Science Prop Box

This book would show children that twister is another name that tornadoes go by. This is a non-fiction book that gives real facts, and explains what the National Weather Service does for and about Tornadoes.

This is also a non-fiction book, it has first person narratives of experiencing a tornado.  This book has actual news reports and survivor stories. 

This book explains the cause behind the earths weather but at a children's level.  The book has more information about other natural disasters as well, so it could lead into other lessons.

Mini Tornado

The above link is where I got the idea for my lesson.

The materials  needed are two two-liter bottles, duct tape, glitter, food coloring, and water.  

The students would prepare the one soda bottle by taking the label off the bottle.  Then in the one bottle they would fill it with water, a couple drops of food coloring and glitter.  Then, with the help of their partner, use duct tape to attach the other bottle to the top. Then as they take turns flipping the bottle upside down and then right side up they can watch the tornado form.  The glitter helps show the different debris that would be in tornado.  

Additional Resources:

Tornado Video on National Geographic

Weather Wiz Kids This website tells more information about Tornadoes. It has information on how they form, what they look like and other interesting facts!

Fun Facts This website has more facts about Tornadoes for students to learn.

Night of the Twister By: Ivy Ruckman 

Tornadoes By: Seymour Simon 

Science Websites

Tot Treasures On this website, students can find the process of making their own slime!  There are other fun messy activities for the students to participate in.  There are different activities that are also sensory based so if a student needed a more sensory approach.

Peeps! On this blog, it is about a Mom of 2 little divas and the different activities they do.  The one I found the most interesting was the Peeps, disintegrating in the different liquids.  They use a variety of different liquids like vinegar, soda, and apple juice.

Holly's Arts and Crafts Corner On this blog students can find a fun activity about clouds.  It can get a little messy, but it is definitely hands on!  It involves shaving cream, a mason jar, and liquid water colors.  The students get to watch the process of the clouds becoming full of moisture and then precipitating.

Earthquake On this website, students can learn about earthquakes and how earthquake waves travel through different materials.  They will also find information about the rock cycle, and planet earth.  There is also a section that is full of different science activities

Color Changing Milk At this website students can find an activity to make milk change color.  What happens when you mix milk, soap and food coloring? Students will find out as they go through the activity on this website!

Solid, Liquid, Solid  At this website students will be able to learn the different phases of matter, as the crayons start as a solid, melt to a liquid and change back into a solid.

Classroom Collective  This website has a ton of different science lesson activities to go off of.  There is needs of living things, movement, and flight just to name a few. The lessons are hands on and have pictures for teachers to look at so that they have an idea of what they're classroom should look like.

 Little Miss Hypothesis On this blog, there are different lesson ideas and pictures for each one so there is an example to follow.  Some examples of lessons are Earth Day, and paper hats from newspaper.  There are different graphic organizers posted on there as well so teachers would be able to use them as well.

Magnetic This blog has an activity with different magnets and what is magnetic. Some of the items attract to the magnets and others repel and having the items in a bottle will really show this to the students.

Digestive System This website is all about inside your body!  They learn about the different rumbles in their body, their saliva, chewing and enzymes.  Each of these things is a different activity for the students to participate in and learn from.

Science Lesson Plans

Rock & Roll This lesson plan would be good for 1st grade, and it's focus is rocks.  The students will predict what they think will happen to the rocks, describe, observe and record changes in the rocks, and apply their learning by describing forces that break down and wear away rocks.  This lesson involves taking a rock outside and smashing it and then running water over it to see the changes.

Weather Patterns In this lesson students learn how weather changes from day to day.  This lesson could be used for grades k-2nd.  Students will construct bar graphs, and keep daily records of the days temperatures, precipitation, and wind.  This lesson would take about a week to do in a classroom so the students had a weeks worth of data to understand.

Seasons change the Weather In this lesson plan students discover how the weather changes with the seasons.  This lesson is a follow up lesson, or part two lesson, for Weather Patterns, and so it can also be used for grades k-2.  In this lesson, students will identify the different patterns of weather within the different seasons.  To do this the teacher could ask them questions like, "If we were taking these observations in September, how would they differ from the ones we take in February?"

Volcanoes!! In this lesson, students not only learn about volcanoes but actually make ones themselves!  The students will learn how different things like volcanoes change the earths surface, as well as when the volcano itself explodes, how it's shape changes.  Students would be placed in groups of 5-6 and have 2 student activity sheets to fill out during this whole process.

Quite like an Egg In this lesson students learn about the importance of eggs, like the fact that they are packed with protein and have a good source of Vitamin A, D, and B.  To do this lesson you would need different kinds of chicken eggs, so brown and white, as well as either a tape measure or some string and a ruler.  While reading the book with this lesson students learn different facts about eggs and will eventually draw pictures of the different eggs and be able to explain the differences.

Wave Maker In this lesson students will make models of waves using two different methods.  Start by having them think about their past experiences with waves and  ask if they can study waves in the classroom.  Students will need to think of ways to create waves in the classroom with the given materials-pan and water. Then the students will be given bottles, oil, food coloring, and water and have to make waves this way and then compare the differences.

Dinosaurs In this lesson students will learn about dinosaurs; who studies them, what happened to them, how did they survive when they were alive, and what did they eat?  Then the students can paint dinosaur eggs, make a claw from cardboard and other manipulatives, and play dinosaur bingo with their newly learned facts!

Hay Day! With this lesson, students will make their very own farm!  The students would need Lego's  Duplo's, or other building materials, little figurines, to represent their farm.  To begin you should ask them questions about farms using their prior knowledge.  As a pair, the students will need to construct their farm to look how they want it to, and then hand out the farm animals so they can place them where they belong.

Blast Off! With this lesson students will design and build their own spaceship, satellite, or their own space station.  Their should be an example of either one, or each of the students options so they have an idea of where to start or what theirs should sort of resemble.  The students would need to work in pairs and decide what they want to build and what they want to build it out of, and once complete share them with the classroom.

Earthquake! This lesson plan teaches students how important it is to have an evacuation, or safety plan in times of danger.  The students are to pretend that an earthquake just hit and they have to help save the people from the damage that was caused.  There are questions that the students should be able to answer with this lesson like: "What might you use to clear the rubble on the road?"  Due to the questions, the students will have to keep everything in mind while making a plan to save the people.

"Good Reads" Science Books for Children

Backyard Biology By:Donna Latham

This book has 25 different projects that students who lived anywhere could do own their own.  With this book, it wouldn't matter if you taught in a rural, urban or suburban area, the students would be able to participate.  Students will learn about adaptation, what things are made of, and how their actions could possibly harm living things around them, as well as many other topics.  

Alex the Parrot By: Stephanie Spinner

This is a cute story about how Irene Pepperberg, purchased an African Grey, Alex, to study him.  While studying him Alex learns how to do many amazing things like count, add & subtract, and speak.  This book teaches children not to underestimate others and teaches about intelligence.  Alex proves Irene and the other scientists wrong, who think he is just a "bird brain", and shows them that he is really intelligent.

Get the Scoop on Animal Poop! By: Dawn Cusick

This book has 251 fascinating facts about poop, and its different names!  This book will teach children facts about poop that they never would have thought of, but it will keep them entertained.  The book teaches children how animals use poop and even shows pictures of the animals in the act!  It tells how some animals use it to build houses, while other animals eat it!  But, pooping is an all natural process and it would help show that everyone poops.

Ladybugs By: Gail Gibbons

While reading this book students learn that there are over 5000 different kinds of ladybugs!  The book tells of the different developmental stages that the bugs go through and tells of how they live their lives.  Students will learn what ladybugs eat, where they live and all the while enjoy the amazing illustrations.  

Waiting for Ice By: Sandra Markle

This is a story about a baby polar bear cub who becomes orphaned and has to take care of herself without her mother.  The story talks about Global Warming which might be an overreaching topic but this book would be good for grades 1-3.  The illustrations are fantastic and the writer really paints a picture with her word choice as well and sets the reader up for an enjoyable read as they travel along with Tuff, the polar bear this story is about.

The Beetle Book By: Steve Jenkins

Did you know that there are over 350,00 different species of beetles?  After reading this book, a student would be able to tell you that.  Another amazing fact that they will learn is that 1 out of every 4 living things, is a beetle!  This book takes students through the amazing facts, as well as discusses the different adaptations beetles have to go through to survive.  This book would be a great book for grades 3-5, but all the way down to pre-school would be able to enjoy this book.

Eco Dogs By: Judith Stamper

This book expands childrens' view of service dogs to not only include police dogs but to also include scientific dogs.  In this story, the dogs help to locate endangered species and help find poachers of animals!  This story could lead into a research project on endangered species and learning more about poachers.  This book would help to show students that everyone, and everything has its purpose and we can all do something to help the environment. 

Butterflies By: Seymour Simon

This book goes through different butterflies and close up pictures of them as well as different facts about them.  This book could work for grades K-5, and is very informative.  This book is non-fiction, so everything the students learn about will be correct and they will not have learned false information. This would be a great book to begin a butterfly unit with or even to begin talking about migration because that is mentioned in the book as well! What's really neat about this book is at the end there is a glossary of different vocabulary words that a teacher may want to go over.  

Even an Octopus Needs a Home By: Irene Kelly

This book would be a great way to start a unit on habitats.  It goes through different places that different animals live and how that works for them.  This book would be good for 2nd grade and older and has really neat illustrations.  This book illustrates the different adaptations an animal would need to make to help them survive.  

Time for a Bath By: Steve Jenkins and Robin Page

This book goes through different animals and how and where they like to take baths.  This would be a good book for K-2, and would be a good book to use if you wanted to talk about personal hygiene because even animals clean themselves!  Animals take baths in different ways, just like some people shower and some take baths, so this would be an authentic way to show that it's okay to do things differently.  A really neat part about this book is that at the back of the book there is a section that goes into more detail about the techniques shown in the book!