my teaching career that showed me how powerful silly words and sound effects could be.  Read on for some ways you can use sound effects to support YOUR students!  Keep on reading for the story of my "ah-ha" moment.
Picture
PreK:  Size matters!  Check out this weeks sound effects.  Some are written in big letters.  Some are written in small letters.  Some are bold and others are not.  Have your students direct how you should read each word, based on how it looks.  For example in panel 7 we see "pip" and "swoosh."  Point to each word and say it in a normal speaking voice.  Then ask your students to tell you how they think you should say the word based on how it looks.  They might think the fine lines in the word "pip" elicit a whisper, while the bold letters in "swoosh" indicate a louder voice.
Kindergarten: WOOF vs ZOOP Sound sorts are a great way to support students in developing sound awareness and other important phonological processing skills, but they can be less than engaging for some students.  Try spicing up your sound sorts by having students indicate which group long and short /oo/ words belong to by using the following sound effects and gestures.  If a word has the short /oo/ sound like book have students "woof" (as they pantomime dog ears on their heads) to indicate the group.  For long /oo/ words like zoo have students "zoop" by outstretching both arms and wiggle their fingers as they say zoop to emulate Data Dog's photo collar zooping up Microraptor!  
Picture
Click to download sorting cards
Grades 1 and 2: Crazy dialog!  ​Challenge your students to make up their own sounds for all of the critters in the comic.  Have them use what they know about spelling to make up nonsense words for each kind of critter.  While we have no evidence that any of these critters used verbal communication, we do know that some animals living today (including prairie dogs, dolphins, whales, and non-human apes) have their own sorts of language.  What if the long extinct critters in the comic did too?  What would it sound like?  What would they say?  How could those words be spelled?  For added fun write these words in printable Post Its!  Check out last week's comic tips post to get your template.

My Ah-ha Moment

Picture
I had a delightfully outside the box student who showed little interest in my carefully crafted literacy activities.  While he loved drawing, I struggled to evaluate whether he was mastering any of the content I was supposed to teach him.  One day he was particularly engaged in drawing and making lots of sounds as he did so.  I approached his work space, fully expecting I'd need to redirect him, but stopped when I noticed a long string of letters on his paper.  Luckily, I had the presence of mind to ask him to tell me about the letters.  He replied, "Oh, the alien is talking."  I asked what the alien was saying expecting my student to reply by telling me what the alien was saying in English.  Instead he said something like, "gnoogzrlagfop."  I did a double take and asked him to repeat the alien dialog expecting a different nonsense word, but no!  My student repeated,  "gnoogzrlagfop!"  I was stunned.  He was decoding what he'd written and had a beautiful understanding of sound/symbol connections!  I responded, "Wow! That's a big word!  What does it mean?"  My wonderful student turned his little face to mine and replied, "How should I know?  I don't speak alien!"  Neither did I, but that bit of dialog helped me understand what my student was comprehending and how I could adapt my teaching to reach him better.

Share

0 Comments
<<Previous
Forward>>
Details

    Meet Beth and Curtis!

    Presidential Award-Winning teacher and hula hoop fanatic, Beth loves bringing real world science to kids! Beth is fascinated by engineering challenges, technology, and outdoor learning spaces. After 25 years teaching kindergarten, she’s excited to share her passion and experience on-line with classrooms from around the world!

    Curtis is a lot of things: a scientist, lawyer, explorer, drummer and Ironman. His brain is always churning. His paleontological finds are in museums across the country and he even has an extinct sea turtle named after him. He loves traveling the world and immersing himself in new environments and cultures. Curtis finds joy in sparking the imagination of young learners and making them think in new ways.

    Archives

    October 2020
    September 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    April 2018
    November 2017

    Categories

    All
    3D Printing
    Birds
    Bonus Materials
    Calendar
    Comics
    DCI
    FAQs
    Field Guide
    Galapagos Islands
    Jane Goodall
    Literacy
    Materials List
    Math
    NGSS
    Productive Talk
    Professional Development
    Schedule
    Scientist
    Service Learning
    Standards
    Super Teachers!
    TeachSDGs
    Thailand
    Tigers
    Travel
    Trees

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • About Us
  • Get In Touch
  • Go2Science Main Page