2 Weeks of Matter Ideas and a Giveaway!

To introduce a new topic I love doing an exploratory activity where the kids really have to use their critical thinking skills.  This type of activity can also serve as a pre-assessment.  You can check out my States of Matter pack by clicking the images below!

After doing the introductory activity above, I used a variety of solid and liquid matter picture cards and we talked more about physical properties of matter.  I had each of them choose three pieces of matter and then describe them using each of their five senses.  This was not only moving forward, but also a good review!

The goal was to just see how the children sorted the cards.  They should have been solids, liquids, and gases. These cards and many other goodies can be found in Sheila Melton's store by clicking on one of the pictures.  After discussing how each group sorted the cards we read a passage from K12reader.com about the three states of matter.

On the back of the passage from K12reader.com I copied my molecules in matter page and we used dot stickers and wrote generalizations about each state of matter...it was a nice tie to the passage on the front!

The next step to studying matter was discussing mass.  I gave each child a baggie and had them bring one solid from home that would fit in the baggie.  We then weighed our items on the balance scale and wrote down how many grams were in our items.  Sorry, I didn't snap a picture of this activity....all I can say is 100% engagement!  The kids LOVED using their own items and the balance scale!  Afterwards, I mixed up the papers and passed them back out the next day and we came up with conclusions about the mass of each object.

After mass we moved on to volume!  We discussed what volume was and experimented with volume of a liquid and volume of a container. 

 I was surprised to see that many of the kids still thought the taller container was holding the most amount of water.  There were some good conversations as we decided which one may or may not have the most water.  Afterwards, we used a measuring cup and found that they all approximately 250 ML of water.  This was also a good review of liquids taking the shape of their containers.  

Anything using water is super motivating for kids of any age!!

For solid volume we incorporated solids and containers.  The learning target was for each child to understand that a container's volume is fixed.  It doesn't change no matter what product is placed inside it.  We used dirt, beans, bird seed, and grass seed.  We also took it a step further and put each container on the balance scale to see the relationship between volume and mass.  The volume can be the same, while the mass can be more or less.  These recording sheets can be found in my States of Matter pack.

 Volume of a solid was a great tie to math!  We talked about the difference between 2D and 3D measuring when you have to include the LxWxH.  There was A LOT of deep thinking going on here because they kids kept wanting to turn the boxes in all different directions.  We made sure to point out that the height meant how tall, the width meant how wide, and the length was always along the bottom.  We did not actually calculate the volumes as this was an introductory activity to finding volume.

Lastly, I had to do this soda can experiment I found on pinterest.  It was a great way to culminate mass and volume and how their relationship creates density.  Which in turn was a great review of why some small things sink and some big things float.  Once again this simple recording sheet is in my States of Matter pack.

We briefly read about mixtures and solutions in our text and then decided to make scarecrow crunch and pumpkin punch!  I made a recording booklet to go along with it!  I have added it to my States of Matter pack as well!  One thing we did to help make our graphs was take out all the broken pieces and only keep the whole pieces...if not some kids would have had WAY too many pieces.

We really didn't have near enough time for physical and chemical changes.  There were so many fun pinterest experiments learning experiences we just couldn't find time to do.  Study Jams helped us out on this one to get a lot of information in a short time.  I used this cut and paste to do a little assessment which is FREE from More Time 2 Teach.  Just click the image to grab it!

Just for making it all the way down here, enter below for a chance to win a copy of my States of Matter Pack valued at $5!

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Jungle Learners Product Swap

One of my most favorite things about finally taking the leap and creating my own blog is getting closer to all the amazing teachers/blog authors out there!  When I saw the opportunity to be a part of this product swap I jumped on board!  A big thank-you to Melissa at Jungle Learners for hosting!  Click the image below to go back to her page!

My swap partner was Beth from Taming My Flock of Firsties!  Click her button to visit her blog!

I asked Beth some questions to get to know one another and I was surprised at how similar we are!  I would have picked those exact same 5 words for me!  Read below to learn more about Beth!

How did you get into teaching and when/how did you make the decision to be a teacher?

Beth: "I have always wanted to be a teacher.  My aunt was my biggest influence.  She started teaching the  year I was born and retired the year I began. :)  I remember going into her classroom in August to set up.  There is nothing like the smell of a fresh classroom in August.  There was no other decision for me."

What is your favorite thing to teach and why?

Beth: "I love to teach reading.  When those eyes brighten when my firsties figure out a word...priceless."

Describe your personality with 5 words?

Spunky, Creative, Fun, Caring, and Energetic

I was happy to try out an activity from her It's Still Winter Math Common Core Pack!  

It was actually our 100th day of school this past week so her hidden penguin guessing game was perfect for a fun math game to integrate 100!

This pack covers so many common core standards and I love how it can be used for your highest kids and the low ones too!  Another benefit was a lot of the activities went to 120 rather than just 100!  Included in the pack are activities to practice comparing numbers with < , >, and = , deciding if equations are true or false, working on place value with tens and ones, measuring, and time!  It has everything you need to review a ton of math concepts in a fun, winter way!

The BEST part is we are giving away this amazing pack - just enter the rafflecopter below!

If you have time please head on over to her blog to enter for a chance to win my Common and Proper Noun PPT and Printables!  It will be on sale for $2.00 until Tuesday, Feb. 3rd!!

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100th Day and Product Swap Spoiler

I did it! I survived the 100th day!  Now that I teach first, after two years in K, I thought, oh this will be a breeze........ WRONG!  Like always, I didn't anticipate things would take as long as they did and we didn't complete everything 100% but we all learned a lot and had a fun day.  But, I am so tired...I felt like I talked all day, explaining the different activities and facilitating.  

Our morning work consisted of this fun word search from I HAVE NO IDEA....I looked everywhere to find where I got this from. If you know please let me know so I can give credit!  It was super cute and fun for a different morning work!  I compiled the 100th Day of School packet for each of the students from Four-Eyes Learning Factory! The kids also wrote 100 words - I was actually the most surprised by this activity at how INDEPENDENT the kids were with this.  I let them work with a partner but they just went and did it, using names, sight words, and searching the room...it was so classroom peaceful!

We kept the timer going every 100 minutes and did a brain break!  

Every year it is fun to do the 100 piece puzzles! 

By far my most favorite activity today was the "100 Years Old."  Truthfully, it wasn't even the hilarious pictures of all my kiddos looking elderly, but the AMAZING job they did on the writing.  They all really were creative and unique.  I was surprised at how much they knew about old people.  I made it easy and put a prompt on the board and went through each sentence discussing good words to fill in the blanks.

I had each kid also bring in 100 items and we examined our items using math, science, and literacy with my 100 Day of School Collection Book

I asked around school for the rubber tape measures that were at least 120" and put the kids into groups so each group could have their own tape measure.

We then weighed our items with nonstandard measurement using bears.  There is also a page for this in my 100 Day Collection Book I just didn't snag a picture.  We are blessed to have multiple scales so each group could have their own.

We also worked with a 120's chart from Beth Kempf at Taming My Flock of Firsties.  Come back and visit my blog on Saturday, January 31st to try and win her amazing packet that this comes from.... 

It's Still Winter Math Common Core