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Elementary Science

Tips for Classrooms Lacking Science

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Shayna Volk Shayna Volk 190 Points

I am currently pre-service teacher studying elementary education. I've noticed the lack of science being taught in classrooms with younger students. I've learned that there's not a huge emphasis on science because of students still struggling to read and write, so most lessons are geared toward that. I feel science so important to incorporate in the classroom as science is happening all around us. I'm just curious on what would be the best ways to incorporate more science into the classroom while still helping students in reading and writing? Or ways to help promote a higher emphasis on science in classrooms where most of the focus is on reading, writing, and math?

Stephanie Gomez Stephanie Gomez 390 Points

I am in a similar situation.  What I have done n the past is to have my students watch a science documentary.  I check them out at my local library.  I go for the ones that are about 30 minutes long and geared towards kids.  This often leads to doing on our online reaesrch to find out more pictures or examples.  That leads to filling out graphic organizers, journal prompts, and writing topics.  My writing propmpts can be silly (such as You are a comet, describe yourself and what you do), but that's because I am open to what the topics are since I am focuing on writing skills and the writing process.

Another example:  We watched a documentary on mammals.  The students wrote about a mammal without saying what it is called.  Then the students took turns reading their paragraph's and the rest of the class would guess which mammal was being described.

Sarah Smith Sarah Smith 35 Points

The idea of using documentaries and writing activites geared towards them is a great one. I help out in a third grade classroom and work with a reading specialist this year, and many of the students are struggling to read and are working on standardized-style passages and analytical questions every day. In the passages that they read, we include stories that involve science related concepts. One example of this is our story we used on thunder and lightening. The kids read the passage, which even included how to calculate how far away lightening is, and answer questions that involve both an understanding of the story, why the author included such details, etc. We additoionally look up pictures as we read and provide sciencetific discussion. 

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