Science at Leon Springs in my 3rd grade classroom!

Its 1:00 o'clock and we are ready to learn social studies/science!

I am assigned to Mrs. Nevin's 3rd grade classroom! Just amazing to be there :)

All the students went to grab their Social Studies book for their first time in their school year...
 They were so happy to learn about Social Studies/Science.

Their science book!
(It will not be used anymore for now )

The teacher wanted them to meet her in the reading center and to open their textbooks to pg. 208. The lesson was about "Explorers." The first thing she wanted them to do was look up the word explorers in the glossary. After asking them where they could find words and their meanings in a textbook. She let a student read the definition to the whole class. Then, started to ask them questions about what is the importance of an explorer and which people around them or in the world can be considered explorers. She always used the best technique in asking questions. Then, she wanted them to go to page. 210 and there was a map of how Christopher Columbus sailed his route into the new world. She opened a discussion about discoveries and what may Columbus found on his way. Once she reads any important information, she makes sure the students are following with her using their finger, so they don't loose track while reading. She always selects different students to read and always asks for their intrepretations before giving any answer. Then, the children had to think about who they think are explorerers to them; some of their answers were: scientists, themselves-because they get to discover things in their backyards, doctors. She automatically linked her lesson to Language Arts by telling them, "If you remember in reading, we use a method called cause&effect and asked the children, what causes explorers to explore and mentioned for every cause is an effect. For instance, "What caused Columbus to want to find a new route (land)? Before she gave them the answer. She made her discovery seem a secret. She said, "Let me tell you Columbus's secret. The students found that as so interesting that they just wanted to listen more to the teacher.  The secret  (answer) is that some of things that Columbus found to be valuable were some items that can be found in your own kitchen cupboards. In addition, she mentioned in Columbus's time, some of the precious things like: herbs, spices, gold, salt, etc... The students were astonished, they thought that some of the things he found were money or much more...  By the way she wanted reiterate from where Columbus traveled she would show them on the globe in the class or tell them to use their finger and follow the dotted lines where his destination was China.




  She told them we will be doing an activity, (investigation) so she wanted them to go back to their seats. The activity was based on students will be put in their groups and have 5 items in (pretty buckets- thought it was a cool idea how she put them in) and each item was placed for 1 group. Then, they would rotate, but she tells them which tables to go toand how much time they would have. She told them to use their senses, to hear, taste (if they wanted- but the kids were smart enough to read and to know what to taste and what not to taste), smell, touch, and hear).Their activity was a hands-on activity and the students found it very engaging to actually live the experience Columbus did. At the end, she told them "tomorrow we would look  at pictures of famous explorers and scientists did, and predict (guess) what they were, write about them in our science journals." Overall, they took out their colonialization and exploration vocaulary list and highlighted the terms they learned for lesson they learned. They highlighted explorer, explore, fleet, history, historian, intermidiate directions and put it back in their Social Studies folder. Most importantly, the students were so happy about the lesson, they just wanted to ask my teacher so many questions as they were walking out for recess time. So my teacher shared that Columbus was buried in Spain and she got to see his tomb. But, the students were like: "Did you get to see his head?, his body?... It was funny and interesting to see their curiousity...

The 5 items were: paprika, salt, pepper, cinamon, parsley (a substitue for an item she couldn't find. I believe was basil or oregano-herbs)

I, for a fact learned and got to see how social studies and science are now combined as one subject. I thought that was very fun to see. I personally thought these two subjects would never be combined. It was something new to teach for my CT and she told me it would be a great experience for you to learn as well. In addition, abiding by the curriculum was her task which she believes needs to completed. I loved to see that nothing would be considered as hard unless you personally make it to be.

I, again, enjoyed my time there not only to watch this lesson, but being there is certainly the place I consider as my dream career.


(An awesome plant to have in classroom- it is a Flip Flap Flower solar toy that moves under sunlight, the children are always amazed by it to see how it moves when the sun hits on it!!)



Science at home and my backyard!



Very dark, gloomy, and scary!



One important question: Why is it that whenever I wanted to do this blog it was either pouring or looked very scary?
 I finally decided to go outside today since my blog was due tomorrow. However, without even starting this project, I realized this project will be exciting. Because as we pre-service teachers should simply have the eyes of a scientist to notice that science can be found anywhere.



 I started off my journey by looking in my house. The most precious important living thing I came to see was my dog Sadie Lee. She is an austrilian cattle mix with terrier. By the way she is the most spoiled dog ever! She used to be my brother's dog then I took her since he had to move away for Medical School.

(she thought i was gonna give her food she was ready to eat!)

As I tried to continue to see what I could find around the house, I came to see something that I thought I would never have seen was some type of lizard next to the laundry closet.

Also, as I was continuing my journey, since I was on summer vacation, I wanted to see what was in my backyard because everytime I let my dog go outside, I never get the chance to go out with her. I came to realize the second day we came back from our vacation, my little brother got bit by some living thing and I have to came to find out that it was a wasp (at the time he was in my room!) after looking it up online. Afterall, once I went outside to my backyard today I looked up and inside the crack of the ceiling I saw that a wasp nest was built in it. Also, a few steps to the right was another small and big wasp nest there as well. I had came to a conclusion that Wow, all these crazy wasps were coming in from outside.

In the ceiling where they made a little crack there! It looks huge big but I zoomed into it! :)

The small wasp nest has 2 on it and the bigger one behind it!

(A wasp nest in the corner above my main door!)

In addition, as I was still in my backyard, and out of curiosity, I wanted to lift a rock as Dr. Anderson mentioned in class to do as well; and I saw another type of lizard there too! I am freaking out now because now I know I am surrounded by wasps and all sorts of lizards!!

Once lifted the rock!

As I continued my tour I ended up walking around the perimeter of my house and I was next to my garage and to the left of it is an amazing plant that makes pretty flowers and each one is a different color, which is my mom's treasure. However, she was on vacation for 3 months and she came back Friday and realized that no one was taking care of it and she was very upset. But who is it to blame when it is raining almost everyday. I personally thought that it was enough water :)

But she ended up lecturing me about how important it is to take care of plants and animals; and as being in my science class, I for a fact am coming to know the importance of science! Most importantly, this blog reminded me of when I took my Earth Science class last semester, when we had to do a project and it was called "Soil and my backyard." That was a very fun experiment. Now I can see how I could relate many of these science projects together.

3 words I am coming to realize---> Science is fun!!

























Project Wild

What a crazy day!!

One important thing is that I have never considered science to be fun!!

Our group!

But being at Eisenhower park for Project Wild was a wonderful experience. It was very interesting to see the crazy weather and how the workshop was still going on.. The only thing that came up to my mind was "Wow!! We truely would do anything to have the best education possible that made me realize that I will become a great future teacher." Despite the weather, I was glad to learn what Project Wild was about, it was amazing to see the books they gave us! I was thrilled to see what these books were about and was very happy the facilatators led us through these books. I am pleased to have Growing Up Wild and Project Wild Curriculum & Activity Guide as our valuable resources that we will be using in our future classroom.

Our group presenting!

Also, the main important thing that I enjoyed was the fact of being able to present a lesson. I really felt that I was indeed a teacher put in a classroom. The atomosphere of the workshop was very much like in the real world. It made me realize what I can accomplish if I were to be given a curriculum book with activites and how I would be able to demonstrate it as a lesson for my students. At first when we (as a group) chose the activity "How Many Bears Could Live in This Forest," since we were told that the grade level was third grade and we were given the materials to demonstrate the lesson. I realized there are many ways to accomodate different ways to teach the lesson. As we chose the (little teddy bears) to be the food that each bear would need to eat to survive. Because, I personally did not how much a bear needs to eat in 10 days to survive. I thought was a fun way to have math and science put in 1 lesson. An important note that I noted for myself whenever the lesson is hands-on and involves interaction with the students, the teacher and the student will learn more than just "preaching" the lesson. Moreover, the most fascinating thing was how this book accomodated people with disablities to be presented as well as in our lesson that animals could also have disabilites in everyday situations too. Also, in the book it gives highlighted key terms in what should be the main focus of the lesson.

Playing the game!!

Overall, I believe this was a positive experience, but I do still feel that I wish they did have a back-up plan because since it is one time thing we get to do; we should have been able to have gone another day just to at least enjoy the hike that I was really wanting to try out. The main goal that I have learned throughout this workshop is to always explore, investigate, and evaluate. In addition, as becoming a future teacher, we should always attend any workshop at any time to gain experience for ourselves, our future students, and our career.