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Help! At the school I teach at, Science is only an elective that my 1st graders go to ONCE a week. Does anyone have any integrated and engaging ideas that I could use during regular instruction? As most teachers experience, time is precious, but it is vital that I pique students interest now before that window of opportunity closes. I want them to learn and I want them to be curious and explore more outside of class rather than be sedentary in front of their televisions or gaming devices..

We have the same issue at my school. The students go to "Science Lab" once every two weeks. I feel that this is the only science instruction that they are getting and it is not enough. We are having the same issue with Social Studies and running out of time to teach it in the classroom. I feel that we need to teach more integrated lessons between the subject areas. That way, at least students will have some background with all of the subjects.

You could integrate science with other subject areas such as for a math lesson use links to measure various things outside in nature. For writing the student could write about the life cycle of the butterfly. You could use common words used in science as spelling or vocabulary words. When reading to students you could use books that are related to science. Below is a link that I found and it has a few ideas about integrating science across the curriculum. There are sample lesson that could be useful as well. https://www.y4y.ed.gov/toolkits/afterschool/science/integrating-science-across-curriculum

I also think that you should try to integrate science into another subject such as into a reading or writing block. There are lots of great science trade books that you could incorporate to teach science and reading.

I would definitely talk with the science specialist/teacher who meets with your students in the weekly class. Find out what topics are being studied so that you can reinforce or extend them with all of the good ideas that are being shared--books, learning centers, activities, etc. For example, if the science topic is plant growth, then your readings and activities could include that topic (plants, gardens, farming, etc). I suspect that the science teacher is also frustrated by the constraints of once per week, and I would hope that he/she would be excited to have you supplement the science activities. He/she may also have suggestions for related interdisciplinary activities and resources for your classroom. This could be the start of a great opportunity for your students.

As others have already said, you can integrate science into any other subject. For example, you can do a reading and writing lesson on weather and follow it up with a math lesson by having student collect rain samples and measuring how much rain was collected.

The is the first that I hear of science being just an elective in a school. Science is a subject that rarely is given time in the classroom and now that I hear this, it makes me wonder if science will be seen as important anymore. I hope you find what you are looking for and that you find the resources that you need, I definitely believe that reading can be a great key to keeping science alive!

Integrating science into math, reading science books, creating a station during center time, encouraging them to do experiments at home

Integration would be very important, you just have to make sure you do it right. Besides integrating science into things like math and reading, I have also seen it integrated into social studies very well. Take the opportunity to do things outside as often as possible and as someone above me said, use the Magic School Bus when it fits into any other subject as well. Since science is an elective, I take it health it as well? Or is that not addressed at all?

Things like nature walks and 10 minute activities that build on each other over weeks would be easy and relatively unobtrusive to the other subjects you have to teach during the day.

Wow! There are some great resources here! I agree with the other posts; incorporating science is a must if it is an elective at your school. Science is only taught once a week for an hour at my school, so as others have stated, we incorporate science into reading, writing, and sometimes even math!