I am happy to be on a team that is strong in integrating science. It has been a priority to cover science standards while integrating reading, writing, and math.
In fact, last year we made science our focus right from week one of school! Here’s a peek at what we did!
We each brought a big watermelon to school with us on the first day. “Hey honey, don’t forget your watermelon!”
As students all came in to class the first day they see a watermelon. On day two (or halfway through day one) the watermelon is missing. Gone. Right off the counter. I make a scene. I question students. I get really sad because now we can’t eat the watermelon that I had planned as a snack on Friday. Cue the sudden interest and buy-in from students. We decide to go on a watermelon hunt around the school. (This is our school tour time)
My teammate made the cutest watermelon clue cards and set them around the building for all of first grade to share as we toured the school becoming familiar with places and procedures. Our principal had our watermelon and a treat for us in her office. Of course I have no pictures of any of this fun due to the fact that I was trying to herd my brand new first graders around the school in “number order”. This concept being new and very grown up was also very difficult for some which caused others to lose their little minds when the order wasn’t perfect. Yup. It’s coming folks. Good times…
Once our watermelon was safely returned to our classroom, we introduced the scientific process. Then we jump right in and try it out! I am not going to apologize for my on the spot handwriting. I am a lefty and I do my best…which is about a fifth grade level of handwriting. Ok third grade tops.
Each day the first week we pose a new question about the watermelon and follow the scientific method to discover the answer.
Then on Friday we finally eat it. (as we integrate science and math of course)
Each student writes their prediction on pink and the actual number of seeds on green.
To help us remember the scientific method I made these posters for our classroom. This way I can remind myself to use the right terms consistently.
Once we finish up our watermelon science, we move right into apple science in September!
We use our apple books during writing, math, and science. The students are beaming with pride. It is a great way to get them started in interactive notebooking too!
From apples we move on to pumpkins in October. Each one of these folding science books takes us about two to two and a half weeks to complete. Once we get through the pumpkin book, they have the formatting down and begin to really become independent with it.
This is the order that we taught these books in last year.
All of these units plus my other science units are on sale today for the last day of Christmas in July!
Click any of the pictures in this post to see that item or click the picture below to see all of my science units.
Apples! Hands-On Science
Resources for Teaching Writing
Peek at My Week March 29th!
Swimming With Sharks…and a little Claustrophobia!
These are amazing! I wonder if they are appropriate for 2nd grade. Where did you find their lab coats? So cool! 🙂
Yes I think they would be good for second grade. You can extend what they need to write by any standards! The lab coats came from mr disposable online.
son maravillosas sus ideas y recursos, soy docente en méxico, ¿tendra la version al español de sus recursos?¿cual seria el precio en pesos mexicanos?…muchas gracias por hacer nuestras clases mas divertidas.
son maravillosas sus ideas y recursos, soy docente en méxico, ¿tendra la version al español de sus recursos?¿cual seria el precio en pesos mexicanos?…muchas gracias por hacer nuestras clases mas divertidas.
Do you sell these units as a bundle on TPT?
No they are not bundled. 🙂
I LOVE these activities. I really enjoyed how you hooked them into the watermelon activities by the scavenger hunt!
Thank you Kimberly!
🙂 Thanks! You are so sweet!
Winner!!!! I LOVED that your interactive booklets tied so nicely with our three science units we are given to teach. The kids have a ball making them!
What fun! I love the way you engaged the students right away with the mystery! I like when science activities are hands on and fun!
Teaching Special Kids
These units were not discounted when I put them in my cart. Are they not part of Christmas in July?
Oh, I just realized Christmas in July ended on your time! It's still Friday in California! 🙂
Oh my, I love the watermelon idea! Sadly, our team is not very good at integrating science yet. It's a passion project for me this year and I love the idea! I just need to figure out something besides watermelon because those are incredibly expensive in Korea!
Love this! What a great way to engage and integrate so many skills!
You are so creative!
Thanks for the great ideas for kicking off science this year!
Our kindergarten teacher had us weigh 3 items at the grocery store. Then draw a pic and write which one weighed the most / less, my son picked watermelon 🙂 I love how you incorporated the seeds!!!! This is a great blog, thanks for sharing!
I purchased your apple, pumpkin, and weather booklets/units last year. I loved them and so did my kiddos! Thanks for all your hard work which makes my job easier and a lot of fun!
Thank you for the freebie and the great ideas…. as always!!!
How did you make your name tags?
This is such fun way to introduce the scientific process! Thanks for sharing!
Julie
TheHipTeacher
Thanks so much for the wonderful ideas! I love this new "flip book- All About Me". I love looking at your classroom and the wonderful pictures. How did you make the name tags? Is this for sell on TPT? Thanks so much for sharing!
Maryann
[email protected]
Wow great units! Could you share the cues that were used for the watermelon science? Definitely purchasing some of these units!
Hi Reagan! I'm enjoying reading your blog! I teach out of my home now with kids ranging from ages 5-9. I have three 6 year olds so I pretty much followed your lessons from the first few weeks of school. We enjoyed Watermelon Science so much, I added your link to my blog post http://littlelogcottageschool.com/2015/08/21/first-grade-fridays-weeks-1-2/ Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful ideas!