Happy Spring to everyone!
Today I am excited to share with you some of the activities from my Spring Surprises ELA & Science Bundle {frogs, butterflies, chickens & flowers} that we have been working on in my first grade classroom. I love teaching science and I think that bringing science lessons, experiments, and activities into the classroom is so engaging for kids!
This past week we have started 3 new focuses:
1.We have been learning about Spring and all the changes it brings, especially animals and living things.
2. We have begun to focus on non-fiction books, about reading non-fiction, the vocabulary, and text features.
3. We have been working on our reading comprehension, responding to text, and locating facts in text.
Therefore, I really wanted some interesting and informative activities that would tie in our science and ELA goals together…
Activity #1: Finding & Reading Facts about Frogs
First, we used the Frog Fact Sheets provided in my spring science pack to learn more about frogs. I started out by reading the fact sheets to my students so that we could have a discussion about frogs and learn some new vocabulary.
Next, I paired my students up and gave them their own copies to read together in partners to build their understanding and to hear the main facts about frogs again.
Then, they cut out all the frog facts from the cut & paste activity that goes along with the All About Frogs template. Before they were to paste the fact, they were encouraged to read each fact and locate it in the fact sheets, highlight it, and then glue down under the correct category.
This was great practice in not only reading comprehension and locating information in text, but in understanding non-fiction categories and headings, such as appearance, life cycle, habitat, diet, fun facts.
We worked really hard our this activity and my students learned TONS of new frog facts!
Activity #2: A Close Reading about a Butterflies’ Life Cycle
First, we used the Read & Respond activity about a butterflies’ life cycle provided in the bundle to learn more about butterflies. I started by reading the paragraph to my students and I showed them an anchor chart of the life cycle for them to have a visual.
Next, they worked with the same partner as the other activity (I like to do this because they are building new skills together with this person!) and they started by re-reading the paragraph on butterflies at their desks.
Then, they were to answer a page of questions related to the passage they read. I again encouraged them to locate the answers in the paragraph and highlight it. This also helps them when they are responding to narrow down the key information and have it easily accessible when answering the questions. We worked through the questions and I encouraged them to write their answers in complete sentences.
Overall, this activity was great practice for finding key information and for answering reading comprehension questions.
I would love to hear how you incorporate science into the curriculum?
Do you build reading skills with the use of non-fiction materials?
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If you are interested in seeing all the activities and materials provided in my Spring Surprises bundle you can read my blog post HERE or find it in my TpT store HERE. This bundle has everything you would need to teach about spring life sciences and is HUGE at almost 300 pages.
Also, I have the 4 spring science units included in the bundle {frogs, butterflies, chickens, flowers} available separately if you are interested.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have found some great science ideas for your own classroom!
