How to Incorporate ELA Skills in the K-1st Science Classroom

If you teach K-2nd, you know that you have a certain amount of minutes dedicated to each subject. Yet the increasing rigor in the standards require kinder teachers to have their class reading by the end of the year. So, we find ways to incorporate ELA skills into content areas while still teaching content area standards. How can we do this successfully?

1. Find grade level text that talks about what you're teaching. Some good resources are reading a to z. While most of their readers don't directly meet the standards, I have had luck finding books there that can be used for certain lessons. This, this, and this science predictable readers meet the Texas kinder TEKS. They include a predictable reader and a video that reads the book aloud to be used for a shared reading. These will soon be a part of a bundle.

Whichever resource you choose, you can have it available after your unit is complete. It can be put in your science center, or in children's book boxes, depending on what their independent reading level is.

2. Follow a 5E lesson plan. (Engage, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate). If you follow this format for math and science, you will more than likely have to find text to go with the "explain" portion of your lesson. Sometimes you'll be able to fit it in to the "elaborate" portion as well! In the "explain" or"elaborate" portion of your lesson you can also incorporate a written response, which brings me to my next point...

3. Incorporate a written response or reflection at some point in your lesson. If you're doing a science experiment that day, you could have them write their prediction right before you've told them the experiment and they're excited about it. If you've just explored hands on materials for a lesson you're teaching, take the time to have them reflect. First they tell their impressions to a buddy (as a pre-writing activity). Then have them go to their seat and quietly reflect in their science notebook about their findings.

This blog post was written by Teacherof20, TpT seller, blogger, and SAHM to two great kids!

Creativity in the Classroom

Creativity in the Classroom

Hi, my name is Sabrina Wingren and I teach art. Currently I am teaching high school Art in Spokane Valley, WA. I have a Teachers Pay Teachers store called A Space to Create and my own blog A Space to Create Blog.

I am passionate about teaching kids to be creative problem solvers and feel that it is an essential skill for the 21st century. I know how challenging a classroom teachers job can be! My goal is to provide easy materials for teachers to incorporate into their classroom to inspire creativity in their students!

So what does all that mean? I thought the easiest way to show you, is well, to show you! ;) Get ready to throw those templates away and be amazed by what your students can do!

So in this lesson you would start out by reading the book Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni. 

 

Next create a robin with an inchworm measuring some part of his body. I used tissue paper for the body of the bird and construction paper for the legs and the beak. I also provided white circles for the eyes that I hole-punched from white copy paper. Here are a few of the pages from the presentation I include in this lesson.

 

(Optional movie with my narration)

Here are some of the artwork that my students created! I love the fact that they are all different! Give your students the chance to create their own artwork and they will always surpass your highest expectations! It's so important that our kids have the opportunity to create something that has no right or final answer, so that they figure out their own answers and develop that creative muscle.

Because it's important as a classroom teacher to also have activities that go along with the Common Core requirements, I included math and language arts and science activities to go along with the above art lesson. In addition to other writing prompt sheets there is a cartoon panel where students draw inch worms measuring different animals. You could easily do this in your classroom with just paper and a few prompts.

 

A scavenger hunt that has students measure and record the sizes of different insects ties in nicely.

And there are so many facts that you can cover in science about different insects like this one on worms.

In closing, I would just like to say that I am thrilled to be a part of this new blogging adventure! Follow the link below to go to three free coloring sheets that I created to go along with this book. Just click on the page below:

How do your encourage creativity in your classrooms?

   
Sabrina Wingren
A Space to Create