When I first thought about teaching science, it's a subject that's a little intimidating for me. I guess I see science as never ending with a lot of unknown. When reviewing for the PRAXIS, there was a lot of information that I haven't seen in years. However, after looking through one of my blogs from work, I know more than I realize, which is one of the reasons why I love journaling!
I worked at a preschool for a year and a half before having Graham and was the school-aged director. I had 20 plus elementary students before school, after school, on school holidays and closings, and spring, summer, and fall break. I had control over our schedule and activities and learned so much during this time. It was a blessing to get this job at the beginning of grad school and my big career change.
As the school-aged director, I was also in charge of keeping the school blog up-to-date . Looking back through my blog, there were many times that I integrated science in my classroom.
Here are some pictures of my sweet kiddos having some science fun!
Every Friday in the summer was water day. Allowing the kids to play outside lead to all kinds of science learning.
We had two pet fish, Titan and Pinky. We went on a walking field trip to pick out Pinky at the nearby pet store. The students helped keep their tanks clean and took turns feeding the fish.
A lot of times, science can be integrated without instruction with just the kids' imagination, as seen here going on a safari during outside free play.
A daily role was assigned for children to help keep the weather and season up-to-date.
During show and tell, we had some students bring in pets. Here a student is showing a bunny that she rescued. The kids LOVED this!
Our outdoor Mentos volcano was a huge hit! They requested to do this experiment more than once.
Sensory bottles are a fun way to incorporate a science lesson while also making new things for the classroom.
We had guests come from Mr. Bond and The Science Guys to put on a science show.
The kids got to participate and talked about it all day! (Notice the fun space decor)
On Earth Day, we used coffee filters and water to make me our own Earths models. I also see our constellation project on the door where one student would place stars on the page and then partner and trade with another student who would use a white crayon to make a shape of their own constellation.
Although a camping field trip might be difficult to plan, I planned an indoor "almost camping" day where we used our imaginations to make our camping site. Again, it is so fun to watch their imaginations take off!!
Even though this wasn't during the kids regular school hours, I would find ways to integrate all subject areas in a fun way. I think that it is so important to let your students feel comfortable, and they did some amazing work when realizing they wouldn't be graded and were able to write and talk openly.
I'm a little less intimidated now realizing how easy and fun planning a science class can be! :)
