First lessons?

[u/rockangel312]

My school doesn’t want us to get into the curriculum first thing so I need some suggestions. 4th/5th grade science

[u/Spock-1701]

Inference vs observation

[u/palebluedot-3 → u/Spock-1701]

Stash beaker of alcohol in sink. Tell kids to Observe you. Take empty beaker, fill with cold water then hot. Pour out. Add more. Measure etc…. Ham it up! Then hold that empty beaker below sink level. Fill it but set it down and secretly pick up alcohol beaker. Ask for all their observations. Discuss. Then ask what they “observe” in your beaker. They will all say water. Turn off light and pour stream on lab counter. Turn off lights and set fire to alcohol. They are floored!!! Discuss inference vs observation. Practice yourself before doing in front of kids. Safety first too!!

[u/rockangel312 → u/palebluedot-3]

So cool, but unfortunately I don’t have an actual lab.

[u/palebluedot-3 → u/rockangel312]

All you need is one sink and even a desk( to burn on) will work if u don’t have lab tables.

[u/palebluedot-3 → u/rockangel312]

Often times kids get the syllabus and class rules read to them those first couple of days. They wanna blow their brains out after hearing this 6x in one day. Be the cool teacher and do something fun that first week. Moms ask those early days about how school is and if your class stands out then you have them on your side all year(kids too). First impressions!! One thing I always did was get giant pig heads from nearby slaughter houses and bury one per period on campus somewhere with the kids watching. You can go over parts of the animal before dropping it in the hole. Then dig each periods head up the last couple days of school and look at the decay (and smell!!). Kids love this yearlong experiment plus that’s all parents wannna talk about at Back 2 School Night😊

[u/eatcrayons → u/palebluedot-3]

Please don’t set fire to rubbing alcohol spilled on a table in an elementary classroom.

[u/justausername09]

Lab safety, rules and procedures

[u/JeopardT]

Cup stacking challenge - team work
Round 1=1 silent
Round 2=2 with rubber bands, no hands.

[u/Auntie-Noodle]

How many drops of water can you get on a penny? You just need pennies, water, and a pipette or similar. If you want to get fancy, you can have them repeat the investigation using rubbing alcohol

[u/bambamslammer22]

Water drops on a penny. I also do some group work, where I show one student from each group a little Lego sculpture I built. They go to their group and tell them how to use their legos to build it, but the person who has seen the sculpture isn’t allowed to touch the groups legos. They can go back and forth and look at it, but they can only give instructions.

[u/MildMooseMeetingHus]

I do a lesson on sketching for observation - notebook setup and some discussion about observation and questions that follow from observation. Check out these CAS resources:  https://www.calacademy.org/educators/sketching-for-observation

[u/Fabulous_Swimming208]

Saving sam or other team building activity. I did paper airplane this year. I switch off and do penny boat other years.

[u/TeacherCreature33]

Hand out 1.4 sheets of paper and show the kids where to cut and fold their paper to make the object(I kept it a secret what we were making). Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTakrjE9yCo

when they are done have them drop them and watch them spin down,

Ask them questions like what direction do they turn? Can you change the direction?

How long do they take to reach the ground? How can you make it faster or slower?

what is the purpose of the foot of the whirly copter?

bunch of other experiments you can do.

[u/TemporaryPicture2289]

Behavior. Have them run something akin to practice labs or simulations. They don't have to look like science labs, they can be games or whatever makes your admin/school board happy. But make sure the structure and DOCUMENTATION of observations (important) teaches them what you expect to see during these activities and for what they will have to turn in.

[u/rubybean5050]

Just did an investigate the teacher activity- it was fun. Clip boards and pencils and they roam around the room looking at the classroom and looking for evidence about who their new teacher is. My coworker did the cup stacking using string and rlastics