Baby It's Cold Outside!

...not really! It's been about 65 degrees or warmer the last few days, which is about 20 or more degrees than our average -not your typical NJ November!

On to the topic of this post: teaching about warm and cold bloodedness!

This is another one of those science topics that I always got frustrated with because all I could really do was have my students make predictions and then have them do research or tell them which animal groups were cold-blooded and which were warm-blooded. There really wasn't anything past the knowledge part of Bloom's Taxonomy, and certainly no inquiry. I wanted my students to at least be able to explain how scientists prove how they know which animals have body temperatures that remain constant or change temperature according to their environment.

First I read The Magic School Bus Gets Cold Feet  to my students. They began to form a definition of what the two terms meant, which animals were cold-blooded, and which were warm-blooded. We used the Scholastic lesson plan and lab sheet that went along with the book. Click here to download it.

Then I came across The Infared Zoo at Cool Cosmos, a website created by the California Institute of Technology. It shows students infared images of different animals taken at a teaching zoo. These pictures show a lizard - and how its body temperature has changed over time. Students use the color key to determine an estimate of the body temperature of the animal and discuss why they think each part would be warmer or colder, or what could cause an animal's temperature to drop or rise rather than staying constant.

Click the logo to visit the site!

Check out lesson plans that go with the site!

Check out my animal classification post here.

Animal Classification

Most of the time, when we teach children how to classify animals, we talk about their body coverings. But there's so much more to it than that! I found this great site that teaches students how to tell the difference between animal classes (resist the urge to say "Groups") and also gives them a fun computer game to play. It's also interactive board-friendly so I put it up on my Promethean Board. Please note that the site only covers animals that are vertebrates. Enjoy! 

Click here or on the picture to play the Animal Classification Game!

Check out other animal websites that I have compiled.

Check out my post on classifying animals as vertebrates and invertebrates!

What's inside animals?

Teaching Kids about Vertebrates and Invertebrates

I just had to share this great product that I came across last year while teaching science lab. I always struggled with how to teach students to identify animals as vertebrates or invertebrates. I wanted to go past the knowledge part of Bloom's so that kids knew more than just the difference between the two and the purpose for backbones. I found a product called What's Inside Animals?

It's available in a lot of places, including Amazon. I got mine for about $30, but right now they are on sale. All students have to do is hold a card with the picture facing them and the back facing a light source. They can see a backbone through the picture! Here are some pictures of my students using them:

I found that they work best when you use a flashlight shined behind them in a dark room, but you can also hold them up to a ceiling light source!

I also use www.eskeletons.org, a site from the University of Texas at Austin. It allows students to compare skeletons of mammals while learning about animal classification. It can also be used in an evolution discussion.

The vocabulary is advanced, but trust me I did this with second and third graders and they loved it! They were able to compare and contrast the bones and started naming the body parts!

Check out another post on dinosaur bones and fossils here.

The Harvest Birds

One of our upcoming reading stories is called The Harvest Birds.

The story is about Juan Zanate, the youngest of three Mexican boys in a family. When Juan's father dies, he leaves his land to his two eldest sons. Juan gets his turn to work a small piece of land given to him by an old man in town, and becomes much more successful than his brothers with the help of zanate birds. Juan learns a lesson of patience, hard work, and the importance of working with nature as he makes his dream of becoming a farmer and land owner come true. 

video of a zanate bird

In celebration of the harvest, we created these scarecrow glyphs. Students had to color according to the directions and we soon found that no two scarecrows were identical, just as no two students are exactly the same! I used a scarecrow and fake fall leaves for the bulletin board border.

Download a glyph with a scarecrow pattern and directions here. Download glyphs here or here.

For more Harvest Birds Activities, check out my class website!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving! I really love this holiday because it's the one of the few holidays that people don't give gifts and most people a huge effort to spend it with family.

This morning we made these simple turkeys using Scholastic Book orders (why do they send like 4 of the same catalog?!?) folded accordion style. 

Students just color and cut the turkey out, then staple the legs to the bottom and the hat to the "feathers" and you're done. Use two pages if you want the feathers to be fuller than ours.

We also made these cornucopias. Students wrote what they were thankful for inside, then glued their writing to a piece of paper along with fruits and vegetables they colored and cut out.

A student I tutor also did this in his class...and the first thing he wrote he was thankful for was "Ms. Battista helping me with math" - oh how that warmed my heart!

 I am thankful for my amazing friends, family, and students. Life is great! :)