TODD’S TECH TUESDAY: Lights, flip camera, action

Teach Science and Math is such a great resource for K-12 educators. I check it regularly and sometimes look back at the archives to see if I have missed anything!

Creating clouds

I know so many tactile learners who would love this lesson from Krazy About Kiddos. Students in this first grade classroom get to stretch out and squeeze cotton balls to make the shapes and textures of the different types of clouds. How memorable and how fun! This would also make a great bulletin board. If […]

FUN FRIDAY: Tactile landscapes

We are over at the Crayola website today with a lesson that could delight your sensory-seeking students. Artistic learners will love it as well. The lesson involves having students analyze different landforms and match them to textured materials (e.g., wax paper to represent waterfalls, sandpaper to represent the desert). Once they decide on a range […]

FUN FRIDAY: Create your own insect

If you are a science teacher or a sixth grade teacher (or just a fun teacher), you need to know about Mr. Hofer’s blog. There are too many neat ideas out there to choose just one post, but I loved this insect project because I am crazy about lessons that integrate art into other subject […]

Science notebooks rock!

Notebooking is an idea that has so much promise in the differentiated classroom. Different students can add different products, a range of goals can be addressed, and artifacts can be added or created. And the best news is that notebooking works well for even the youngest students. Don’t believe me? Visit Kindergarten….kindergarten to see the […]

Science notebooking rubric

Are you using notebooking this year to differentiate instruction and let student’s have more control over how they learn and remember content? If so, you may be interested int his rubric over at Teachers Notebook; it is designed for science notebooks and, depending on the content and level you teach, you may have an assessment […]

Dem bones

In every book I have ever written, I advocate for strategies that get lessons “off the page” and allow students to show their learning without a pencil. This idea from the website Spell Outloud is not only a unique use of flashcards, but an adaptation of sorts for learners who cannot draw or label using […]

TODD’S TECH TUESDAY: Web-based science stations

Today, we are sharing a science lesson (from David Wetzel) featuring web-based stations from Suite 101. Note that once you involve web-based activities in your stations, differentiation becomes even easier. Instead of providing a range of materials to meet different needs, you can simply have different learners access different web resources.

What IS life anyway?

I have not featured it much on this site, but I do so love using “big questions” as tools for differentiation. Learners at different levels can answer them in different ways and the possibilities for exploration are often endless. This is certainly true of the question this biology teacher posed to students: “What is life?” […]

TODD’S TECH TUESDAY: Seeing stars

On occasion, we will feature some applications for smartphones and tablets that are available for purchase from Apple iTunes and Google Android stores.  Today we’ll feature Starwalk, available through iTunes for both iPhone and iPad (SkyMap is a similar application for Android devices).  Many learners are fascinated with the stars, planets, and other objects in […]