Teaching all about landforms is a big part of our grade three science curriculum here in British Columbia.  It’s one of my favorite units because it’s a topic that lends itself well to outdoor and interactive learning.  I try to ensure that teaching landforms is as hands-on as possible: we head outside to explore our own local landforms and we make as many student-led projects as possible!  A few things happen in my classroom to make a landforms science unit successful at the second and third-grade level… take a peek!

Text: Science Lessons About Landforms for 3rd and 4th Grades Image: Text is displayed over an ocean landscape.

Keep It Local

A ‘local landforms’ anchor chart.

Teaching about landforms doesn’t have to be theoretical… there are landforms all around us! I’ve found that teaching about our own LOCAL landforms is the best way to hook students in and keep them invested in the unit as a whole.  (We did this in our biodiversity, water cycle, and plants units as well).  We try to make as many connections as possible to places and locations that are familiar to them. Even better if we can visit some of these places during our unit!

Pre-Teach Vocab

I know… I know… I’m starting to sound repetitive on this one,  but my ‘secret sauce’ to successful science is to pre-teach new vocabulary before we really dive in to a new unit.  That means starting with a few lessons on landform vocabulary.  I’ll set up vocabulary words around the classroom and we will do a ‘vocabulary hunt’ where students can search for definitions.  We might also set up a vocabulary ‘memory game’ where the vocabulary words and definitions are placed face down on the carpet and are flipped face up one at a time, just like the traditional ‘memory’ card game. These activities help new words to become familiar enough before we really dig into our science lessons. 

Get Outside and Get Observing

You will be able to find at least one landform example on your school grounds… so find it, sketch it, and label it!  Our school was ON an island, with a view of a mountain… two landforms in one! 

Nothing to observe? The outdoors is the perfect place to create a sketch of what a landform might look like on blank paper.  Sketch an island!  Draw a picture of a the place where a river meets a lake (this is called a delta).  If possible, I like to teach most of this unit from outside of the classroom.  

Explore Local Landforms In Depth

Our ‘Local Landforms’ flipbook project.

More local landforms? Shocking!  But I really do believe in making local connections to the curriculum wherever possible. We ended our landforms unit with a flipbook project that asked students to think about all of the local versions of as many landforms as we could think of.  A local lake, a local waterfall, a local valley, a local desert, a local cave, a local ocean, etc.  It was neat to watch them make connections to places they had all been or heard about. We also used our classroom devices to research places to help fill gaps for students who hadn’t had firsthand experience with each place and to add facts and details about each location. I, personally, had never been to a local waterfall, so this research component was helpful for me as well!

Let me plan your landforms unit!

Looking for a whole unit?  The complete landforms science unit features nonfiction reading passages, vocabulary, teacher-led lessons, FUN activities, project-based learning, and detailed lesson plans all along the way.  Let me take this off your plate!

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Have you started an end of the year countdown yet? The last weeks before summer break can be a bit (okay, a lot) chaotic in the classroom, but they are also the perfect opportunity to get ahead for back to school.  I would much rather get organized in May/June than feel overwhelmed and behind in August/September… no matter how tired I am at the end of the year.  Maybe it’s my enneagram 1 personality, but being properly organized helps me to feel ready for a break.  And I am ready for summer break this year.  These organization ideas for the end of the year will help to set next year off on the right foot!

Text: How to get organized before summer break.
Image: A notebook, pencil, paperclips, and pencil sharpener are displayed on a white surface.

There are a handful of things that I always try to do before leaving school for the summer.  Take a peek into my Year End Checklist:

End of the Year Must-Do Checklist

1. Recycle, donate, or toss student and teacher supplies that don’t work. It’s a great time of year to declutter and make sure everything is working and/or has lids! This includes supplies that just don’t work in your classroom.  Do you find yourself never reaching for that class set of pastels? Time to send them somewhere else!

2. Organize supplies and materials. Some years the class can be left set up, other years it has to be packed into boxes. Either way I try to make sure the supplies are organized and packed in a way that makes back-to-school unpacking easy!

3. Prepare blank name tags and labels. I may not know the names of students in my class, but I can make sure that name tags, cubby tags, and desk tags are laminated, organized, and ready to go.

4. Re-label any storage bins (like the ones I have EVERYWHERE in my room) or cupboards.  By the end of the year, the labels around my room are often peeling or discolored.  Before I go I take a moment to re-label anything that needs it and move anything that could use a new space next year. 

5. Organize student books.  I go through all of my books to repair any damages, recycle any that are beyond repair, and organize books back into levels or genres.  It’s great to start with an organized library. 

6. Deep clean my teacher-desk.  By the end of the year, my desk is a M-E-S-S.  I don't always know where half of the papers came from, but I know it’s a great time to purge as much as I can 

7. Photocopy lessons for the first week (or month!) back.  I like to have at least a weeks’ worth of back-to-school math, writing, reading, and get-to-know-you activities prepped and ready to go before I walk out the door.  That way, when the chaos of September rolls around, I am at least semi-prepped with a weeks’ worth of lessons to grab and go! You can see some of my favorite no-prep lessons for the first week back here.

If at all possible, I include my students in completing these tasks.  Most of these items are necessary because of how hard the classroom has been used by 22-28 students during the year, so I feel like it’s right to have them help with the re-set process for the next year. (And it counts as a life skills lesson… right?)   Is there anything I missed on my list? What is on your must-do list for getting done before summer break? Let me know in the comments below or chime in on instagram!

Teaching about how thermal energy is transferred in elementary science is so much fun because it’s a great unit to get totally hands-on. We build, we try, we experiment, and we really explore the different ways that heat is transferred. Here are some of my best ideas, experiments, tips, and tricks for teaching about thermal energy specifically for kids!

When do you teach thermal energy in the classroom? 

I really don’t think it matters when you are teaching thermal energy, each season has its own benefits when you’re teaching about how heat is transferred.  I’ve always taught it during the winter when we can dive in to the concepts of conductors and insulators (because brrrrr, it’s cold outside). This way, we can warm up with a conducting mug of hot cocoa.

However, the spring/summer also works, because feeling the warmth of the sun allows kids to make great connections about how the sun is radiating heat.  Plus, a warm sun helps some fun projects, like this solar oven, really work!

The only timeline I follow is that I make sure I’ve covered ‘matter’ first in my curriculum. So many of our discussions about thermal energy and heat transfer refer to ‘particles’ and I want the kids in my science classroom to have a good understanding of matter, and how particles move in different states of matter.  I don’t want them to be confused when I mention that “the atoms bump into each other”, because we’ve already covered ‘what is an atom’ in previous lessons!

Where do you start with thermal energy?

I start every single science unit with a handful of teacher-led lessons.  Before we head into the experiments, inquiry, and student-led learning portions I always spend a class or two teaching vocabulary and new concepts.  I find that front-loading this knowledge gives students the confidence to explore and ask questions later on. 

In this time, we usually do some non-fiction reading about our new science topic (either reading passages at my students’ level, or books from the library) and then head to vocabulary practice.  I’ll set up a Science Word Wall with our new vocabulary and we’ll play some hands-on games until students are familiar with the vocab for our unit.  In thermal energy, I want them to be comfortable with words like convection, conduction, radiation, energy, conductor, insulator, and atom before we even begin.  

Get hands-on with experiments

Learn about the ways thermal energy is transferred in as many hands-on ways as possible. While teacher-led learning is fine, hands-on experiences is what will make the learning ‘stick’.  So when I’m teaching thermal energy I try my best to have as many hands-on science activities as possible.  

To teach conduction, we’ll have tea (or hot cocoa!) together.  If you are allowed to share beverages with your students, this is a great chance to make science class extra special!  Pour each student a warm mug of tea and allow them to hold the warm, but not too hot, mug in their hands.  They will feel the heat transfer rom the mug into their cool hands. This is conduction! 

To teach radiation I like to get outside on a warm and sunny day to feel the sun radiate and warm up our bodies.  Too cold for this?  Try gathering around a space heater!  (The heat from a candle is also radiation... but feel the heat from this one with caution around little hands!) 

I love experiments that need very few supplies.  In my first few years of teaching, I had access to very few additional materials at my school. My budget was unbelievably small (teacher life!) So my desire is always to find activities that can be done in classrooms for almost no money.  Ice Ice Baby is one of my favorites.  If you can freeze a class set of ice cubes, you are set! This experiment asks students to MELT an ice cube in their bare hands to experience heat transfer from their warm palms into the frozen ice cube. The full set of instructions for this fun and simple experiment can be found in my Thermal Energy Science Unit.

Ice Ice Baby Experiment With Easy Supplies

Solar Oven Experiment

Have a bit more time and a few more supplies?  These instructions guide you through how to use heat energy to make s’mores in a classroom solar oven!

Let us plan your thermal energy unit!

Looking for a whole unit? The complete thermal energy science unit features nonfiction reading passages, vocabulary, teacher-led lessons, 3 hands-on experiments, a quiz, and detailed lesson plans all along the way.  No planning needed, just print and that’s it!

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There's something about being outdoors that is good for the soul. Thankfully, I live on the west coast of Canada so there are easily a half-dozen beaches within a ten-minute drive from my house, and they are stunning. Every time I go, there is something new to explore and discover. Biodiversity is a key part of our grade 3 science curriculum here in British Columbia and, between you and me, it's one of my favorite units to teach. There is just so much to unpack and the science lessons lend themselves so beautifully to student-centered learning. Take a peek at my ideas, activities, and tips for teaching biodiversity (the diversity of life) in elementary science.

Biodiversity: Lesson ideas, projects and freebies that teach all about our great big world.
Image: a globe is pictured falling into a pool of water.

keep the biodiversity local

We always study our local biodiversity. While teaching about biodiversity in Africa may seem exciting, (yay for lions and tigers and zebras!) there is so much biodiversity in our own backyard. Teaching about the local diversity of life helps to give my students an appreciation for the plant and animal life that exists right where we are!

Let us plan your biodiversity unit!

Looking for a whole unit? This complete biodiversity science unit features nonfiction reading passages, vocabulary, teacher-led lessons, project-based learning, a guided inquiry project, small group projects, and detailed teacher instructions all along the way.  No planning needed, just print and that’s it!

grab the whole unit!

get outside

I like to teach our biodiversity science lessons when the weather is most likely to be nice (although, on the wet west coast, nothing is guaranteed), so that we can head outside to try and observe biodiversity in our own schoolyard.  

A number of times throughout the unit we will take a walk on our school grounds or in the neighborhoods surrounding our school. If your school policies allow this, a neighborhood walk is a free and fun field trip! We will head out with cameras or sketchbooks to make notes of the many different plants and animals that we observe on our way.  My students are often so surprised at the wide variety of bugs/insects/plants/birds that they can find in just a short 20-30 minute walk.

If you are able to bring a couple of smartphones (I had parent or high school volunteers come for this), the app Picture Ths is great for identifying local plants. If this isn’t possible, the app also works from a picture! Students can snap photos of local plants near their homes, and you can identify them using the app at school from submitted photos.

follow student passions

Towards the end of our study of biodiversity, we move to student-led learning. After students are familiar with ecosystems, food chains, living and non-living things, and the components of our local ecosystem, it’s time for a little project-based learning.  I let each student pick which part of our study of biodiversity interests them and RUN with it.  I once had a student do a project on a species of local moss... not my first pick but it made him very excited to research!

Students zero in on one specific plant or animal and do more in-depth research.  They place their subject into an ecosystem, learn about its place in the food chain, discover its diet, and explore any predator and prey relationships that it is a part of. The student becomes THE classroom expert on this plant or animal.

Image: An animal flipbook project on brown bears is displayed on a table. A flipbook rubric is behind the brown bear project.

We use my digital and printable animal research templates to complete these projects.  It ends up being so fun to watch students dive deep into something they care about.  At the end of the unit, we work together to come up with a way to share their learning.  Some years we do formal presentations.  Other years, we set up a ‘gallery walk’ where other classrooms can learn a bit about each animal.  My personal favorite was the year we filmed each student presenting their animal like they were the host of a Discovery show, and compiled all of the presentations into a class movie! 

“This fits in great with the BC Grade 3 Science curriculum. My 3s are enjoying the activities and I like that there are reading passages with questions for them to answer. So far we are half way through the unit and everyone is excited when it is time for Science! Thanks!” - Denise M. (A real-life teacher using the Biodiversity Science Unit in her classroom!)

There is just something about kids in grade two. They are so inquisitive and full of wonder.  Kids this age go bananas for science experiments, and they are always ready to “take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!” (Ms. Frizzle, anyone?)  With a little bit of structure, science projects and guided inquiry can make the best learning experiences.  I find that science lessons for grade two are SO much fun, and hands-on lessons are the best ones!  Take a look at some of my absolute favorite science activities for grade 2.  

Text: Science Lessons for Grade Two
Image: Four students complete a volcano science experiment

WHAT ARE THE TOPICS IN GRADE 2 SCIENCE?

In BC, our science curriculum is mainly guided by the BC big ideas.  The BC Big ideas for Grade 2 science are:

• Living things have life cycles adapted to their environment

• Materials can be changed through physical and chemical processes.

• Forces influence the motion of an object.

• Water is essential to all living things, and it cycles through the environment.

When teaching these as topics, I teach these ideas in 4 different units:  Life Cycles of Living Things, Chemical & Physical Changes, Force and Motion, and The Water Cycle! To read an in-depth post on each topic be sure to click through.

Everything You Need to Teach Grade 2 Science

A complete unit for every single grade 2 science outcome in BC.

Force and Motion, The Water Cycle, Life Cycles, and Chemical & Physical Changes

Lesson plans, vocabulary, projects, experiments, activities, and more!

Click and print. Planning is really that easy.

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Teach the scientific method

We always start with the scientific method in grade two.  I think that it provides a great framework for almost everything we learn in science. When students understand the steps of the scientific method, they are ready to participate in our science experiments with greater understanding and independence.

Teaching The Water Cycle

Water Cycle Lessons For Grade 2

The water cycle is one of the best units to integrate into a greater study of our planet and how we are consuming natural resources.  I love using water cycle picture books to help students gain a greater understanding of why water is such a valuable natural resource, and why it is important to conserve it.  The water cycle is also such a great unit to integrate a few project-based learning activities and start students on small inquiry-based learning projects.  In this unit, we work together to explore the question Why is water important?

Life Cycles of Animals and Plants

Engaging ways to teach all about the life cycles of living things in lower elementary. A butterfly life cycle is pictured.

Teaching about plants and animals is always a hit in grade two because kids love animals.  And growing things.  And hands-on learning.  Actually, I don’t think I’ve found a science unit that my students don’t love… but learning about plants and animals is definitely one of their favorites. Getting to grow bean plants in the classroom is always one of the best parts of second (or third!) grade.  We head outside for so much of this unit because it’s so easy to actually observe life cycles in action!

Force and Motion Activities for Kids

Force and Motion lesson ideas

When you think about teaching force and motion in grade two, you should definitely be thinking ‘STEM Challenge’ because this topic is perfect for that.  Once we have front-loaded with some vocabulary (so students are stumped when they encounter it later) we learn about force and motion by getting out there and having fun!  These force and motion videos and activities are the perfect grade two science lessons.

Physical and Chemical Changes

We learn about chemical and physical changes in grade two, which can be such a tricky one!  Essentially, students are trying to answer the question, “Can this change be reversed?”  Thankfully, hands-on science experiments come to the rescue!  After a few teacher-led lessons, this unit is almost completely hands-on.  I set up 5-7 science stations around the room and students conduct science experiments to determine if a chemical or physical change has occurred.  It is SO much fun!

I’d love to know if you’ve tried any of these science lessons in your grade two classroom? What would you add? Leave a comment below or connect with me on Instagram. 

Integrating multiple subjects together is one of my favorite ways to teach.  I look at almost any social studies or science unit and try to think about how I can weave my other subjects into it as well.  It’s engaging for students and so convenient for me (hitting multiple learning outcomes at once… yes please!) Teaching the water cycle is one of my favorite science units because it naturally lends itself to so much cross-curricular integration.  These water cycle activities are engaging for students and just so interesting to teach.  

Teaching all about the water cycle in 2nd and 3rd grades.
Picture: A child stands in the rain under a rainbow umbrella.

Teach About Water with Picture Books

Before we even start looking at the science of water, I want my students to understand why we are studying water in the first place.  From a guided-inquiry perspective, we are looking at the question Why is water important? I like to put this question on a bulletin board or make an anchor chart that we will refer to.

My favorite picture book to use as we explore this question is “One Well: The Story of Water on Earth” by Rochelle Strauss”. One Well is a beautifully illustrated non-fiction book that walks us through the different ways that water is used, consumed, and threatened on our planet.  From the jacket:

“One Well” by Rochelle Strauss and
”Hope Springs” by Eric Walters are displayed on a table.

“Imagine for a moment that all the water on Earth came from just one well. This isn’t as strange as it sounds.  All water on Earth is connected, so there really is just one source - one global well - from which we all draw our water.  All living things depend on Earth’s One Well.  Life would be impossible without it.  But the water in the Earth’s well is threatened by our growing population and increased demands.  What can we do to protect it? One Well answers this important question while telling the eye-opening story of water on Earth.”

For older students, Hope Springs, by Eric Walters, is a great picture book about limited access to water.  Hope Springs is a story about Boniface, an orphan in Kenya during a season of drought. The book shines a light on the reality that many people in the world live in fear that there is not enough water for them to survive. Although the book deals with heavier content, the story is ultimately one of hope and kindness.  It’s a great book to tie the water cycle, and water conservation, into a greater global context. 

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Water on Earth Reading Passages and Comprehension

Don’t have a picture book that works? These differentiated reading passages all about water on earth a great way to introduce where water can be found on earth (and show students just how scarce freshwater is!)

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“A Day Without Water” lapbook project is displayed on a table.

Imagine a Day Without Water

It’s so easy to take for granted the easy access we have to water, and how often we use it!  Think about all of the times you have used water before you arrived at school.  Did you brush your teeth? Wash your face? Grab a drink? Have a shower? Rinse your plate? Turn on the sprinklers on your lawn? This lapbook project asks students to stop and imagine that, for just one day, all of their taps ran completely dry!  What would their day look like? What would be different? 

After this writing project is complete, I like to use this as an opportunity to help students connect to others who may experience limited access to water on a daily basis.  This is a great chance to talk about ways that, as a class, you may be able to help.  (Can you fundraise together? Write cards? Collect supplies?)

Teach the Stages of the Water Cycle

This one might seem obvious, but when we are teaching the water cycle, we like to get hands-on with activities and classroom displays that help students to understand the stages of the water cycle.  

This bulletin board uses the vocabulary cards from the Water Cycle unit to display the stages of the water cycle in a way that is clear for students to understand and provides a great reference for them to come back to as the science unit goes on. I also have also had students cut/glue the stages of the water cycle onto a fun worksheet (or complete it in a digital, Google Slides version) so that they are very familiar with the stages and the vocabulary!  

This water cycle in a bag science experiment is such a fun and hands-on way to learn about the stages of the water cycle.  I love how it uses cheap everyday materials that you probably already have in your classroom.

Make a Plan to Conserve Water

Water Cycle inquiry flipbook project.

Once students understand the water cycle and have explored our inquiry question why is water important, we like to end the unit with a small guided inquiry activity.  This project puts students in the driver’s seat and asks them to ask the big questions about conserving water.  Students get to choose their own focus and create a flipbook to address the problem that they see!

Have any more activities to go with our water cycle unit?  I’d love to hear about them!  Leave a comment below or connect with me on Instagram. 

A Complete Water Cycle Unit is Here!

Looking for a whole unit? This complete water cycle unit features project-based learning, a guided inquiry project, directed lessons, small group projects, vocabulary games, and detailed teacher instructions all along the way.

No planning is needed, just print and that’s it!

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Hooray!  If you’re here, you have successfully planned your first Genius Hour, your Genius Hour time is running smoothly, and you are ready to think about presentations! Your students have answered an essential question and are the proud owners of new knowledge.  Now… what are they going to do with it? One of my favorite stages of Genius Hour is the final presentation. Not every classroom conducting Genius Hour requires a final presentation, but in my room, it’s an important way to share our knowledge with the whole group.  Read all about our Genius Hour presentations, and how I set students up for success. 

Text: Genius Hour: Sharing Projects and Presenting Ideas
Image: Six lightbulbs in a row, the second one is illuminated yellow.

This is part three of a three part series on Genius Hour. Don’t forget to check out Part One: How To Get Started With Genius Hour in Lower Elementary, and Part Two: Classroom Management During Genius Hour.

Why do a formal Genius Hour presentation anyways?

The whole point of Genius Hour is to learn about a topic that each student is passionate about.  However, I like to encourage students that new knowledge should be shared.  This is a great way to share their new knowledge with a wider audience.  These ‘formal presentations’ can take a variety of forms, they don’t necessarily have to be a ‘stand and deliver’ traditional presentation.  A student who learned a new skill (to play the guitar, to paint using a new technique) might demonstrate this to the class, another might press play on a video that they created during Genius Hour time, and a third may choose to do a traditional spoken presentation. The point is giving students a chance to share their learning!

Prepare students ahead of time

Giving students time to prepare their presentations is key.  I include this as a part of our Genius Hour time.  If you’ve read Genius Hour: Class Management with Quick Check-Ins, you’ve seen my 3-stage method for Genius Hour. After students have completed their projects, they move on to preparing and practicing their presentations. This stage is so important because it helps to build confidence so that they are ready to share with a real audience come presentation day. 

I also make sure that the actual presentation day is not a surprise.  Using a large anchor chart paper, I set out possible presentation days well in advance. I  spread presentations out over 3-5 days so that students aren’t overwhelmed listening to so many presentations back-to-back.  Then, I let students choose their own presentation day to give them some ownership over this process. 

Invite a Real Audience

If possible, invite a real audience to come and listen to your class give their Genius Hour presentations.  I like to place the presentations at the very beginning, or very end of the school day to give parents the greatest chance of attending, but I know this isn’t possible for many families.  Having a buddy or peer class attend can also give your presentations a real audience! 

Add a Q&A Session

Before presentations begin, I give each student a small paper where they can write down 2-3 questions about each presentation. (This is included in the Genius Hour pack). After a presentation, the presenter hosts a quick Q&A session with the audience. I find that these Q&A’s are invaluable for a couple of reasons.  First, this task helps to keep my audience of students a little more focused during presentations.  Second, it is helpful for my own assessment.  If the student studied polar bears, they should be able to answer “what does a polar bear eat?” If they learned to play a simple song on the guitar, the question “how do you strum a C chord” shouldn’t trip them up either. 

A Complete Genius Hour Plan is Here!

I’ve taken everything I’ve learned from years of Genius Hour and created a complete digital and printable guide to starting up this engaging project in your second, third, or fourth grade classroom. It has teaching guides, a week-by-week timeline, a sample day plan, project ideas, parent letters, student planning pages, rubrics, and more!

grab the whole planning pack

Have you started Genius Hour in your classroom yet? I’d love to know how it’s going or if there’s anything I can do to help!  Leave a comment below or connect with me on Instagram. 

What does it mean to have courage? And how do we teach lessons about courage to our students in our classrooms or Sunday school?  Do we tell them to bravely face each problem without fear? Do we tell our Sunday school students that courage means fear is gone altogether? Does courage mean that we aren't scared of anything?

Teaching little people about courage can be a tough concept to tackle, especially when little fears can seem like such a big deal. Or when we just don't know what tomorrow, or next week, or next month will hold.  But that's the thing, courage isn't the absence of fears or things to be afraid of.  Courage is a choice to do the right thing even if we are afraid.  Say that one out loud.  Write it down somewhere that you can see every day.  (I put it on a post-it note beside my bed!) 

Bible Stories that Help to Teach Courage

There are so many great Bible stories to help show our students examples of real men and women who had to make the choice to do the right thing even if they were afraid.  Here are a few of my favorites…

• David and Goliath

• Esther

• Daniel in the Den of Lions

Where Does Courage Come From?

Our students need to understand that this courage to do what is right doesn't come from themselves, it comes from God!  We can be brave and have courage because courage comes from Him.  We can choose to make the next right choice because our strength and courage is not our own. 

Are you looking to teach your elementary student more about what the Bible has to say about courage?  Bible-Based Character, Courage explores courage from a Bible-based perspective and is perfect for Christian Schools, Sunday Schools, and Children's Church. 

Grab this free courage journalling activity and try out a courage lesson right now.

Looking for a little more?

There’s a whole set of Bible Based Character Education lessons themed around COURAGE ready for your classroom or Sunday School.

grab all of the lessons

You’ve started Genius Hour! Your students are excited, their passions are being ignited, and each lesson begins with a round of applause. (Well, that last one may be an exaggeration.) But things are off to a great start. Now it’s time for students to dig in to their independent research. But how do you keep them on track? And how do you keep the Genius Hour independent work time as productive as possible?

This is part two of a three part series on Genius Hour. Don’t forget to check out Part One: How To Get Started With Genius Hour in Lower Elementary, and Part Three: Genius Hour Presentations.

Use a Work Log

First, start each work time by taking a peek at the Genius Hour Work Log.  As seen in the Sample Genius Hour Day, students end each day by writing in this log.  Start each work time with a brief reminder of what they had hoped to get started on.  This should give them something to begin with.  

30-Second Check-Ins

Next, once students have started working on something, begin doing 30-second check-ins with each student.  30-second-checks are the lifeblood of my Genius Hour time.  I find that in 30-seconds (or less!) you can pretty quickly tell which students need a little extra help, which ones are doing well, and which ones will need some 1:1 time later in the hour.  I will sit at my teacher table and call students up to let me know where they’re at, and maybe ask a question or two.  Together we will make a quick goal for them to complete before we meet next.

For example: “Find out three more ways that giraffes gather food and then move to creating your project .” “You are going to record three more minutes of your History of Spiderman podcast before we meet next.” “Before next Friday, you will finish painting your birdhouse and bring a notebook to start planning your presentation.”

Divide Genius Hour Work into 3 Stages

Genius Hour work time is largely self-paced.  To help students stay on track, I divide Genius Hour (everything before the presentations) into three stages: research, projects, and presentation planning.  

1. Research - In this stage students are doing the ‘nitty gritty’ research into their topic and trying to answer their essential question.  At the end of this stage, they should not only know the answer to their question but have good knowledge of the topic as a whole. 

2. Project - In the project stage students are working on whatever ‘project’ they have chosen to show what they have learned.  This may be a traditional poster/presentation, they may be building a website, recording a podcast, or creating a number of art pieces using the technique they have researched. 

3. Presentation Planning - When students are confident in their topic and have completed their project, they begin to plan for their presentation.  In my class, this means practicing what they will say in front of the class.  Some students choose to write out a short speech.  If multiple students are at this stage, this is a great chance to practice taking questions about their topic from a peer. 

Somewhere in the classroom I write these three stages on the board and leave space for students to write their initials.  It’s a quick and easy way to see what stage a student is at and see who may need a little more support to move forward.  (Or, see who may be moving too fast, and may need me to check-in with them to see if their research is deep enough or their project thorough enough). 

A small whiteboard displays the word “genius hour” with three subheadings: research, project, and presentation planning.

These routines have made genius hour run so much more effectively in my third grade classroom! I’d love to know if you’ve found any others that have helped students to stay on-task and remain focused during this student-led time. Share them with us in the comments below or over on Instagram! Looking for where to get started with Genius Hour? Read all about my best tips, tricks, and learn from my mistakes on Getting Started with Genius Hour.

A complete plan is here!

I’ve taken everything I’ve learned from years of Genius Hour and created a complete digital and printable guide to starting up this engaging project in your second, third, or fourth-grade classroom. It has teaching guides, a week-by-week timeline, a sample day plan, project ideas, parent letters, student planning pages, rubrics, and more!

Grab the whole pack

Spring is in the air, can you feel it? As the weather starts to warm up, and we start to thaw out a little bit up here in Canada, it’s the perfect time to think about our next set of science lessons. Spring is my favorite time to teach about life cycles because we can naturally observe them all around us. If teaching about the life cycles of living things is on your science lesson plans this spring, take a peek at six of my favorite ways to keep students engaged as we study how plants and animals grow and change.

Teaching all about the life cycles of living things in lower elementary. The life cycle of a butterfly is depicted.

1. Grow plants in the classroom

A student observes a bean plant and writes in a plant observation journal.

Study the life cycle of a plant in a hands-on way by planting a bean seed in a simple plastic cup in your own classroom. (You can read all about how we used inquiry-based science to grow and study our bean plants here!) Then, we use plant observation journals to make note of the various stages of plant growth, and track the growth on a simple graph (hello, math integration!). Watching students get excited about growing their own bean plant never gets old. I’ve done this activity year after year, and I’m always amazed at how many students decide to continue growing their bean plants at home. 

2. Set up a Student-Led Reading Station

Gather books about the life cycles of plants and animals and set them up in  a reading station in your classroom.  In a perfect world, these should be available from your school or district library, but your local library may also have titles available.  Ask your students which plants and animals they are interested in! Give students time during silent reading or science to freely explore the books and learn more about the plant or animal of their choice.  Need a few reading passages at students’ levels for your station? Grab my free digital and printable life cycles of living things reading passages (with comprehension questions) to add to your reading station!

3. Head outside and observe life cycles in your neighborhood.  

If are able, walk around your school property or neighborhood in the spring! Point out buds on trees, flowers, and things sprouting from the ground. Bring notebooks and pencils to sketch examples of living things and moments in the life cycle of a plant or animal. 

4. Get hands-on with a life cycles project

Read about the different stages in the life cycle of a salmon and create a fun flipbook project to help students show what they’ve learned.  It’s the perfect way to integrate non-fiction reading into your science lesson. This project is part of the complete Life Cycles of Living Things science unit for second grade. 

Teach Plant & Animal Life Cycles Today!

Looking for a FAST way to plan out your life cycles unit that includes 2 full weeks of ideas? In just a few clicks you can grab all of the pieces you need: vocabulary, nonfiction reading, projects, activities, and more! Click and print. Planning is really that easy.

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5. Observe a Life Cycle

Observing a complete life cycle is such a fun way to get students engaged in science.  This can be done in a few different ways:

• Ordering butterfly kit for your classroom.

• Growing plants with your students.

• We have even asked families with young pets to bring them in at different intervals so we could observe the changes.  One year a family with a new puppy graciously brought it in 3-4 times for these observations! 

 6. Watch YouTube videos about the life cycle of animals

Sometimes videos can give students great visual representations about simple life cycles.  Check out some of my favorites at a few different levels.

• The Life Cycle of a Frog by Peekaboo Kidz (4 min)

• The Life Cycle of a Butterfly by National Geographic, timelapse, no words (2 min)

• The Life Cycle of a Salmon by National Geographic, narrated (3 min)

Text: Teaching all about the life cycles of living things in second and third grades.
Image: A child looks into a tank at an aquarium.

What do you do when a topic seems too tricky to tackle? Up here in British Columbia, our Grade 2 Science curriculum specifically covers 'Chemical and Physical Changes' - students are expected to understand that materials can be changed through physical and chemical processes. It's a much more complex version of the question "Can this change be reversed?"

How to teach physical and chemical changes in lower elementary.

Keep Science Lessons as Hands-On As Possible

At the beginning of second grade, many students are still 7 years old. Where our lessons on force and motion had a lot of familiar language, this chemical and physical change vocabulary can seem new and overwhelming. At the beginning, students find it hard to tell the difference between a chemical and a physical change.

When trying to teach this to elementary students I've found that HANDS-ON has been (by far) the most effective method. When students can see, touch, and create different chemical and physical changes it's so much easier for them to discern the difference between the two.

Along with using proper terminology (I drill the words "chemical change" and "physical change" into their heads over and over during their entire unit!) we make sure to stop and practice these changes over and over.

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Nonfiction reading passages: Reversible and Irreversible Changes

Some curriculums and school districts don’t use the terminology ‘chemical change’ and physical change’ - they go a little simpler with ‘reversible and irreversible changes’. In the NGSS for 2nd grade this is as deep as it goes. This set of nonfiction reading was designed to work with curriculums that use the ‘reversible and irreversible’ change vocabulary - but it’s a great starting point for any science lesson on this topic!

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Begin with Teacher-Led Lessons to Build a Solid Foundation

Is the change physical or chemical? A Science anchor chart.

We start our physical and chemical changes unit by front-loading information that will help them along the way. Together, we define the terms "chemical change" and "physical change" on an anchor chart (they complete their own mini-version in their science notebooks too!). Then, we work in pairs or small groups to talk about potential changes, and why they might be chemical or physical. It's a simple activity, but it helps to bring focus back to the anchor chart as they think about the questions we posed: Is something new being created? Can this be reversed? What can we observe?

Use science stations to give a real-life experience

My BEST way to help students to really discern the difference between a chemical and physical change is to try it out in as many experiments as possible. I do this using stations. Using science stations gives my little scientists a chance to use the scientific method (that we learned about here!) to test what they know about changes and decide if their experiment resulted in a physical or chemical change. I set up six different stations in the class, and we rotate through them. There are a few different ways you can do science stations in an early elementary classroom.

• Set up six identical stations and have all students complete the same station at the same time. This one works best if your class is a little less mature and you feel they will need a lot of guidance to move through the stations. Then complete the stations over a number of different days.

• Set up only one or two stations, with multiple stations of each. (i.e. Set up three ‘A’ stations, and three ‘B’ stations, and divide your students into 6 groups). This also reduces the number of different Science experiments you have to manage and set up at one time. The next day, set up two different sets of stations.

• Set up 6 different stations at once. For students who are comfortable working independently in small groups, this one is my personal favorite. If we are completing this unit in the 2nd half of the year, I tend to lean towards this option. We will set up 6 different science stations, and put one group at each station. I find this option to be difficult at the beginning when small group skills are still being developed.

Physical & Chemical Change Science Lessons

It’s easy to teach about physical and chemical changes with this set of scripted lesson plans! Nonfiction reading, 6 science stations, lessons, and vocabulary are all included!

Print and teach. It’s that easy.

grab the lessons

Science is my favorite subject to teach. I know I’ve said that before, but I mean it! There’s something about the continual discovery and inquiry that happens during a science lesson that is second to none, it is hands-on and moves beyond science worksheets. Science experiments are the backbone of my science class, and any experiment or STEM challenge is rooted in the scientific method. It is so important that students understand the steps in the scientific method so that they are ready to conduct scientific inquiries in and out of the classroom.

Experiments are a great way to learn the scientific method without worksheets!

Make Sure to Teach the Steps

This may seem simple, but I start the year with a lesson specifically on “the scientific method”. I walk my students through the steps so that they understand each step of the process. I’ll put the steps of the scientific method on an anchor chart, and write any new vocabulary words on our word wall. We’ll talk through each step:

• Creating a Question - What are we exploring? What question are we trying to answer with this experiment?

• Hypothesis - What do we expect will happen? Is this guess reasonable? What do we already know about this topic? (I do spend quite a bit of time teaching about how to create a reasonable hypothesis, second grade students have a tendency to make wild and outlandish guesses about what will happen in an experiment!)

• Procedure - What steps will we take to conduct the experiment? We need to document absolutely everything that we do so we can do it again later if we need to. This is also a great time for a mini-lesson on how to complete a scientific diagram with labels.

• Results - What happened when we completed our experiment? What did we observe?

• Conclusions - What do we know now? Was our hypothesis right? This is the place where we give a summary of how the experiment went and let other scientists (our peers!) know what we might do differently next time!

Complete a Science Experiment Together

We used this Scientific Method worksheet flip book to record our steps as we complete the experiment

To really help students to understand the steps in the scientific method, I like to do (at least) one experiment altogether, using the same recording form, following the same procedure, recording the same information. It’s all exactly the same. You get it. It’s not that I don’t want students to think for themselves, but I find it helps to build a foundation for success later on if we’ve done one perfectly together. (I use this technique a lot, actually. It’s how I set my students up for success in our Inquiry Crime Scenes as well.)

Let Students Find Their Own Experiment

Now that students are comfortable with the steps and vocabulary in the scientific method, and they’ve done an experiment together with me, it’s time for them to do one on their own. This is a great chance for a little student-led learning. Within reason, I’ll let students find their own area of interest, devise their own hypothesis, and we’ll work together to gather the materials to complete the experiment! Sharing the results is a great chance to practice presentation skills and bring in a few speaking and listening standards to our science lesson.

“Teaching the Scientific Method in Third Grade”. Two students hold up science experiment supplies.