Scientific Skills

Students recall their times at the sea by looking at sea shells in an effort to look toward the summer. Sorting objects and living things is essential for scientists and these two trade boo... See More

Students recall their times at the sea by looking at sea shells in an effort to look toward the summer. Sorting objects and living things is essential for scientists and these two trade books focus on that concept. The two activities provided address the concept of making observations and sorting shells. The first for grades K-3 is an observational activity and the second lesson for grades 4-6 is a traditional sorting shell activity. Both will be a good activity to introduce skills scientists need.

Process skills

I used part of this activity in my fourth grade classes. The section for intermediate did not match my benchmarks; but, the k-3 section did. I used the activities there to practice process... See More

I used part of this activity in my fourth grade classes. The section for intermediate did not match my benchmarks; but, the k-3 section did. I used the activities there to practice process skills in the beginning of the school year. IT was a great way to set up the students for working in their science notebooks. It covers the process skills of observing, measuring, classifying and communicating. I added an additional component to the activities. As a follow-up activity the following day, each group was given shells that were in the same category. The shells looked pretty similar. They were then asked to act like a scientist and use the process skills they practiced yesterday to set their shell apart from the others at the table. After approximately 10 minutes had elapsed ( I waited until most were done.) they had to return the shells to the center of their group. Teams rotated to another teams table and tried to match shells to the ones measured and drawn in the spirals. If they had difficulty, they were to leave post-its with a comment or a questions. When we debriefed afterwards, the conversations were powerful. Students reflected in their notebooks. I used this activity as an informal assessment of their understanding of the precision needed in notebook journaling.