Racimals

I wish I could take full credit for this project idea, but it was inspired by an article I saw in my nephew's Highlights magazine! In Highlights, students created a robot racer. I took this idea and let children have complete creative freedom to design any racer they would like. All they needed was an empty square tissue box and a tennis ball! Then of course a ramp or some type of hill for their racers to travel down!

In this lesson, students use their design skills to create their very own one of a kind racer! They want it to look aesthetically pleasing, however, they must use their engineering skills to make it travel fast! Will 30 pom pom balls, 20 pipe cleaners, layers of construction paper and glue really help their racer? Students learn that minimal design is not only more pleasing to the eye, but can also help them construct a super fast racimal (racing creature). This lesson also ties in well with a forces and motion unit. Students experiment with push, the amount of effort applied (to push) and distance. Teachers can also tie math in by having students measure the distance their racer traveled.

Here is what you need:

▪ A variety of art materials for students to go crazy /experiment with! (construction paper, pipe cleaners, markers, crayons, googley eyes, etc)

▪ Empty square tissue boxes (with the top square cut off - where you pull the tissue out)

▪ Tennis Balls

What you do:

1. First cut the top off of the tissue box (this is the bottom of the racer)

2. Next, decorate it! Students can create an animal, superhero, monster, alien, cryptid, anything they can imagine.

3. Then students put the tennis ball inside of the opening of the tissue box, flip it over (tennis ball on the bottom, inside of the box), set it on a ramp and watch it go!

Alien Genetics Lab: Baby Alien Creation

(Science / Art Integration) Kids create a baby alien by flipping 2 coins, while leaning about heredity, alleles, genotypes and phenotypes! Click here for instructions and here for a free printable!

Wild Thing Adaptations

Invite your students to investigate the structural adaptations and behavioral adaptations of the creatures from Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are! In this lesson, students examine each Wild Thing’s physical characteristics, using the free printable below to help them identify the various attributes that make each Wild Thing unique. Then in a group, they design a new environment and their very own original Wild Things! 

Click here for the full project description / criteria. Click here for printables!

Crayfish Lab

Teachers purchase live crayfish (crawdads or crawfish) from the grocery store. 
(Pre-order and pickup - this was done in my classroom)

Kids investigate crayfish body parts, adaptations, behavior and habitats through 10 lab observations. Labs include: measuring (in lab 1), comparing (lab 2), observing behavior, recording feeding and learning about each body part through the 10 labs. 2 art projects are included (lab 7 and 8). Kids draw a habitat and create a crayfish chimney.

Note: There is NO dissection in this pack. Kids study live crayfish.

Includes (21 pages):
Objectives
Crayfish habitat instructions
6 presentation slides: crayfish parts / adaptations / habitat / behavior
10 Lab sheets
2 mini posters (parts of the crayfish: top and bottom of the organism)

Free download!

Earthworm Study

Students explore worm adaptations and perform 5 lab experiments. Plus they get to create a worm hotel for the classroom!

Included (18 pages):
11 pdf presentation slides
Lab 1 Structural Adaptations: label / estimate / measure / describe attributes / review worm parts
Lab 2 Behavioral Adaptations: light / moisture / sound experimentation
Lab 3 Worm Observation: build a worm hotel instructions / observation sheet
Lab 4 Predator and Prey: draw worms in natural habitat (tunnels) / draw 3 predators / draw 2 worm food items
Lab 5 Straw Paper Work Trick: instructions for kids / kids draw their paper worm

Free Download!

Animal Camouflage: How Creatures Hide

Includes:
3 Mini Posters with: Disruptive Coloration, Concealing Coloration, Countershading, Disguise and Mimicry
Octopus Disguise Project - template for kids to design and hide in the classroom
Walking Stick or Katydid Disguise Craft - kids find a leaf or stick and create an insect hiding in its habitat
Concealing Coloration Scavenger Hunt - how-to instructions and recording sheet
Disruptive Coloration Savanna Scene - kids draw a predator and prey, showing how this coloration helps animals in the savanna
Butterfly or Moth Mimicry Project - template for kids to design a paper pet that uses mimicry (no Viceroy butterflies allowed)!
Countershading Ocean Scene - kids draw a predator and prey, demonstrating how this type of coloring helps animals survive

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j412_QuHfQFyjORXk3lPEMOd4DzV3NKb/view?usp=sharing

Cryptozoology: Learning with Cryptids

Kids turn into cryptozoologists and study 3 cryptids closely: Sasquatch, Loch Ness Monster and Chupacabra. Then they create a field report on any cryptid they would like to investigate!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SXe6idap5PZ6PnJmvprjRjpay7mcfLy_/view?usp=sharing

Includes:
List of 50 Cryptids
Top 10 Cryptids That Turned Out to be Real
Task Sheets for the 3 Cryptids: math / art projects with measuring, fictional sighting report writing, adaptation activity and survey / data collection
Adapation Recording Sheets for the 3 Cryptids
Bar Graph Sheets for the 3 Cryptids
Field Report Assignment to Research Any Cryptid

Choose Your Own Adventure: Rock Cycle

Choose Your Own Adventure Style: Rock Cycle Wheel (free download) Students find images or draw pictures on their wheel. They fasten the two circles together and ride the rock cycle. They spin clockwise and counterclockwise, choosing their own adventure!

After kids have fun riding the rock cycle, then invite them outside for a fun game of rock cycle tag! Free printable here!

Food Chain Activity Pack

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZrA7r34OAF26HxWMep5rVQubxY9z15tf/view?usp=sharing

Food Chain Card Game (72 cards) Cards include animals (carnivores, omnivores and herbivores) and plants from the ocean, desert, rainforest, tundra and forest. There are 2 sets of cards: easy and advanced level. The easy level is color coded so kids know what habitat each item belongs to (making building a food chain easier). The advanced cards are not color coded. Kids have to figure out what eats what based on their knowledge of what animals and plants belong to each biome. Game is played like Go Fish.

Food Chain Freeze Tag Headbands (36 Headbands)10 different food chains from different habitats
This activity is inspired by Eecko World's "We're All In This Together." 
Give each child a construction paper headband with a different plant or animal that is part of a food chain (include organisms from different habitats). Take students to a large open area outside. Kids have to look for a plant or animal that their organism consumes. They tag what they eat! If a child is tagged, they must freeze (stand still)! Who is left at the end of the game?!

Afterwards, have kids try to find organisms that belong to their habitat (creating small groups). Kids must problem solve and try to figure out who belongs in their "group." Also, where would you find the organisms in their group? What habitat do they live in?!

3 Different Reinforcement Ideas, 1 printable: Food Chain Graphic Organizer

5 Olympic Activities

Check out my post at We Are Teachers: 5 Olympic Activities that Integrate Core Subjects!

Nature Works Virtual Field Trip

Live on youtube Friday, December 4th at 12:00 pm (Eastern Time, 40 minutes), your class can explore China's Great Forests! Students (grades 3-8) investigate what the giant panda and earth's climate have in common as they learn about the carbon cycle and compare/contrast reforestation and deforestation. 

RSVP here to participate for FREE!: http://ow.ly/UfnrV 

If you cannot "attend" the event live, you can sign up for the virtual field and will be notified as soon as the video is available. Then you can show your students when ever convenient for your lesson plans and school schedules! 

This field trip fits in with a unit on adaptations, ecosystems, natural resources and geography. Students view live footage of 2 provinces in China—Sichuan and Yunnan, traveling up "towering mountains, majestic forests and other iconic landscapes."

While examining the geography of these provinces, students learn about the other animal species that share the same ecosystem as the giant panda: golden snub-nosed monkeys, and the elusive and odd-looking takin. They find out that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

They also get to see how scientists work with local communities to protect nature and create new wilderness. 

They discover the benefits of reforestation and how it can decrease carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, minimizing climate change and improving air quality. You can challenge your class to evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity in an ecosystem!

Students also explore the pros and cons of deforestation after they investigate reforestation. Example below:

Conservationists: Forests are home to many species of plants and animals.

Logger: My job is to cut down trees and without this job I cannot provide for my family. 

Pharmacist: Many medicines come from our forests and many are yet to be discovered.

Farmer: I clear away land by burning a few acres of trees to grow crops for my family to eat.

Environmentalist: Forests help moderate climate change by taking in carbon dioxide during the day.  Too much carbon dioxide leads to an increase in greenhouse gases, which causes changes in our climate.

Restaurant owner: I need paper and meat products to meet my customers’ demands.

• Information about how this event relates to curriculum per grade: http://ow.ly/UfpXN

• Reforestation video that is a great pre-event lesson to share with students (featured above): http://ow.ly/Ufofb 

• Reforestation lesson plan that relates to the video + the Dec. 4th live event: http://ow.ly/Ufq97

Wildlife Trade: Affecting Animals and Their Ecosystems

International Fund for Animal Welfare’s (IFAW) Animal Action Education is providing teachers with hands-on, inquiry based lessons on animals, their adaptations and good citizenship for grades K-8. Students learn about how commercial wildlife trade is one of the biggest threats to wildlife. Animal preservation lesson plans, printables and teaching resources, available at We Are Teachers: http://ow.ly/UBN1w

Use of Animals in Trade:
Entertainment
Fashion
Decoration
Traditional Medicine and Religion
Pets
Food



Video (3rd-5th) featured above: http://ow.ly/UBPTU

Students investigate: “Why do people trade in wildlife?” and “How do our choices as consumers affect animals?” They discuss why people would want wildlife products? These products do not benefit the animal. How would they benefit humans? They also explore how wild animals are sold as pets and taken from their natural habitat. Students are provided with a free magazine. Student magazine http://ow.ly/UBPPg

Students learn that not only is wildlife trade affecting certain animal species, it can affect an entire ecosystem! Grades 3-5 Lesson plans http://ow.ly/UBPJK

Some of the Inquiry Lessons featured in the pack:
Dog Sniffing Scavenger Hunt: Dogs are used to detect wildlife products. In this activity students put their nose to the test, searching around the room for an onion hidden in a clean sock.
Science Meets Art- Animal Diagram and Poem: Students research an animal and investigate how its features help it survive. Then they write verses for adaptation poems provided by IFAW.
Ecosystem Cups: Students stack cups and create an ecosystem pyramid. They take cups away and discover how the removal of one animal can cause an ecosystem to fall apart.
Geography Project- An Exotic Pet's Journey: Students collaborate in groups and use a map's scale (provided) to determine how many miles an animal travelled from its home. Students compare an animal's natural environment to it's life as a pet. They write down what humans cannot provide wildlife animals with if they were kept as pets.
Keep Wild Animals Wild Informative Comic: After reading a comic about the use of sea turtle shells as hair clips, students are encouraged to create their own comic about an animal of their choice.
Pet Store Skits: Students take on one of these characters: store owner, customer who wants to buy a wild animal for a pet, a member of the student Animal Welfare Club, a wild animal that the store sells, and a reporter. The skits tell the story of what happens when the customer comes into the store to buy the animal but runs into a protest being covered by the local news.
Design a Pamphlet: In pairs, students make their own pamphlets to persuade others that keeping or trading in wild animals as pets has negative effects for the animals, people, and the environment.
Culminating Project: Students figure out a way to get the word out about wildlife trade: mural, assembly, video (anything they can think of)

Keep Wild Animals Wild is available at three levels of instruction.

Students ages 5 to 7 (grade K-2) are introduced to the concepts of what makes an animal wild and how people can observe and appreciate wildlife responsibly.

o   Lesson plans http://ow.ly/UBNGE

o   Student magazine http://ow.ly/UBNMW

o   K-2 Video http://ow.ly/UBPDG

Students ages 8 to 10 (grade 3-5) learn about wildlife trade, how it is relevant to them, and how they can take action to help protect wild animals from wildlife trade.

o   Lesson plans http://ow.ly/UBPJK

o   Student magazine http://ow.ly/UBPPg

o   3-5 video http://ow.ly/UBPTU

Students ages and 11 to 14 (grade 6-8) also learn about wildlife trade and its relevance to their world.

o   Lesson plans http://ow.ly/UBQ0r

o   Student magazine http://ow.ly/UBQ5r

o   Classroom poster http://ow.ly/UBQdu

o   6-8 video http://ow.ly/UBQjl

Plant Scavenger Hunt

Take students outside for a plant scavenger hunt! Click here to download. Students tally how many vascular and nonvascular plants they find. Then they draw an example of each. Throughout their walk, they take photos of different plants that they believe represent 7 different types of seed dispersal. They check off different types of roots they come across based on their knowledge of plants. They draw an example of a stem they investigated. Then they draw 2 different leaves and describe the leaves' properties (color, size, texture).

Seed Engineers

Students are challenged to construct a device to make a popcorn kernel disperse! They invented contraptions that helped a kernel burst (explode), travel by water or wind, attach to humans/animals or look tempting enough to get digested! Visit We Are Teachers to check out my post: Third Grade Seed Experimentation: Adapting a Popcorn Kernel!

Seed Investigation

Click here for free printables: Seed Investigation (+ Free Printables)! Click here for a free lima bean dissection lab!

Hands-On Science Using Nature Works

Check out my post at We Are Teachers: Hands-On Science Using Nature Works by Nature Conservancy! Ten science topics that include videos, free lesson plans and additional resources.

Sap to Syrup: States of Matter and Heat

Explore what form of energy transforms maple sap into maple syrup, then maple candy!
Video Introduction: Sap in the Sugar Maple Tree
Book: Sugaring Time by Kathryn Lasky
Resources to explain the process: Word Playhouse
Maple Sugar Tree Identification sheet: Ohio Thoughts Blog

Recording sheets about Heat and the States of Matter: click here 
- Students label the states of matter for each stage of the maple syrup process. Then, they identify heat as being the form of energy that changes maple sap into syrup, then maple candy.
- Maple Taffy Experiment with snow, students record the results of the experiment.
- Checklist if students go on a maple sugaring field trip

Recipe for maple candy: All Recipes
Recipe for Maple Taffy for the Freezing Experiment - The Kitchn

Season: End of February / Beginning of March

Backyard Soil Samples

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VqqgG6K97wK4bJkJJ8u-F4jvACRH8B8j/view?usp=sharing

Students bring in a soil sample from their backyard to investigate, draw, describe (color, particle size, texture and structure), compare / contrast (with a peer's sample) and experiment on (predict and discover what type of soil is in their yard)!

Includes:
slides to introduce the components of soil
(sand, silt, clay, organic matter, water, air and animals)
soil sample recording sheet (investigating, drawing and describing)
link to soil structure chart (texture vs. structure)
Venn diagram to compare / contrast soil samples with a peer
soil experiment to figure out their soil type
full lesson plan and assessment

Fossil Hunter

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sq4P3-p5g82nIEE0f821ZaAoxpfTNIOS/view?usp=sharing

Students become paleontologists, searching for fossils (cut out and placed) around the classroom. There are 20 fossils, including: true-form (body), trace, mold and cast. Children walk around with a clipboard and investigate each fossil (labeled A-T). They circle whether it is a body or trace, as well as if it is a mold or cast fossil. Then, they infer what the fossil is!

Fossils included in this pack are:
True-Form / Body - skull, claw, skin, femur, whole form (dinosaurs, trilobites, crinoids, ammonites, insects and ferns)
Trace - eggs, footprints, nest, feces, burrows
There are Mold and Cast examples and comparisons.
The name of each fossil is posted by each image.

After the students inspect each fossil and record their answers, they tally and graph their fossils because scientists collect data! The categories of the graph are not given to the students; there are only definitions! The students must think about what they learned about each fossil and write the name of the fossil type under each definition. Then, they can tally and fill in their graph!

Next, the students do fossil fractions! Using their tally marks and graph, they write the fraction for each type of fossil (true-form, trace, mold and cast). Then, they reduce each fraction (if necessary) and draw a picture representation of each fraction.

video introduction - Fossil Movie by Sheppard Software

Bubble Gum Exploration

Cross-curricular learning with bubble gum:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MNYQ30GsdJD1oSyImNqL73bFqz-HYGfS/view?usp=sharing

Math:
Graphing - Who can blow a bubble?
3D Solids - Comparing gum shapes
Measuring - Pre-chewed vs. chewed (stretched) vs. blowed bubble on wax paper
Mean, Median, Mode and Range (optional) - Using data for measuring
Area/Perimeter - Gum wrapper design (and real gum wrappers - optional)

Science:
States of Matter - Investigating the process of bubble blowing / physical changes of gum chewed and placed in ice water

English Language Arts:
Writing - How-to blow a bubble / Recipe for new flavor / Math word problem

Social Studies:
Economics - Cost of their gum
History - Inventor Research

Design:
Logo & Packaging - Design for their new flavor of gum