Science in my Classroom

To be honest, there was not a whole lot of evidence of science in my 1st grade classroom.  Since most of the day is spent with an emphasis on language arts and reading, the walls are filled with items relating to that subject, as shown in this picture of the room's math wall.

 

I asked my CT about science in the classroom, and she explained that they alternate between social studies and science in the first grade curriculum.  She provided me with a timeline of what the students would be teaching throughout the year and according to it, their science focus right now is on "Magnificent Magnifiers", in which they learn about magnifying glasses and be able to observe and record changes in size using the magnifiers.  Also, included in one of the classroom centers was a "science or social studies center".  It currently projects displaying what the children had done over the summer, as well as a little coloring worksheet pertaining to weather, which my CT informed me that they were also learning about.  So, when I asked some of the first graders in my class what they thought about science and what science meant to them, most of them all had the same answer: weather!

One thing I did notice in the classroom though was the variety of books available in the classroom's library, many which can easily be related to science.  Since the students were on the topic of weather, my CT read a book to the class about the first day of fall, since it was going to fall on the next day.  She also showed the students other books about autumn, including this book called Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert in which she constructed all of the book's illustrations with a collage of different types of leaves.  This book was read to my class the previous week in the LSE Library, and afterward they were encouraged to go home and make their own "leaf people" out of leaves that they found around their own neighborhoods so that they could be displayed in the library.

 

Living Organisms at Home

Living a few minutes outside of the city in Leon Springs, I definitely see plenty of examples of living organisms in and around my home.  For example, when coming home late at night or leaving for school early in the morning I have to constantly be on the lookout for deer on or around the roads.  I will often see deer feeding from the grass on my own front lawn when I get home at night.

Inside my own home, I also have my favorite example of a living organism, my mini dachshund Nova.  She is also the most SPOILED example I could think of. 

My dad has our backyard very well kept up so there are numerous examples of organisms out there as well.  He has rows of roses and various plants throughout the yard.

I took these pictures after a heavy rain we had, so the droplets of water were still on the rose.  We also have two hummingbird feeders hanging from our back porch, which is always attracting the birds.  My mom and I like to sit outside on the swing (very quietly, or else they'll fly away!) and watch the little hummingbirds use the feeders.  I tried to get a picture of one, but they kept flying away as I tried to get close enough to capture the shot!

Project Wild

On Tuesday, September 7th we participated in Project Wild at Eisenhower Park.   Beforehand, I had no idea what we would be doing all day because 8 hours spent in a park seemed like a bit much to me.  Starting off the day I was a little worried because it had been storming all night and morning and it didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon.  With all the rain and morning rush hour traffic, it took me about an hour to get to the park, which should have been just a ten minute drive!

 

When I finally arrived at the park, I ran through the rain to find everyone sitting around a large pavillion.  Luckily, instruction hadn't started on anything so I was able to quickly get my books and supplies and find a seat with a group already sitting down.  Just a few minutes later, the presentations began and we were told what we were going to do during the day, as well as what parts of our itinerary were going to be cut out because of the weather.

We began by going through and learning about all of the useful resources in our new Project Wild and Growing Up Wild curriculum and activity guides.  We did a little "hike through" the books, since the rain would not allow us to take an actual hike through the park that day.  I was VERY impressed with how detailed the books were and how simple, yet fun the activities were to teach children about the important of preserving wildlife and the environment.

After we did a few activities as a whole, we were informed that we would have to get in large groups and actually present and teach a lesson that we were assigned to from one of the books.  We were given about thirty minutes to prepare the lesson and figure out how we were going to teach it to the rest of the group.  This part of the day was most definitely my favorite because it allowed for a lot more interaction and moving around than anything we had done earlier. 

The activity my group was assigned to was named "How Many Bears Can Live in This Forest?".  It was a lesson in which students learn about what a limiting factor is and how these limiting factors affect animal populations in the wild.  For the activity, we set out various colors of little bear figurines in which each color represented a different type of food group  as well as different pounds in food for the bear.  We then set these bears down all over an empty picnic table and asked for volunteers from the audience to act as if they are the bears hunting for food.  Three of these "bears" had special circumstances, such as an injured leg or a mother bear who was required to get extra food for her cubs.  My volunteer was a blind bear, so she had to be blindfolded while I helped lead her to the food, very slowly.  In the end, the activity helped students realize that it is not always easy for wildlife to survive, and there are limiting factors that can affect the population of a particular species.

Overall, I would say that Project Wild was a great experience and I am thankful that I was given the opportunity to be a part of it.  I think it is a wonderful workshop that all future (and present) teachers should attend because I felt like I walked away with so many new resources that I will be able to use in my own classroom one day.