al-mofhariz

I know...I know...you have heard me say this a million times.  It is important to have groups in science and to have individual jobs while you are working together!

So how do you introduce it the first time????

We begin by Introducing our science groups. Each group has 4 people in it (as best as possible - because I have 22 students I do have two groups with 5 in them).


Each child is assigned a color as you see.  Then I have a chart that shows the jobs. I can easily rotate the tiles daily to switch jobs.




We began working as groups by setting expectations.  If you are going to work as a group on a task, what do you need to do in order to be successful? And what do the jobs mean?





Then we worked on two simple tasks. The first was to work as a team to build a house of cards.
The next was to work as a team to solve a cup challenge. I love this second challenge! It is one I learned from FOSS several years ago and truly involves team work.  You will need 6 solo cups,1 rubber band and 4 strings…

The beginning of school is all about creating a classroom community. What better way then to work in small groups to build a structure? Here's what we did.  First, I created 5 bags with spoons, plastic cups (Dixie size), paper clips, wire, straws, paper plates and tape. Then I pulled sticks to create random grouping....after all, we are supposed to learn to work together with ALL of our classmates. I did work it out so there were two girls and two boys in each group.  Students were asked to work together to create the tallest structure possible. They had to work together and had a time limit of about 15 minutes. We stressed that this was a challenge, not a competition and at the end of it, we would congratulate the winners of this challenge.  Bad sportsmanship in my classroom is NOT tolerated. Enjoy the photos and see how simple this would be to recreate in your classroom this week.

Science Groups

It is time for a repost...I can not stress enough how important it is to have science groups set up for hands-on exploration. Each child NEEDS a job and a responsibility. It makes the lesson run so smoothly.... Take a peek into my Science jobs the FOSS way!

For more information about the curriculum I use, check out www.fossweb.com


1. GROUPING: FOSS recommends you have your students into groups of 4. I usually group them this way - one high student, one lower student and two average students. I also pay special mind to personalities as well - sensitive, high energy, etc... Laura Candler has a really good resource for cooperative learning where you make cards to help you keep record of who is grouped with who. I recommend you go to her website: www.lauracandler.com and search for more resources under cooperative learning.

2. POSTER WITH NAMES: Once I determine who is in the group, I make a poster that shows the students names and group number. Each child…

Ah...the dredded prep work....

What makes a science lesson run smoothly or go over like a lead balloon? Whether or not the teacher has her/his materials prepped and ready for the lesson. 

I know some teachers  complain about the time it takes to get materials ready.  I know we are all fried at the end of the day...But if you simply spend 15 minutes making sure you are good to go the next day, the lesson will run 100% smoother.  And if the lesson runs smoothly, the kids will learn more. 

So let me share a few of my tips and what works for me!

First, I make sure that I have a consistent materials spot.  I have two desks pushed together and covered with a vinyl tablecloth (to hide the crap   educational materials underneath.)  

Second, you need each group to have materials easily accessible. As you see with this unit, I put each groups materials on a tray.  Then when I ask the Getters to go get the materials, they simply get their trays and any additional materials.

Sometimes you need to p…

Science Groups 

It is time for a repost...I can not stress enough how important it is to have science groups set up for hands-on exploration.  Each child NEEDS a job and a responsibility.  It makes the lesson run so smoothly....  Take a peek into my Science jobs the FOSS way!

For more information about the curriculum I use, check out www.fossweb.com


1.  GROUPING:  FOSS recommends you have your students into groups of 4.  I usually group them this way - one high student, one lower student and two average students.  I also pay special mind to personalities as well - sensitive, high energy, etc... Laura Candler has a really good resource for cooperative learning where you make cards to help you keep record of who is grouped with who.  I recommend you go to her website: www.lauracandler.com and search for more resources under cooperative learning.

2. POSTER WITH NAMES:  Once I determine who is in the group, I make a poster that shows the students names and group number.  Each ch…

Have you ever stopped to think...what's the relationship between magnetism and electricity?  Why do we teach them together after all?  My little brain has a hard time making connections to higher level science, but this one I get! 

We are currently working on Magnetism and Electricity using the FOSS kit by the same name.  This is my third year teaching it with students (as well as many sessions with adults) and it always blows my mind how Dr. Lowery connects the concepts in such a concrete way. 

On an aside note, I have met Dr. Lowery several times with my journeys with FOSS and I absolutely love the man.  Here we are at the Hotel Roanoke together...bad picture, but still one I treasure....  That's me on the right with my science BFF's Rita behind me and Sherrie on the left. 

Anyway...back to school...I had always played around with magnets when I taught K-2 and knew that this was an important science concept. But I thought it stopped there.  NOW I  know better.  In the be…

Whatcan we learn about force and motion by creating our own roller coasters?
Today, students will work in their science groups.Getter one will get the materials – tube, a cup, tape and a marble. The cup is important because it catches the marble at the end of the run. The starter will begin to explore with the tubes for a while to see what the group can do… Can they make a loop? A curve? A drop? 
Extend:Pass out a challenge sheet (from More Picture Perfect Science lessons)  with several challenges to attempt to try in their exploration. Can you move a marble to the cup using one loop? a twist? etc???  Getter two will clean up when the time is over and the Reporter will share what the group was able to do.  The science jobs is an extremely important part of any cooperative group activity because roles are defined and arguing over who does what is not an issue. 

Okay, after my day of play...I am back to thinking about science.  Today we began our Ecosystems unit by building a model of a schoolyard environment. First we brainstormed what things we might put in our model - at first the kids said "a playground"  but I quickly told them this is a science model and we have to think small.  Eventually we got around to mentioning the three components that I had planned on: grass, soil and worms. 




Next we got into our small science groups where everyone has a job.  Getter 1 came and got the materials, Starter knew they would be first to start the job, Getter 2 would clean up and Reporter knew they would share out at the end.  The cutest thing happened as we were building our models...the kids said, "Let's turn out the lights so the worms will feel more comfortable while they are digging."  So we did...and we joyfully and silently watching the worms dig deep in the soil.    After we finished setting up the models, we placed the…