Sophie and Sadie's Scholarly Site

Today’s focus is going to be on something that is both WILD and WONDERFUL: WATER! Right now in sunny SC, the temperatures  are well into the  high 90’s daily so we are all looking for ways to cool off, and I have a few ideas from several different sources that are water activities that you can do easily with very few materials at home or school.

My co-teachers  and grade-level team of  Tami Garvin, Quetta Hammonds, Tammy Swartz and I put on our first Water Olympics in May. Earlier in that same week, we also did several team-building activities that involved water during our end-of-the-year camping unit. One challenge was building a paper cup with only one sheet of paper and glue ( we used glue sticks). I was impressed by the ingenuity of the kids’ designs and how well their designs held up! We also had the traditional water balloon toss the same day as our water games. The kids ( and teachers) had a BLAST!



Our activities were  based on  several ideas suggested by Victoria Jasztal on her Scholastic blogs at Top Teaching last year.
http://blogs.scholastic.com/classroom_solutions/2010/05/incorporate-math-and-science-with-an-outdoor-camping-day-event.html
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3756002

Our  water-based activities were  adapted from similar AIMS units:

http://cmase.uark.edu/teacher/workshops/AIMS-lessons/mini-metrics.pdf
http://cmase.uark.edu/teacher/workshops/AIMS-lessons/Water_Olympics.pdf

There are plenty of resources of water sports and games online that can easily been done at home, and while they are just good, old-fashioned fun, some also involve really using your brain!

http://www.kidactivities.net/category/Games-Outside-Water.aspx

The team building and thinking games such as the paper cup challenge that I used with our students came from a great new set of  resources that I really LOVE! These are  my new favorite books for cooperative games, brain teasers and challenges and team-building  and are all by Lorenz Publications. I have about five total that I can use in any subject area and also can be used to start class instead of “bell work” or to end class but some are JUST FOR FUN!  Some of the activities require little or no materials, and the activities we’ve used have left my kids begging for more. That’s the best review anything can get!

 

Have fun and I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday, too!

http://www.madscience.com/locations/columbia/

Parents:There’s even an Kid’s Club at Mad Science!
http://tinyurl.com/3upzs9d

But behind all the thrills of finding out  the science of why we belch, examining animal scat ( if you don’t know, just Google it), and mixing slime, the real reason we as parents and teachers need to check this out is here in this Time Magazine article found at the Mad Science website:
http://tinyurl.com/3gwvv67

We need to get kids hooked on science. What do kids like? Anything that looks, tastes, smells, or feels GROSS. I can tell some of you have been around fourth graders some days after lunch because I sense your smiles  and giggles.

Right now Mad Science  also has an exhibit titled "GROSSOLOGY" at the State Museum in Columbia. The State Museum includes more activities that are gross but science standard-based.
http://www.museum.state.sc.us/exhibits/animalgrossology.aspx

All this grossness is based on  the GROSSOLOGY series by Sylvia Branzei and Jack Keely which is also a series on Discovery Kids:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=grossology&x=0&y=0

But never fear- there are   many freebies out there so you too can be GROSS at home!
http://www.grossology.org/

http://www.arkansasdiscoverynetwork.org/exhibits/gross_lessons.html

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/education/guides/Grossology-guide.pdf

Sophie and Sadie are big fans of grossness that gets kids interested in science and  wave their paws in the air for this summer activity.
Disgustingly yours,
Fran