Rubric

Life Cycle Rubric

 

Georgia Performance Standard
         Grade Level: 2nd Grade
S2L1. Students will investigate the life cycles of different living organisms.
 a. Determine the sequence of the life cycle of common animals in your area: a mammal such as a cat or dog or classroom pet, a bird such as a chicken, an amphibian such as a frog, and an insect such as a butterfly.

Activity:
This project would be completed at the end of a second grade science unit that focused on the life cycles of animals. This unit is technologically infused and students are expected to use one of the following programs in their project:  Microsoft PowerPoint, Animation-ish, Kid-Pix, or students may create a blog to showcase their presentation. Students will work in a group of 3-4 students to show understanding of the life cycle of either a frog or butterfly. Students will include a journal with their presentation to explain how they collected data, reference sources, and make any notes that are important to their presentation.

Life Cycle Rubric






This activity and rubric was developed with the help of the following source:
http://mrsfickenscher.wikispaces.com/OverView-Life+Cycles

Smart Board

Coin Combo

SmartBoard Activity

Georgia Performance Standard
       Grade Level- Kindergarten

MKN1. Students will connect numerals to the quantities they represent.

              h. Identify coins by name and value (penny, nickel, dime, and quarter).
              i. Count out pennies to buy items that together cost less than 30 cents.  Smart Board Activity website: http://www.tvokids.com/games/coincombo

This game would be a great review game to play with the Smart Board at the beginning or ending of a money math lesson. In the game, the computer gives an amount to show with the coins that are "falling" down the screen.  The students have to click on the coins to show they want to use them to make the amount. On the right hand side of the screen there is a timer...so the students have to think quick! As the students go through the game, they can reach different levels where the coin amount grows larger.   This could be done as a whole group, but could also be used as a competition between groups (between tables, boys vs. girls, etc)  As the students sharpened their skills on coins and their amounts, the teacher could instruct the students to use the fewest coins possible to show the amount. Although this is a Kindergarten standard and game, it could be used for remediation in First Grade as well. 

Authentic Instruction

Method of Authentic Instruction: Inductive Method


Standard: 1st Grade Science
S1E2. Students will observe and record changes in water as it relates to weather.
          a. Recognize changes in water when it freezes (ice) and when it melts (water).
          b. Identify forms of precipitation such as rain, snow, sleet, and hailstones as either solid(ice) or liquid (water).
          c. Determine that the weight of water before freezing, after freezing, and after melting stays the same.
          d. Determine that water in an open container disappears into the air over time, but water in a closed container does not.


Students could work through this lesson and set of experiments over a period of 1-2 weeks. The students could come up with a series of questions they want to answer about water and the relationship it has to weather. The students could make a chart of predictions of what they think will happen.  Students could use Microsoft Word and/or Excel to create a chart to show what happens when they freeze water and when it melts.  They could create a chart as well to show what happened to the water.  The chart could show how long it took and the also illustrate what happened. As the students conducted the different experiements with water, they could use a digital camera to document their results. At the end of the experiments, the students could put their pictures and spreadsheets together in a PowerPoint presentation to put all of their results together.  The presentation could also show their predictions chart from the beginning of the week to show which predictions were true and which ones were not true. Using the technology could get the students actively involved in the experiments and give them more "ownership" of what was taking place. They could work together in a group to create the presentation at the end. The technology would also help to reinforce what they learned throughout the lessons.

Web 2.0

Georgia Performance Standard: First Grade Science

S1E2. Students will observe and record changes in water as it relates to weather.

a. Recognize changes in water when it freezes (ice) and when it melts (water).

b. Identify forms of precipitation such as rain, snow, sleet, and hailstones as either solid (ice) or liquid (water).

c. Determine that the weight of water before freezing, after freezing, and after melting stays the same.

d. Determine that water in an open container disappears into the air over time, but water in a closed container does not.

Web 2.0 Tools

http://animoto.com/
Animoto would be a fun and creative tool to show the changes in water as it relates to weather. The teacher and students could take pictures as they do an experiment to ice and water and then turn it into a video to watch. They could also include pictures of different types of weather and precipitation that relate to the stages of water. The video could help to review, or to "put it all together" so students understand the information better.


http://www.weebly.com/
Weebly is a place where students and teachers could create a blog.  An idea to use this along with the standard would be to use the blog as a type of journal to record different types of precipitation. The students could be weather forecasters and add their thoughts to the class blog. The blog could also be used to record what happened during experiments with ice and water as well as evaporation.