This is a stray away from my usual reading/language arts type of activities, but I really enjoyed this little science project!
First off, for those of you who aren't really familiar with the concept (I sure wasn't!), a flinker is an object that when place in a container of water, does not float at the top or sink to the bottom, but just "flinks" in the middle of the water area. For this specific project, the challenge is for the students to make a flinker of some sort that will flink for at least 10 seconds.
My little twist to the lesson plan, I think in the beginning (especially if you are working with a younger age group...in my case, my wonderful Kindergarten chosen ones), you should cover the distinction between objects that float and sink. Have a container of water and show the students different objects like pennies, paperclips, sponges, styrofoam peanuts, an empty plastic bottle, etc. Have the students make guesses as to what they think might float or sink. After doing the demonstration, have a discussion with the class about why they think certain thinks would float and other things would sink (i.e. what do they think makes them float or sink and different characteristics of these objects that may contribute to it).
The students are separated into groups and start performing the project. They test materials in water and start putting them together one-by-one to make their flinker design better each time. They can attach things together, change the shapes of things, or anything else they may think of, this is when they can really be creative! The students have to try to make their flinker flink for at least 10 seconds. Have them call you over to show you and then, if you have time, let each group present their findings to the rest of the class.
This was such a cute idea because they can really get creative and hands on with everything. The kinesthetic learning approach is really the way to go, I believe, and this experiment gives them a chance to test things for themselves instead of just taking somebody's word for it. :)
I found this cute experiment first on the cpalms.org website and then on http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/flinker.html
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| an example of a Flinker! |
Hey guys!
So in the spirit of keeping with my Kindergarten reading theme, I found another very cute and interesting lesson plan to complete with the students. This lesson plan is called the Narrative Text Structure Story Question Cube. The Story Cube itself contains the questions: What happens in the story (beginning, middle, end)? When does the story take place (time)? How was the problem solved? Where does the story take place? Who are the characters? Why did the problem happen? The cube is put in the middle of the table of the group of students. Each student also has a student answer sheet, with different general questions about the story. After reading the story, each student takes turns rolling the cube. They then answer whatever question the cube landed on, on their answer sheets. They continue this until the answer sheet is complete!
One teaching strategy that is used in this lesson plan is the strategy of discussion. They students all need to talk to each other about what they think the answer might be and why it is that answer. This also means that another teaching strategy used in the lesson plan would be cooperative learning. They all worked together in groups playing the "game" and helping each other discover the answers to the cube's questions. The lesson plan also used the active learning strategy because it gave the students a chance to be active by using a hands-on activity to learn reading comprehension.
I really love this lesson plan! I am a kinesthetic learner myself and I feel that it will benefit most if I teach that way because it will allow me to give all I can. (This is not saying however that I will ignore other learning style, just saying this one I think works out best for my teaching style). I also think that it is good, especially for students at such a young age, to be shown these different fun learning projects so they know that everything is not all lecture and busy work. :)
This is an example of what the story cube might look like.
This is the website where I found this lesson plan:
http://www.fcrr.org/studentactivities/c_011a.pdf
The objective of this lesson is to practice the use of high frequency words, also known as sight words. Common
sight words for kindergarten level students include like, look, and,
am, we, up, he, her, here and many others. Learning site words helps
students become more confident readers. In this lesson, the students
practice the frequency words by playing a game of checkers. This is a
student center activity so it allows the students to independently
practice skills that the teacher has already taught them.
The teacher first chooses the high frequency words to be used in the
game, all depending on the reading level of the students. These high
frequency words are put directly onto the game board, along with the
normal set up of the checkerboard. The students will each take turns
moving a checker and reading the frequency word of the board that they
placed the checker. If the student is able to read the word, they leave
the checker in that spot and continue the game. If the student is not
able to read the word, however, the student returns the checker to the
previous square. The game ends when one of the students reaches the
opposite end of the checkers board.
Here's a sample of what the game setup looks like:
This was a really interesting and cute
lesson plan. I really enjoy the visual learning aspect of it because I
find it easier to learn this way and I think it is a fun way to get
students to practice sight words which have become such a high standard
in school. I found this lesson plan on the Sunshine State Standards
website, which offers many different interesting lesson plans for all
grade levels and different subject areas! Here is the link to this
lesson plan:
http://www.cpalms.org/Resources
