Science Labs

This year we've been told we have 40 minutes in our schedule for science every day (this same schedule also builds in no time for transitions, dismissal preparations, or breakfast clean-up). I found an incredible resource for science labs, Inquiry in Action to teach chemistry that includes background readings and lab write-ups and the materials are totally reasonable for a teacher with a limited science budget and/or resource closet. I also created a rubric for lab behaviors since some of our 5th graders thought it was a good idea to eat some of the materials and we had to ban science labs for a couple days ("But, miss! It was salt and sugar!" It was also EPSOM salts, my dear, misguided student).

Scientific Method Book

For science this year, we plan on doing science lab centers. In order to introduce the scientific method, I created a book for students to read at home to review the steps. It's very simple and it's bilingual, so I realize it won't be useful for everyone but it will give our students a quick review some night this week. I created this on a PC and set it to "book fold" under Page Setup and it needs to be printed front to back on the short edge. Also, make sure you download the file instead of just printing from Google Docs! The formatting needs to be in word for everything to line up correctly.