Monthly Archives: January 2010

Cut-n-Paste Vocab Template for MS Publisher

Posted on by mysciencelessons

I’ve had a few requests for a cut-n-paste template to use for vocabulary, so I made a generic one that can be modified using Microsoft publisher. I do not have a template for word, I find its so much easier to use publisher for this application.

There are three pages.  You can fit up to 12 vocab words and definitions in one document. To change the word, click on “Vocab” and enter the word you would like to use in each box.  Click on “definition” to type your definition.  Replace the picture with a picture of your choice or you can leave it blank, the kids can draw their own picture in that space.

After you have created your vocab set, you can save it as a pub or pdf file. I usually save it as a pdf, its looks more finished and can be opened by anyone if they don’t have Publisher to open the original file.

Let me know if you use it, would love to post a copy of it on this blog! Thanks!

http://www.middleschoolscience.com/vocab-cut-n-paste-template-isn.pub - when prompted to, save it to your computer.

Molecular Models – Stations Activity

Posted on by mysciencelessons

In the past few weeks, we learned about the periodic table, atoms, Bohr diagrams, Lewis structures, and bonding.  The kids are really comfortable with using the periodic table and we’ve been having fun with it.  Below is a list of teacher lead activities that we completed.  We also enjoyed the Periodic Videos from our friends in England!

Today we set up and started our stations lab for building molecular models. I don’t have enough models for everyone to have their own set, so I broke it down and set up stations for the kids to build them.  I also added some “make your own” for those pairs of students who are waiting for one of the other stations.

The kids will rotate through the stations making 3-4 molecules per station. For the Lewis Structures, I have the students try it, if not, they just draw the Lewis Structure for the individual atoms.  For a 5th grader, drawing a Lewis structure for more than 2 atoms bonded together is a tough concept.

Below are some pics of how I set up the stations.  I am using large 4×6 colored index cards for the stations. Glucose is a challenge station, each year I have one or two groups figure it out with only one or two clues from me.  I don’t tell them its a ring structure, my clue is that it’s not a straight chain.

Notebook resources:

Atoms Family

Posted on by mysciencelessons

“The Atoms Family” is an activity I have used many times and I still enjoy, and the kids get a kick out of it.  There is a great power point to go along with it and I reformatted the handouts to fit into their interactive notebooks.  I did find a great video clip that another teacher posted showing her class singing the song.

After we sang it, I showed the video to my classes and they thought it was so cool to see these older kids singing the same song. We then did the Atoms Family Math handout. After doing a problem together, I had volunteers come up to the SmartBoard to solve the problems while everyone else tried them on their own, checking their answers with the ones on the board. After the first few problems, they worked at their own pace, and I checked their answers individually.

To glue the handout into the notebook, I folded over the whole left edge into a 1/2 in tab and showed them how to glue the tab part into their notebook so that the handout was attached to the page and they were able to flip the handout back and forth to see both sides. 

 

Here are the handouts and ppt: