Our+Earth-+First+Grade+Science

**Teacher:** Beth Kessler
 * First Grade Science:** Our Earth

My class has most recently concluded a science unit called “Our Earth.” To introduce this unit I used our textbook to highlight important vocabulary words that my students would encounter throughout the unit. Using this textbook and our classroom discussions, students created a bulletin board with our science vocabulary words for this unit.

The unit then moved into studying things that make up our earth like soil, rocks, and different landforms. I have a wealth of classroom reading material to teach these concepts but I found that much of the material was above my students’ reading level. To combat this problem I infused some of the higher level books into our read aloud time and provided opportunities for my high flying readers to read to and with my lower readers. Additionally, two of my books were used during guided reading time where students had the benefit of small group instruction to assist them with reading and understanding books a little above their grade level. The final portion to this unit involved students learning to appreciate and care for the earth they have learned so much about. For this part of the unit students explored reducing, reusing, and recycling.

The websites were a great way for students to engage in higher level thinking while also using technology. Students used the brainpop website as an introduction and reinforcement of content. The recycling websites were both meant for students to apply their knowledge after they had a strong framework. Finally, the GeoKids website and the Scott Foresman website provided students with collaborative reading opportunities.

(1990). //Crafty ideas// //from junk//. Mount Kisco: Watford || Students used their knowledge of reusing to bring junk from home that would normally be thrown away and use it to make something new. I provided students with this book in our exploration center for independent browsing. The book provides idea of how to reuse things to make new things. || N/A: This is a step-by-step instruction book designed for adults but my students were able to use the pictures to help them. || -One about rocks -One about recycling Students gained a visual learning experience which was extended into their reading ||  ||
 * **Resource** || **Explanation** || **Guided** **Reading****Level** ||
 * Cooney, T. M. (2003). //Scott Foresman science//. Glenview, Ill.: Scott Foresman. || This is my classroom textbook for teaching science. For this unit I used this text to teach my students some vocabulary words which students then wrote themselves and hung up on our bulletin board for reference throughout the unit || N/A: Most of my students were able to read the sections of the book required for this unit. ||
 * Holland, M., & Ross, M. (1992). //It's just a good thing to do//. Pinellas Park, Fla.: Willowisp Press. || This book is all about recycling. It talks about ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle. I read this book aloud to my class as they followed along and choral read the repetitive parts of the book. || H/I ||
 * Walker, C. H., & Simons, S. (19901989). //The earth's surface//. Cleveland, OH: Modern Curriculum Press. || This book is all about landforms. I have enough copies of this book for all of my students to read. We read this book as a class and students used the book in groups to create posters of a particular landform. Students also quizzed each other with the easy-to-read questions in the back of the book. || I ||
 * Walker, C. H., & Ravenscroft, H. (19901989). //Our changing earth//. Cleveland, Ohio: Modern Curriculum Press. || My class read this book together and then students partner read the book. We used this book to compare and contrast with the book //The Earth’s Surface//. Both books discuss important elements of the earth. This book talks mostly about how the earth’s surface changes and the book //The Earth’s Surface// is mostly about landforms on our earth. || I ||
 * Insights, E. (1994). //Rocks: Discover earth's most amazing minerals and rocks//. Dominguez Hils, CA: Educational Insights. || This book is well above my students’ reading levels but I used particular pages of this book to read aloud to my students. This book also provides students with experiments with classifying and identifying rocks. Our class did several experiments with observing certain rock properties and this book was particularly helpful with that. I left this book for independent “reading” (looking at the pictures) in our exploration center. || N/A: I read sections of this book aloud to my students ||
 * Nelson, J., & Martin, C. (1990). //Don't throw it away!//. Cleveland, Ohio: Modern Curriculum Press. || This book is all about recycling. My students read this book in their guided reading groups. Students used the book as reference for websites we visited and their own persuasive poster. My high reading group used this book to guide them in writing and persuasive letter which they later shared with the class. || G/H ||
 * Cheyet, B. (0). //Care for the earth: A kid's guide to recycling//. Brooklyn, NY: Positive Promotions. || This book provides a few short cartoons that my students read as a whole group. This book was also used as a reference for students while they were making their persuasive posters. || N/A: This is mostly an activity/ reference book I used for my unit. ||
 * Daitz, M., & Chapman, G.
 * Morris, N. (2009). //Looking after my environment//. Mankato, Minn.: QED Publishing. || This book provides information about the importance of protecting our earth. It has a lot of fun facts about how students can do their part to make a difference in protecting the earth. || J/K ||
 * Rundell, S. (1994). //Dig into rocks//. Napa, CA: Geocentral. || This book provides classification of rocks. I provided students with independent time to book over this book while we were sorting our rocks. This is above my students’ reading level but there we able to look at the pictures and compare their rocks to rocks in the book and sort accordingly. || P ||
 * Howard, J., & Bonforte, L. (1997). //I can read about fossils//. Mahwah, N.J.: Troll. || This book is all about fossils: What the are, where to find them, and why fossils happen. This book is mostly about dinosaur fossils and provided an engaging experience for most of my students. || J ||
 * www.brainpopjr.com || This website does require a subscription but it has a lot of really beneficial videos and projects for students. In my classroom students watched two videos for this unit:
 * [] || This was a fun website that provided students with using some of their coordination skills to get different objects across a busy highway to the recycling bins! This website did not have a lot of read but it was a good way for students to apply their knowledge in a game setting. ||  ||
 * [] || This website had some information that we read as a class. It provided some interesting fact that students were really excited to learn about! This also had a game where students needed to sort recyclable materials. ||  ||
 * [] || This website provides information about the inside and outside of our earth. Students had a difficult time reading this independently so higher readers paired up with lower readers to read the information here. Before doing the lesson we made and KWL chart as a class and students had the task of completing the “L” portion of the chart after reading this together. ||  ||
 * [] || I do not have individual copies of my science text book for all of my students so I used this website so all students could read the text. This allowed students to be more engaged and active listeners. ||