Elementary Matters is an educational blog focused on Elementary grades 1-3. These posts will make an elementary teacher's life easier by sharing information about how the brain learns best. It includes time savers, suggestions for classroom management, hints on effective teaching of reading, writing, and math, and several ideas for squeezing Science and Social Studies into daily instruction. These posts include links to several videos, articles, resources, and plenty of free materials.

Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts

Sunflower Learning Fun!

Seriously, sunflowers?

Well, what makes learning fun in your classroom?

It's usually something the kiddos are excited about, isn't it?

Well, it's sunflower time right now, and that's what I'm using to keep the enthusiasm going for learning!

Sunflower Learning Fun: Who knew there were so many ways to learn and practice important skills with sunflowers?

Here in New England, it's harvest time! That means everywhere you look, there are pumpkins, scarecrows, cornstalks, apples, and yes, sunflowers! The biggest country fairs of the year are among us! Since they're excited by their surroundings, let's work with it! After all, you've got to have a gimmick, don't you?

(Flashback to a post I did ages ago, called Gotta Get a Gimmick.)

Well, my gimmick for this week will be sunflowers, since that's what they're excited about!

Seriously, sunflowers are just the "vessel," but there's some real learning that's going to happen!

Mental Math Game: Adding and Subtracting Tens and Hundreds With a Sunflower Theme

This is one of my most popular math games! It's an important skill, (mental math with tens and hundreds) it's easy to differentiate, and it's so much fun, they'll want to play it repeatedly!

Sunflower Informational Text Mini-Book

Then, of course, there's a fun mini-booklet to read! Although I'm sure you have several books about sunflowers in your classroom, don't they just love to have a book they can hold in their own hands! Plus, these printable mini-booklets are perfect to use in reading groups, since the students can write in them! ("Underline the short a words in yellow." or "How many times can you find the word seeds on page 1?")

Fun Facts About Sunflowers: Boom Learning Digital Task Cards

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These boom learning cards are a perfect accompaniment to the hands-on booklets! Almost all the questions come from the booklets! Plus, the more they play, the more they'll remember!

Sunflower LIfe Cycle Activities, Crafts, and Printables

Oh, and did I mention there's a bundle?

Sunflower MIni-Bundle

I always put a huge discount on my bundles! Enjoy!

I also have other seasonal life cycles!

You can find the autumn bundle HERE.

Oh, yes, and there are books! Here are a couple of my favorites!

Sunflower House by Eve Bunting

A Sunflower's LIfe Cycle by Mary R. Dunn

Here's a fun one for your budding artists:

Van Gogh and the Sunflowers by Lawrence Anholt

Not specifically sunflowers, but I'm a huge fan of Gail Gibbons!

From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons

Some other ideas for celebrating sunflowers:

Roast some sunflower seeds!
Plant some sunflower seeds outside your school! (Yes, this needs to be done in the spring, but last year's students are still watching the ones they planted, and this year's students will want to continue this tradition in the spring!
Google some other recipes that use sunflower seeds. (There are plenty!)
Make a craft with sunflower seeds. (Again, google!)
Write a story (fiction or non-fiction) about sunflowers!
Estimate a sunflower's seeds. Or just a jar of sunflower seeds.
Measure the heads of the sunflowers in your sunflower garden and graph them.
I'll bet you can think of plenty more ways to enjoy sunflowers!

Keep Them Engaged, Learning, and Having Fun!

In my experience, kids need to move! That shouldn't keep them from learning, in fact, moving is a great way to enhance learning!

As many of my readers know, I have studied how the brain learns and using research on the brain to design resources to help children learn. (For more information, check out these posts:)

Ten Classroom Management Tips With the Brain in Mind

How Do We Keep Them Engaged?

Ten Brain-Based Learning Strategies

How Can I Keep My Active Students Learning?

Ten Tips for Helping Learning Stick

Seven Brain-Based Learning Principles

Five Tips for Teaching Reading Using Recent Brain Research

Some of the common threads in these posts include movement, integrating the arts, working with others, and making it fun. Plus, we all know from developmental studies that it's important for them to move!

(See this post: Is Digital Learning in the Best Interest of Children?)

It just so happens that I have a series of resources that address these needs while promoting learning at the same time! There are 15 resources in this series (so far) and they all have the exact same format:

an informative text about an interesting science or social studies topic (Perfect for close reads and guided reading!)
10 questions about the text
4 sketching tasks to go along with the text
6 brain breaks related to the text

Once they catch onto the format, less time is wasted on teaching them how to use the tool, and they become quite independent in their learning with this tool!

There are many different ways to use these resources! It can be differentiated for different learning levels, different organizational needs, as well as different social needs.

I always start off with whole group instruction! Everyone gets a copy of the text with the answer sheet, and we read through the text together. I go through some of the questions and show the students how to go back to the text to find the answers. (They LOVE using highlighters on this!)

We do all the brain breaks together, and discuss the sketching tasks.

Once they "get" how the whole thing works, we can play a game of Scoot. (See directions here: Active Students? Try Scoot!)

Some of my more challenged readers usually need more guidance. I'll bring copies of the text to some of my reading groups. We read through the text together, discussing vocabulary and talking about what we've learned. I'll let the group take turns reading the different task cards. We discuss what the answer might be, and go back to the text to find where we found the answer. (Again, the highlighters!)

Once the small group has gone through the whole process, (and yes, of course we all do the brain breaks together!) they're ready to do the whole process independently! (These make great centers!)

Yes, they can re-read the same text and answer the same questions all over again! Why? Because there's a lot of information in those texts, and even though they've answered the questions already, that doesn't mean they remember all the information! A second (or even third) time through, especially after a passage of time, is ideal! Not only are they practicing important skills (reading for information) but they are learning interesting information!

These sets make great centers! I often assign centers to be done in pairs. Why? Because of those great conversations! Talking about the text internalizes what they're learning. (More brain research!) Plus, they learn from each other through these rich conversations. Some may share information about the topic that's not even in the text! (More learning, yippee!)

Another reason to let partners use these activities? Because some children need a stronger reader to help them out. This can be a delicate situation, since we need to be sensitive about our lower readers, but you know your kids! Make smart choices for partners who will support each other without insulting each others' abilities!

These are also perfect for your fast finishers to do independently during centers time! Again, each set can be used more than once... hopefully, they'll remember more information each time!

This one is easy! Anytime! I find they're perfect as centers during those last couple months of the year when their skills are strong and they've developed some independence.

They're also great for the beginning of the school year when you're teaching procedures!

Plus, if you're doing a unit related to one of these topics, these are perfect!

If you're interested in these, check out this link:

Reading Comprehension for Active Learners

You can try one for free here:

Wildfires: Reading Comprehension for Active Learners

How do you keep your students learning and engaged?

A Few Summer Dollar Deals!

Ah, summer! Isn't it a wonderful time of year?

Summer is the time of year most people enjoy going to the beach, going camping, or maybe just hanging out with friends. It's a great time to be outside!

A Few Summer Dollar Deals! This post shares 8 dollar deals and 2 freebies that can be used at the end of the school year, during summer school, or in the early days of autumn!

If you're still in school or working with kids during the summer, you're probably looking for things to do with the kids that also allow you to enjoy the summer!

Well, I've got a few resources for you, and guess what... they're all dollar deals or free!

This Boom Learning resource is totally free! Plus, it can be used any time of year for building general knowledge! (July birthdays love it!)

Boom Learning July General Knowledge Trivia

These helpful tools are perfect for those students who need hands-on reference tools!

Tools for Learning Sampler

This resource helps children learn about their learning!

I Can Stretch My Brain!

Another totally free resource for July! Thinking questions and/ or writing prompts for every day of the month!

Daily Questions for July

These questions are perfect to get students talking about the books they read or listen to! They work for any book!

Reading Celebration Sample

This game is a favorite! They can play over and over, and practice adding 3 addends!

Par 3 Sampler

If you're teaching at all during the summer months, I'm hoping these resources help make your life easier!

These deals give you a little more time to enjoy the summer weather and make your teacher life easier!

Resources for April!

I'm so glad to see the calendar finally turning to April!

March has always been a long month, but April has a whole lot of fun learning to be had!

Resources for April! If you'll be teaching in the month of April, this post has links to plenty of ideas, books, videos, and resources!

Here are links to blog posts for many of the events happening in April!

I've got plenty of April Fool's fun ideas in THIS blog post!

8 Ways to Spice Up April Fool's Day

Looking for Science and Social Studies ideas for April?

What to do with Leftover Jellybeans

Easter is right around the corner. Here are a couple of blog posts to help you out! Easter Stories, Books, Music, and Fun Resources and An Easter Warning and an Easter Tradition.

Don't forget spring! Although we have snow predicted for this weekend here in New England, spring truly is trying to work it's way through this nasty weather! Be sure to check out these Spring Resources!

Plus, baseball season is starting up! If you have any baseball fans in your classroom, you'll have to checkout Baseball Fun!

For ideas and resources for Earth Day, see THIS link.

Many of my friends and coworkers agree, March was a very long month, but it's April, and there's a whole lot to look forward to! Maybe you can start the month winning some great stuff!

Will the Groundhog Predict Spring?

Do you think Punxsutawney Phil will see his shadow?

It's a tough call, but I'm thinking we might just have 6 more weeks of winter.

But even so, Groundhog Day is a fun day at the beginning of a dreary month to scramble up some fun excuses to learn!

Let's start with books! I'm a big fan of Gail Gibbons, and this one is perfect for groundhog learning. I love her books because she puts information in a way that's interesting and easy to understand for children.