This year I am teaching 7th grade life science and am putting together a notebook page that includes the handouts, ppts, and docs I use in my class.
Please feel free to check it out and use what you may need.
So far, we have covered Domains and Kingdoms, classification, the cell, mitosis, genetics, and meiosis:
I keep a collection of hidden pictures from Highlights in my classroom for the students to work on if they finish their work early. I place them in hanging folders in the back of the classroom and usually organize them by seasons since I have many years worth.
Using a colored pencil, they color in the items as they find them. It is a great way for them to practice their observation skills and challenge themselves, esp when they find something that is really hard to spot!
You can get the current month’s download for free at:
You can also have them emailed to you by signing up at:
You can also visit their website and print out as many as you like:
Or, you can play Hidden Pictures Online:
I am looking into this pretty cool social networking application for educators – Schoology.com . It allows you to share documents, media, links, post grades, take attendance, perform online assesments, run thread discussions, etc… And it is FREE, which is always a plus!
I am looking into its viability for my 7th grade science class. We are a laptop school and 7′s have Macs that go back and forth from school to home.
Has anyone used this website, or similar one for their classes?
39 grams of sugar + 355 mL of water to demo what is in soda
Cutting foil to size. Using heavy duty foil.
Getting ready for the penny boat challenge
I have been adding BrainPOP’s FYI pages to my student’s notebooks. They are a very good resource for additional content information, and they are great to use as grade level non-fiction reading passages. When I ask the kids to read the passages, they have to highlight at least 5 facts from the reading, then we discuss it in class the next day.
Starting penny boat challenge, had the idea of having the kids make prototype boats out of paper first. Worked out really well. The paper behaves much like the foil when it comes to folding and trying different shapes. Some kids struggled with where to start since it was a blank slate and they weren’t given directions on how to build their boats…just the rules of what they can’t do. No tape, no glue, no staples, no materials what so ever. Just the pennies they will add to the boat.
Next class we will use real foil and stoppers as cargo to check for sea worthyness. Then we compete with pennies.
The website for the interactive TBB has been moved to the following address:
http://www.ohaus.com/input/tutorials/tbb/tbbentry.swf
I have been using this interactive website prior to using a real TBB with my students, and it has made a huge difference in the ability of my 5th graders to read the balances accurately, esp with the 10ths place value.
The values are randomly generated and the students get instant feedback as to if they read the balance correctly or not. Sometimes, the answer is in the 100ths place, but I tell them that its impossible to really know what the hundredths place value is, and as long as their 10ths place value is correct, or close (0.78 = 0.8 g) their answer is ok. They have updated the activity, last year, almost every answer had a value in the 100ths place. So I was happy to see that change.
Here is the worksheet I use with the website:
Last year, I used to hand out pencils whenever students needed one. The school has pencils we can give them, but it go to the point where I would literally go through boxes of pencils in a few days.
This year, we really stress that each kid should have a pencil-case that they carry to every class. On my desk I keep a cup of sharpened pencils, when a student needs a sharpened pencil, I will swap with them. They give me their dull pencil, and I give them a sharpened pencil. If a student doesn’t have a pencil, they can borrow from a friend or use one of the colored pencils we keep on the tables. So far, this has worked well and I don’t have students sharpening pencils during class time, which is noisy and distracting.
