Author: smartchickteacher

How do various liquids affect the enamel of your teeth?

This is an easy science lab with a WOW result! The students could not believe the damage the liquids caused the egg shells (which represent the enamel of your teeth). The shells protected by a toothpaste covering fared better than those with no toothpaste! Quite the eye opener for Dental Health Month (February)! At the end of the lab, students made posters promoting brushing teeth and displayed them in the halls of the school!

Click on the science lab packet cover for the link to this product!

During a Native American unit in social studies, we made kachina dolls using model magic and various craft supplies. The students then wrote a story about their kachina on a separate sheet of paper. Kachinas are used by Hopi Indians to teach children lessons. We looked on-line and found a lot of pictures of authentic kachinas and we tried to model ours after these.

Happy New Year! Here is the link to a FREE creative writing packet where students create a NEW type of Angry Bird!

Jump on over to Secondary Solutions Blog for the Middle and High School Blog Linky Party! I am sure you will find at least a few more blogs to follow! The blogs included in the linky party are all amazing!

We made these posters on different ecosystems. The students choose vocabulary words to go around the border of the picture. Each word included around the frame had to be drawn inside the picture. They had to include abiotic (never living) and biotic (living or once living) items in their poster. They turned out great! Here is a link to the FREE directions and pics.

We made shadow boxes with items to go with the book, Coraline, by Neil Gaiman. One of my favorites! I got the wooden boxes at the Dollar Tree (for $1 each) and the items I found at Halloween stores, the grocery, etc. The kids had a blast choosing the items to place into their shadow boxes. Once the boxes were done, they had to write an explanation of their choices and each one’s connection to the story!

Try it yourself with a novel you are reading in your classroom!  I may have to do it with another book, the kids loved these so much they only let me display them for a few days!

Ever want to try hosting an Invention Convention at your school or just in your classroom? Here is a FREE journal and guide to this creative and fun project! Click here for the link to this FREE product.

I love to combine the subject areas as much as I can! I created two science labs to use during a study of the Boston Tea Party! The experiments test the eyewitness reports of the time period by testing different types of tea in salt water and fresh water and in different temperatures of water, warm and cold. TRY IT! I think your students will enjoy it and learn a lot about science and social studies in the process! Click here for the FREE labs!

We used some of the pictures and captions of this classic book as an inspiration, we wrote short stories. The only catch: we had to use the caption line somewhere in the story. Some students used it at the beginning, while others used it in other locations! The stories students came up with were great! Click here for a FREE PowerPoint on this great book!  The PowerPoint includes the pictures and captions from the book as well as questions to get students started!

 

We used the light sticks (glow sticks) that you can find almost anywhere at a good price to do some science. It is a great visual of a chemical change. Here is the first lab link, this one is FREE. The second lab examines physical changes by trying different temperatures of water and how the light stick reacts. Here is the link to the second lab.