5th Grade Science

Spiral review. When I think about spiraling through skills, math is the first thing that comes to mind. But daily review isn’t just for math, it can also be very powerful for science! Students need repetition and multiple opportunities to engage with content and vocabulary if we want them to hold onto the concepts we are teaching. Here’s an idea for adding a little spiral review to your science routine.

Give students a copy of this recording sheet. It’s free to download, just click here. There are 5 spaces, one for each day of the week.
Display a photo of matter. This can be anything! Just do a Google search and show a photo of salt, copper pennies, an iron nail, a helium balloon, a wood popsicle stick, a plastic fork, etc.
Let students talk with a partner and fill out the chart for that type of matter, discussing magnetism, physical state, relative density, solubility, and conductivity.
Finally, share and discuss as a class, having students make corrections on their chart.

If you don’t want to make copies, you can just make an anchor chart with the questions and have students create the chart on a sheet of notebook paper or in their notebooks. My suggestion is to have them do this in their science notebooks for 2 weeks straight. Then, once a week for a while. I think if you did this every day, all year long, it would get old really fast! Something like this–

Go forth and teach science!

–The Pensive Sloth

Here comes a shameless plug…If you are interested in a version of this that includes 30 slides of different “matter,” a teacher answer key, and several recording sheet options, you’re in luck! I’ve got one at TPT and you can find it HERE. There’s also a challenge question on each slide to get students thinking, and a version of slides as task cards so you can put it in a science station.

It’s time for another Shut Up and Take My Money–Teacher Style post because there are so many cool things in the world you just have to get for your classroom!

If you’re a elementary science teacher, then you know that SPRING means Life Science and your classroom is hopping with critters and plants. Ours is literally hopping with crickets that were supposed to make it into the eco-columns, but that’s another story! Well, the other day I was watching TV and saw a commercial for something called the “Tickle Me Plant.” The official name is Mimosa Pudica, but some people call it the sensitive plant or shy plant. What really struck me about this plant was that I knew it would be a hit with students…and might just help them to learn a little about plant adaptations. Basically, when the plant is touched, the leaves drop and it kind of looks like the plant is dying, but it’s not! Wait a little while and the plant will be back to normal again. Here’s a quick video so you can see for yourself:

Then tonight, while shopping at Michaels, I accidentally discovered an aisle filled with cool science toys and there it was! The Amazing Moving Plant (Mimosa Pudica). And on sale! I’m planning to set it up and let it sprout at home before introducing it to students so that when I take it to school, it is ready to wow them with its adaptation of ‘playing dead’ when disturbed. Here’s a few other plants with cool adaptations I plan to show my students. We might even do a little research!

I’ll let you know how it goes! For more Just Take My Money–Teacher Style, you can read about Circuit Scribe and how your students can DRAW working electrical circuits.

–The Pensive Sloth

***NOTE–I was NOT paid and am not affiliated with any of the above groups. I’m just a teacher-consumer interested in new tools to make learning fun for my students!***

UPDATE–The kids LOVED this! It took some time for the seeds to sprout, and only about half of them did, but they really enjoyed watching them grow. Unfortunately, we planted them so late in the year that we didn’t really get to enjoy the plants before the summer break. I sent the plants home with a student. I’d love to know if they’re still alive. Let’s hope they remembered to water them!