Scientific Saturdays: It's All Greek(and Latin) To Me!

One of the standards I taught as an ELA fourth grade teacher was the roots of words.  Now that I am a fifth grade math and science teacher I use roots to introduce many vocabulary words.  Let's be honest...I still rely on roots to break apart academic words that I don't know or have to differentiate like geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere.

I purchased a unit several years ago on TPT and recently stumbled across it again on  Pinterest.  I was thrilled to find out that the product had been updated, and now includes more science and math roots. I love that you can download purchased products for free on TPT.  This was exactly what I needed for a new bulletin board in my room.  The best part was that I already owned it!!!  I linked the product below.

Link to TPT

Here are samples of math and science roots.

I just finished printing out a bunch of roots(three cards on a page) and made a title.  I plan to laminate them all next.

 I want to introduce one math and science root each week to get started.  ( I might do it by units once I get going)  I will also add a root page in my science and math notebooks for the kids to write down the words we learn.

I uploaded my bulletin board title.  You can download it for free with the link below.

Link



Check out an old post Getting to the Root
for ideas that I have used in the past!

Postcards from Space

My students created postcards from Space as one of their last projects in Science.  They got to pick a topic of their choice and had to incorporate facts that they learned in a postcard letter.  This project could be used for any subject.  I created a new postcard template that you can download to use in your own class.  They had a rubric that included points for front cover, letter with facts, correct address and a stamp.  I encourage creativity!

Click for Download

Animal Adaptations & Moby Max Give Away

Thank you Mr. Keating!!!!

Our fifth grade classes got to spend some time this week with our seventh grade life science teacher, Mr. Keating. The students loved visiting his lab and learning about adaptations of birds and other animals.  He shared his life experiences and expertise in his field.  The "hands-on" workshop allowed my students to see how beaks and other bird parts allow for survival.   He also shared other adaptations.  The children enjoyed his collection of live animals.  

I want to be a seventh grader and learn from this motivating teacher!  Thanks to Mrs. Lewis(teacher) and our school administration for allowing the fifth graders to tap into our school resources.

 

Here is a freebie that I created for my students to use in class.  I have photo cards from Creative Teaching Press(I found a link online of the cards) that I purchased. This sheet could be used with any photo/resource.  I found photo cards of beaks that would be another option.  I used Animal Planets Top 10 Adaptations to make my sample.

Link

Link

Link to Free Cards 

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Moby Max is a complete curriculum for grades K-8.  Please visit the website to see all that it has to offer you and your students.  Read about my Review.

Moby Max has offered to donate a one year professional license for one lucky teacher and classroom.  You can enter below: 

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Food Chain "Chains"

My two fifth grade classes have been studying animals for the past few weeks.  I assigned a project for them to create a food chain of a biome using the sun, producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer and decomposer.

My students could use the sheets and materials that I provided or be creative and use their own.  I love to see what ideas the kids come up with.  I had a few students create chains for the six major biomes that we studied.