Force & Motion Science Unit for Kids! & Freebie!! I'm sooo excited to share this new science unit with you tonight!
Once in a while, I find myself with a piece of curriculum that takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r to create. This was that unit for me! My mind kept spinning into a million directions and at one point, I thought this Force and Motion unit was going to make me motion-sick. It was a labor of love but I could not be more *thrilled* with how it all turned out! I really think you're going to love it -especially your students. :)I created this unit because I had an absolute lack of materials to teach the concepts of force and motion to my first graders.
Below is some, but not all, of the preview pictures from the unit: Click HERE to download the full preview version. :) Thanks so much for letting me share this new unit with you! Happy Learning, Making a-maze-ing marble mazes for the preschool classroom. I made a few marble mazes for my preschoolers to explore during our unit on marbles.
Sometimes, I get in this DIY mode and like to make little games or activities just to add a little extra something fun in the classroom… My students found the mazes set out on the table with a container of marbles when they got to school that day. We also had the Magnetic Marble Tubes I shared about earlier and our Marble Painting that same day… To make the marble maze, I cut up a few colorful straws into pieces and hot glued them into the bottoms and the lids of small gift boxes… The tricky part of this was spacing the straws so the marbles could roll easily between each straw. This is the kind of DIY toy that I set out for the children to explore the first time, and then I leave in a basket in one of my centers for the children to choose from on future days… It was also a good way to use up some of my left-over boxes.
Links to Grow On… Love and Lollipops: Mommy Made Marble Run Game. Two Tape Activities for Kids. Energy Force and Motion. I love teaching the typical Transportation unit, but most K's can sort and classify vehicles according to water, air, and land with little trouble.
Why waste one more second teaching something they already know, or can grasp in one lesson? If you know me you know that if it's not fun and interesting there's little chance for that lesson.... So, my Transportation unit now looks like this... We begin by listening to Greg and Steve's "Listen and Move". Then we read the book, Silly Sally by Audrey Wood and list ways we move on a chart.
Move It Experiment. Google Drive Viewer. Force and Motion Experiment. As students progress through elementary and middle school, their science curriculum tends to double back, repeat and slowly build on the same topics.
This means, many activities can be used with a wide range of student age-groups. Such is the case for this force and motion lab, which I've seen bring out the inner race-car-lover in both 2nd-graders and 6th-graders. Using just a few basic materials, students build tracks and conduct race car experiments to test the effects of increasing the tracks' angle of incline and then the tracks' surface texture on the speed of the cars. We used three of the same toy cars from the dollar store, cardboard boxes, scissors, tape and a ruler. Students will also need something to prop up the tracks. After making their hypotheses about the outcome of the races, students should cut three equal tracks from cardboard. After the test, discuss or have students write about the outcome of the races.
SHAPIN' UP + A FREEBIE TO FLIP OVER. Look out!
Ms. D is on a roll in the blogging department. I figured I better squeeze some extra posts in now to help even out those days I'll miss with all the end of the year chaos coming up. I also promised to tell you about my new pack and bring you a little freebie this weekend, so here I be! For the past two in a half weeks, I have been putting together my 3D Shape Pack. After reviewing/introducing all of the figures pocket chart style, we launch into our Sphere Day. Let me see . . . other ideas in this pack that help the kids conceptualize solid figures?? We always sing Ron Brown's (Intelli-Tunes) solid figure songs too. Well, I promised a freebie today, so I won't drone on anymore. To learn more about my 3D Shape Pack, check out my TPT Shop. Alright friends, I am off to lesson plan for the week.
1stGradeUnitAChp1_2. Science Activities. Science.