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Showing posts with label lifecycle of a frog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lifecycle of a frog. Show all posts

Life Cycle Ideas and Activities for Hands-on Learning Fun!

Do you teach about life cycles? 

Here is a plethora of ideas and resources to make your life easier and to help make learning fun!

Do you teach about life cycles? Here are a plethora of ideas and resources to make your life easier and to help make learning fun!

Why is it important to teach about life cycles?

Do you teach about life cycles? Here are a plethora of ideas and resources to make your life easier and to help make learning fun!

Teaching young people about life cycles is a great way to help them understand the world around them. It helps them connect with nature, and develop a sense of life patterns. 

 I typically start any unit with plenty of books on the topic, and here are some of my favorites! (Can you tell who my favorite children's non-fiction author is?) Each image is an affiliate link to Amazon.

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You can find more books on life cycles HERE! (Also affiliate links!) In my classroom, I'll read a few, then leave several different life cycle related books out for them to read on their own. (The librarian/ media specialist is your best friend!)

Do you teach about life cycles? Here are a plethora of ideas and resources to make your life easier and to help make learning fun!

Start with something small, with just a few parts to the life cycle. Flowering plants, such as sunflowers or daisies are a great place to start, since these life cycles are very basic. After going over one or two simple life cycles, advance to something else children enjoy and know something about like apples or chickens!

Do you teach about life cycles? Here are a plethora of ideas and resources to make your life easier and to help make learning fun!

Then do a few more together. Advance to something more complex and fun, like the butterfly or the frog!

Do you teach about life cycles? Here are a plethora of ideas and resources to make your life easier and to help make learning fun!

There are so many plants and animals out there, each child can have plenty of options for exploring on their own!

Do you teach about life cycles? Here are a plethora of ideas and resources to make your life easier and to help make learning fun!

Then assign research. More advanced students can do all the research on their own. Average students can do some research on their own. Some students will need extra guidance. I highly recommend using the text pages from these collections:

Do you teach about life cycles? Here are a plethora of ideas and resources to make your life easier and to help make learning fun!
 Spring Life Cycle Bundle: 9 different plants and animals (dandelions, cherry trees, bees, Monarch butterflies, chickens, robins, salmon, earthworms, and rabbits)

Summer Life Cycle Bundle: 9 different plants and animals (watermelons, daisies, strawberries, tomatoes, frogs, praying mantises, sea turtles, ants, and ladybugs)

Fall Life Cycle Bundle: 8 different plants and animals (apple trees, corn, pumpkins, sunflowers, owls, spiders, bats, and wild turkeys)

Winter Life Cycle Bundle: 9 different plants and animals (orange trees, cocoa trees, pine trees, deer, groundhogs, harp seal, penguin, polar bear, and puffins)

Why are these sorted by season? Well, because it's more fun! I'm sure you know how excited the kiddos get about special events and holidays! Use that excitement in your classroom! Let them explore pumpkins and bats near Halloween! Let them explore pine trees and deer around Christmas!

All these life cycle sets are sold separately, but the bundles are at a huge discount. Plus, all bundles include these two extra resources: 

Do you teach about life cycles? Here are a plethora of ideas and resources to make your life easier and to help make learning fun!
Reader's theater about life cycles: What Came First, the Chicken or the Egg? This is a great way for students to share what they've learned and culminate the unit! Plus, there's a song for performers to sing as a finale!
Do you teach about life cycles? Here are a plethora of ideas and resources to make your life easier and to help make learning fun!

Digital fun! Life Cycle Fun Facts! This resource (hosted on the popular Boom Learning platform) includes facts and questions about a plethora of plant and animal life cycles! This deck has 40 different questions, and no child will know all the answers! One of the features I love about Boom Learning resources, is that they can play the deck over and over, and because of the immediate feedback, they can learn something every time they play! Teachers can easily check their scores to make sure they are showing growth! (If they aren't, there's a conversation that needs to take place!)

There are many ways to differentiate the learning of life cycles!

Do you teach about life cycles? Here are a plethora of ideas and resources to make your life easier and to help make learning fun!
Whether they're working alone, with a partner, a small group, or the whole group, this is important:

Do you teach about life cycles? Here are a plethora of ideas and resources to make your life easier and to help make learning fun!

Get them talking and thinking! Get them comparing different life cycles, looking for similarities and differences. Have them predict a life cycle of a plant or animal before researching it. Encourage them to sort life cycles that are alike! Most of all, get them talking about what they  are learning! Those conversations deepen the learning!

All life cycle resources include these 7 pages:

Choice is essential!

Do you teach about life cycles? Here are a plethora of ideas and resources to make your life easier and to help make learning fun!

All of these resources are included in The Life Cycles Collection. This massive bundle includes 35 different plant and animal life cycles as well as the Reader's Theater:
What Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?  and the digital resource: Life Cycle Fun Facts! Have I mentioned that bundles come with big discounts?

Do you teach about life cycles? Here are a plethora of ideas and resources to make your life easier and to help make learning fun!

Most important, give opportunities to share their learning. Although some might be shy about sharing information in front of the class, that's what makes it so memorable! The memory is powerful when strong emotions are involved. Not only will they remember what they shared, they'll remember what life cycles their classmates shared as well! 

Do you teach about life cycles? Here are a plethora of ideas and resources to make your life easier and to help make learning fun!

A special day to celebrate all the learning is a necessity! Have a Life Cycle Festival! Have children share their presentations on what they learned! Invite parents, administration, friends, other classes, etc! I'll bet you can think of plenty of life cycle related foods to serve! Be sure to have someone videotape it all!

What ideas do you have for learning and celebrating life cycles?

Do you teach about life cycles? Here are a plethora of ideas and resources to make your life easier and to help make learning fun!


A Few Summer Freebies!

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 Freebies! This post shares 6 different 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 if you're working with kids during the summer, you're probably looking for things to do with the kids that also allows you to enjoy the summer! 

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

If you're into the beach, here are a couple of resources related to the seashore:

Because sometimes you just need to write about the ocean!
 
A Few Summer Freebies! This post shares 6 different freebies that can be used at the end of the school year, during summer school, or in the early days of autumn!

A Science Activity with a Seashore Theme!
 
 
A Few Summer Freebies! This post shares 6 different freebies that can be used at the end of the school year, during summer school, or in the early days of autumn!

 For those who enjoy camping, here are a couple of freebies for you:

Learn about the life cycle of the frog!
 
A Few Summer Freebies! This post shares 6 different freebies that can be used at the end of the school year, during summer school, or in the early days of autumn!


Practice Mapping Skills at "Happy Days Campground!"

A Few Summer Freebies! This post shares 6 different freebies that can be used at the end of the school year, during summer school, or in the early days of autumn!


Here's a fun way to get the kids excited about learning during a time of year when they all want to play:

Team Building along with learning fun! 
 
A Few Summer Freebies! This post shares 6 different freebies that can be used at the end of the school year, during summer school, or in the early days of autumn!
 

Speaking of Team Building, here's a freebie that's all about learning to work together!

6 different games with a "work together" theme! 
 
A Few Summer Freebies! This post shares 6 different freebies that can be used at the end of the school year, during summer school, or in the early days of autumn!
 

I hope these freebies give you a little more time to enjoy the summer weather!


A Few Summer Freebies! This post shares 6 different freebies that can be used at the end of the school year, during summer school, or in the early days of autumn!


What to do with Leftover Jellybeans?

Do you have left over Jellybeans?  
If you don't, I'll bet you can get some real cheap!
 
 
What to do with leftover jellybeans - this is about a resource that makes it easier for teachers to share hands-on science and social studies activities for their primary students.
 

My students and I have been having some fun observing jellybeans that have been soaking in different solutions.

We started by recording our predictions on what might happen.

Then we poured the solutions in and watched.

A day later, we recorded our observations.
 
What to do with leftover jellybeans - this is about a resource that makes it easier for teachers to share hands-on science and social studies activities for their primary students.

The conversations between the groups were priceless! They were drawing conclusions and making logical comparisons. What an awesome group of scientists I have!

We have a couple of days before the final observation at the end of a week. It should be interesting to see their final conclusions!

This experiment is part of my Science and Social Studies for April.
 


I've have one of these for each month in an effort to squeeze in Science and Social Studies topics into my second grade. We have so much focus on with literacy and math it's tough to squeeze in the subjects that the children love the most! These collections are my attempt to make the life of a primary teacher just a bit easier!

With these Science and Social Studies activities, I can find the time to do some fun stuff, without wasting much class time or prep time. 

Besides the jellybean experiment, there's another experiment on how to make an egg float, the lifecycle of a frog, a close read on Earth Day, and a mapping activity based on major league baseball teams. (The latter is a mini-version of Baseball Geography, which you can see more about HERE.)

You can save by purchasing bundles:


What to do with leftover jellybeans - this is about a resource that makes it easier for teachers to share hands-on science and social studies activities for their primary students.


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