engaging activities Archives - Ciera Harris Teaching

How to use Science Smash Ups in your Classroom.

January 4, 2023October 13, 2022 by Meliss Seideman

Whenever searching for a new resource, it can seem daunting to figure out HOW to use it. For instance, how do you take the product and complete everything within your schedule? Or, how do you meet the needs of students when the product creator does not know your class? Honestly, these are all great questions to have! You care about your students and want to make sure you are giving them the best education possible. Luckily, this guide will help you understand exactly how to use the Science Smash Ups in your classroom!

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Explore the Week at a Glance Guide

The teacher guide of each Science Smash Ups has a Week-at-a-Glance sample to show how this product fits your schedule. Everything is adaptable to fit the needs of your classroom! Thankfully, this is the case for every Science Smash Up series offering!

Students complete a video warm-up on the first day to build engagement. Then, they complete an inquiry activity to help them think about the current topic. After this, they will dive into essential vocabulary words. This will be followed up with a reading and activity page to help students deepen their understanding of the topic. Students will complete the day with a journal response to show their current thoughts.

Days 2 through 4 follow a similar framework. They will all begin with a close read warm-up to help students recall the science topic. Then, they will complete a vocabulary activity followed by a reading and activity page. These are great ways to learn new words and build comprehension! Days 2 and 4 will focus on a lab experiment to bring the content to life. On day 3, there is a video clip to deepen understanding of the lab. This helps students reflect on what they did the day before while preparing for a new lab. Students will then complete an exit ticket or journal response to show their learning.

Day 5 is the perfect time to check for understanding. After a close reading warm-up, students will take a vocabulary assessment. Then, they will complete a review game before taking their final assessment.

Are you overwhelmed reading how much students will work on each day? That’s okay if you are! Do NOT let this discourage you. This plan is if you were to use ALL of the materials. If you do not have enough time to do that, pick the items that best fit your classroom.

Using Science Smash Ups in Reading Class

After exploring the entire Week-at-a-Glance, it is time to see how the product fits your schedule. Yes, there is no doubt about it- it can fit! For instance, if you don’t have enough time to use everything, you can use the materials in JUST reading class. In a 30-minute block, you will focus on the student reader, close reads, and reading strategy practice. All of these items focus on essential reading skills and strategies. So, you will skip the labs, video clips, and inquiry activities since those are science-based. Essentially, you use the format within the Week-at-a-Glance by focusing on the reading activities.

Using Science Smash Ups in Science Class

If you are focusing on Science Smash Ups in a 30-minute science block, focus on the labs, student reader, and video clips. This will allow students to learn essential science concepts and complete the hands-on activities. This means you will skip the close reads, reading strategy practice, and vocabulary activities. Essentially, you use the format within the Week-at-a-Glance by focusing on the science activities.

Whether you use everything or just parts of the resource, know that students will deepen their knowledge and skills!

Teacher Flexibility

While the Week-at-a-Glance outlines how to use Science Smash Ups in your classroom, the decisions are up to you. You can pick which resources you want to use. Additionally, you can break apart the materials and use them however you want! For instance, maybe you want to use the materials in a reading block but still use a lab. You can do this! Honestly, you can pick which components you use, when you use them, and how you use them. I am simply providing you with a guide and framework.

Breaking Down the Components

When figuring out how to use the Science Smash Ups in your classroom, it is helpful to look at the components. Then, decide if you want to combine science and reading time or use the activities in a science or reading block. Maybe you even teach different components at different times of the day! You can pick every part of how you want to use this resource. After this decision, explore the various components and decide what works best for your classroom and students.

As an overview, the warm-up/close reads and vocabulary activity each take about 10 minutes. Since reading takes more time, the reading and skill activity needs about 20 minutes. The lab experiment also needs 20 minutes. To complete the days, the exit tickets and journal responses each take about 10 minutes. I recommend looking at your schedule and seeing how you want to structure these components. It’s okay to leave pieces out if you do not have time or feel they fit your purpose! Similarly, you may go in a different order based on your schedule. To read detailed information about the various components, check out Science Smash Up Sneak Peek!

Teaching Time

There is no right or wrong when figuring out how to use the Science Smash Ups in your classroom. The activities are versatile enough to encompass many parts of your teaching time. So, you can print this incredible resource and use what you want within your teaching time. Best of all, students will have a blast learning so many science and reading skills!

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Science Smash Ups Sneak Peek

January 4, 2023August 13, 2022 by Meliss Seideman

Do you stress out every year over teaching all the content standards? I know I do! As teachers, we want students to master the content truly. However, providing the needed time, support, and activities can be hard when there are so many standards to teach. After I had enough of this stress, I realized I needed to look at the standards differently. Instead of teaching the standards in core subject blocks of time, I decided to merge this time together. This might mean teaching social studies and reading at the same time. Or, teaching math and science at the same time. By doing this, I could dive into the standards and ensure students had time to work. That is why I am SO excited to share my Science Smash Ups sneak peek! This smash up is such a fun and creative way to practice reading skills with science activities!

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Science Smash Ups

You’re probably wondering what science smash ups are. Don’t worry, you are not smashing anything in your classroom or doing something to make the fantastic custodians upset. Science smash ups mean that we are actually smashing two subjects together. So, we are working on reading skills and strategies while working on science standards. This is such a creative way to work on important content throughout the entire day! Now, let’s dive into all of the fantastic pieces to these activities.

Student Reader

Do your students struggle to understand fancy science terms? It happens! One of my favorite parts of smash-ups involves students using their reading skills to understand content in other subject areas.

The 15-page full-color nonfiction student reader breaks down the Scientific Method into 4 distinct categories. There is a table of contents, index, and glossary to help assist students. This is a great way to ensure students learn the material in consumable pieces! The teacher guides students through reading the information while applying scientific reading strategies to comprehend the material. Since this is a smash up product, the science-related information was written in a way to help students focus on specific reading skills. There is even a teacher copy of the student reader and a prompting guide to ensure students are working on science and reading skills!

Science Notebook for Students

It is essential to have activities that allow students to review this challenging topic. So, a science notebook includes activities for each of the 4 headings in the reading. Each activity ensures students apply focus skills through written activities. This includes journal pages, student reflection sheets, vocabulary application, reading skills/strategies, and exit tickets. These activities are an excellent way for students to show their comprehension of the Scientific Method through reading-based activities. The science smash ups even include answer keys.

Vocabulary Practice

Science includes so many fancy terms. This is often why students feel they cannot learn the material. Thankfully, this will no longer be the situation with the daily vocabulary activities included in the notebook. Additionally, there are 6 vocabulary posters to ensure students have visuals to support them while completing this science smash up.

Hands-On Labs

Students LOVE science labs! They are such a fun way to bring the content alive! So, there are 2 hands-on labs to learn about the scientific method! Both labs are simple enough for a teacher to quickly prep yet so engaging for students! Students will love practicing what they are learning in a real-world setting.

Close Reading Passages

Every classroom has many levels of learners. Therefore, differentiation is so important! Thankfully, this is taken care of within the science smash up through 12 differentiated close reading passages. There are three levels for each close read: below, at, and above the third-grade reading level. Each passage focuses on a subtopic to ensure students learn about the Scientific Method at a deeper level. These are great to use as warm-ups or during small group centers.

Review Game

Students love games! They are a great tool to see what information students remember and what needs further review. Since the Scientific Method is a rigorous topic, the included review game is the perfect way to check for understanding! Students will have a blast playing while gaining confidence about how much they know.

Assessments

Let’s be honest- teachers do not love giving assessments. They do not like the time they take away from teaching and the pressure students feel. However, assessments are a huge part of education to ensure students learn. So, the science smash up includes two assessments. One is for vocabulary, and one is for a final assessment. Since students will have so much fun with this resource, they won’t even mind taking these assessments! They will be confident and ready to take them.

Teacher Materials

Teachers want students to love every minute of class. Honestly, it takes a ton of work to make lessons hands-on, engaging, and enjoyable. There is just so little time in the day to accomplish everything needed. That is why the science smash ups include a teacher guide, daily lesson plans, and I can statements. Planning will be a breeze with science smash ups!

Expanding Comprehension Work

Do your students do well at understanding surface-level information but struggle with a deep understanding? This is because comprehension is HARD! It takes time, practice, and patience to build. It is one of the many reasons I love to use reading skills throughout the day! For more tips, check out Building Comprehension! It will show additional ways to incorporate comprehension skills no matter the subject area.

Teachers have so many standards to teach each year. This means that students have to learn SO much. However, if we want students to learn, we must get creative with the standards. The Science Smash Ups sneak peek does exactly this! Students will have a blast learning the scientific method by applying their reading skills.

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Math Intervention Sneak Peek: 10 Minute Interventions

July 21, 2022 by Meliss Seideman

There are never enough hours in the day for teachers to get everything done! Even if we were somehow granted 2 more hours each day, we would still not do everything we wanted. Thankfully, the stress of that goes away the second smiling faces enter the classroom. There is such joy in teaching lessons, creating activities, reading stories, and helping in centers. However, all teachers know that even with meticulous planning and amazing lessons, there will be students who start to fall behind. This is an unavoidable aspect of teaching. So, what do teachers do when this happens? They find ways to squeeze in even MORE time to meet one-on-one or in small groups! So, I created 10 Minute Math Interventions! Let’s take a look into the math intervention sneak peek: 10-minute interventions to see what this resource is all about!

Sneak Peek into the 10-Minute Math Intervention Resource

Engaging Activities

When students need an intervention, they have done all they can. However, they are struggling and need additional help. This often means teachers use interventions and an approach unique to the student. Thankfully, the pages in the 10 Minute Math Interventions provide engaging activities. Each page showcases the skills included in a new light to help students think differently.

The activities are all very hands-on and support students as they interact with the activities. Everything teachers need to support and assist students with intervention is within this resource! With the fun activities, students will say goodbye to math anxiety!

I get a lot of questions about ‘what grade level is this resource for?’ and to be honest, it depends. Intervention is more about your student’s ability than a specific grade level. I design my resources for grades 2nd – 4th. I can see a second, third, and fourth-grade teacher utilizing this resource in a classroom.

Since students will love the math interventions, check out 10 Minute Reading Interventions! Students will show so much growth in reading and math!

Scaffolded Math Intervention Pages

When designing this resource, I wanted to help teachers by putting activities in their hands that were quick to implement. A resource that was to the point. One that supported the skills and standards that students might need an intervention for. But, like all skills, there are varying levels of understanding and a wide variety of approaches you can take to mastery. So, one of the biggest aspects of this resource is the varying levels I incorporated into the pages.

The resource itself includes 15 different math concepts. This includes everything from addition and subtraction to money. There are 10-18 pages for each math skill, and the pages have the numbers 1 to 10. This means that page 1 is the most basic level of understanding when discussing the skill. Page 10 is the most advanced. This is an essential aspect when providing math intervention to students!

For each student who needs an intervention, teachers can easily match where they are in the spectrum from pages 1 to 10. So, the teacher knows exactly where to begin to ensure successful math intervention. For instance, Student A may not need to start on page 1. Instead, past data and conversations will help teachers figure out the appropriate page to begin on. Since the student is starting on page 4, the teacher has 6 different and completely scaffolded activities to help gain mastery. Once the student reaches page 10, the teacher can then have the student apply the skill to a grade-level text and practice.

Ultimately, the 10 pages per skill provide multiple opportunities for practice. They allow teachers to match students to a specific spot in each skill. Best of this, this allows many students to benefit from the resource, just not the lowest level of students.

Step by Step Lesson Plans

Teachers are so busy. They are managing a hundred different tasks while having to keep a smile on their face. Thankfully, the 10 Minute Math Interventions include incredible lesson plans. This is incredibly helpful since the teacher is not always the one doing interventions. This may fall to a resource teacher, instructional assistant, or parent volunteer. I can’t tell you how many times I had someone push into my classroom. I WISHED I had something prepped for them to use with a specific student I knew needed an intervention. This resource ensures something incredible is always ready!

To ensure instructions are clear for any adult, there is a ½ page lesson plan for every single intervention activity! This has step-by-step instruction by breaking down the activity. Also, there are strategic questions to ask before, during, and after the activity to foster a deeper level of understanding. There are even answer keys for each resource.

Math Intervention Dry Erase Activities

Another feature I LOVE about the 10 Minute Math Interventions is that you can easily make the activities reusable! Teachers can place the activities into plastic sleeve protectors and use thin dry erase markers! This aspect is perfect because it helps cut down on copying. Similarly, it allows me to quickly move from doing an activity one-on-one with a student to another.

Easy Storage

Like almost every teacher, I’m a sucker for fantastic storage hacks. I love a clean, organized classroom! When I saw these Iris Shallow Containers on Amazon, I knew they’d be perfect for the 10 Minute Math Interventions. They are great because I can slap the label on them and place them in my closet or on a bookshelf for easy access. Thankfully, this means that I or any push-in services can quickly find what we need. The Iris containers are sturdy and fit everything inside. They even include labels, dry erase markers, and erasers!

If you’re not into containers or need something less expensive, 3-ring binders always work wonders, too! You can easily snag a large 3-ring binder with tabs and use the tabs to divide each of the 12 skills. Open the binder, find the tab you need, and bam – you’ve got your options ready to go!

Organizational Record-Keeping Pages

It can be hard to keep different levels straight with 25+ students. Add in multiple interventions and options, and teachers can quickly become overwhelmed! Thankfully, the 10 Minute Math Interventions include a way to remember who has done which interventions. There are record-keeping pages! This helps you remember, as well as communicate to others, which student has done which intervention within a given skill. For example, you have student ‘A’ who has done pages #4, 5, and 6 for Area and Perimeter. Student ‘B’ who has done #1 and 2, etc. If you have a push-in, you can easily say, ‘Grab the Area tub and continue with student ‘A’. They can grab the tub, open the container, and SEE where you left off!

So as you can see, the 10 Minute Math Interventions is definitely something I feel every teacher needs to have! It’s practical, specific, rigorous, and savvy! If you have any other questions about the resource, please feel free to shoot me an email through my ‘contact me’ page! I’m happy to help!

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