Author: Kate Marshall

Target: 5th grade science!

Standard: 5-ESS3-1. Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.

• Human activities in agriculture, industry and everyday life have had major effects on the land, vegetation, streams, ocean, air, and even outer space. But individuals and communities are doing things to help protect Earth’s resources and environments.

Direct Link to Book

Instructions:

This lesson is the first in a unit all about human impact on the environment! This first lesson is specifically about human impact on our land. Once the teacher introduces the goals for the lesson, they will allow students access to this interactive science notebook that all students will download as a copy to edit! The teacher will provide students time to start working on steps 1-4 independently. When all students are ready to move to step 5, the teacher will begin the apple demonstration and students will fill in the pie chart! Once the demonstration is over, students will collaborate to answer step 5. Once all students finish and the time is up, students will complete an exit ticket by answering the question on the last page!

Instructional goal:

While completing this lesson, I want students to have a clear spot for all of their information and an example of what a clear, concise notebook should look like. I want students to be able to independently follow the steps and work on steps 1-4 by themselves (unless they have specific needs where this cannot happen – then the teacher will create an alternate plan where they can work with one buddy). Students should be able to take notes, create a hypothesis, and be critical thinkers!

Why BookCreator?

I really loved learning how to use BookCreator this semester. In my current field experience class, I notice that students do a lot of work (note-taking, assignments, etc.) on various apps, but it is all so inconsistent and disorganized. I also notice that the students really struggle to format all of the things that they need to do in a way that is helpful for them in the future to look back on, or even to complete later. I chose to use BookCreator to create a science journal for students so that they have a clear place to put all of their work, and everything that we do that day is all there for them. I think that this is also great because it provides a lot of resources for students who are absent that day, and the teacher only has to show a video of the apple demonstration to them and alter the group conversation. I love how you can embed different materials into this website so that the teacher does not have to scramble to print out and pass out tons of worksheets!

Authors: Kate Marshall and Lannie Hisashima

The target age group for this activity is 4th graders and the subject is science. This lesson is more like a homework assignment that is given after a class session that introduces the solar system but does not focus on each planet individually. And so, the goal of this assignment is to allow students to learn about each planet using a closer lens. Instead of using class time to do this, Google Sites has allowed us to create a homework assignment that students can complete at their own pace of exploration. They will explore our Google Site while filling out a scavenger hunt worksheet (we would supply them with this document in a Google Classroom post). The worksheet would ask questions such as, “Where can you find the largest volcano in the solar system?” or “Where can you find the most suitable environment for life to thrive in our solar system?” To wrap up the activity, we also added a Google Form survey to see how students like the activity and whether it is something that should be done again in the future.

Featured Image: Photo by Guillermo Ferla on Unsplash

Grade: 4/5

Subject: Writing

Goal: The goal of this book is to give an example of how to write an opinion piece. I chose to write about why I think I deserve a dog in my family. By reading this, students can see a complete example of what opinion writing looks like and the format to follow. There is also a checklist in the book for students to use when they are writing their own opinion pieces.

Direct link: https://read.bookcreator.com/uR1T2RdQthdaF1OqtDbMaVITOnF3/_DQWa1qNTHWFpOPfViHXMA

CA CCSS 4.3.2 – Compare how and why people traveled to California and the routes they traveled (e.g., James Beckwourth, John Bidwell, John C. Fremont, Pio Pico).

This activity is designed for fourth-grade students in California. This lesson will be tied into the California history unit on the Gold Rush and Westward expansion. My goal is for students to understand the dangers of the route and consider why pioneers would still embark on the trip.

In this lesson, students will explore a map of the Pony Express Trail on Google MyMaps. Students will move along the trail and do research on the various stops along the way from the East to West on the hunt for gold. They will work together and determine the challenges of traveling through these locations. They will then create an opinion piece on whether or not they would take this trail if they were pioneers.

Target group: 5th grade during science block

This BrainPop video will be watched by a fifth-grade classroom as an introduction to the water cycle. Although they might know some of these concepts and words, they will be learning about the different aspects of the water cycle and how it connects overall. There will be follow-up lessons going into greater depth of the water cycle, but this will help them get a basic idea. There are a series of both multiple choice and short answer questions for them to answer throughout the video.

Instructions:

After engaging in a water phenomena video, students will engage in a brainstorming session about how the water cycle works. After the discussion, students will open their laptops and engage with the video and questions.

Watch the video here if the embed does not work.

1. Self Graded Quiz – How Well Do You Know Miss Kate?

I think that this would be a fun activity for students in the beginning of the year to get to know their teacher! I love the idea of teachers and students forming close relationships and bonding over real life things – not just school. Here is what I created about myself!

2. Branching Form – Design Your Dream Day!

I created a Design Your Dream Day braching form because I thought that this would be a fun brain break for students, morning opener, or could be an intro into a fun lesson on businesses or time management! I also love having students practice decision making skills, this is a great skill to learn and a fun way to practice!

I am from a place created by the sun,

Where warmth allowed orange trees to flourish and farmers to succeed

Somewhere so beautiful, my parents couldn’t stand to leave.

 

I am from a city where happiness radiates year-round,

From summer concerts in the park with dripping popsicles

And Winter pool parties because the sun won’t allow the rain.

 

I am from beach trips before zero period

Dinner on the sand at 32^nd street with California burritos, watching the sunset

And yacht rock concerts with my parents and their friends

 

I am from church on Sundays at the same church my mom was baptized and parents were married,

And nightly, home-cooked family dinners

Where anyone who needs a place to stay is always welcome.

 

I am from a neighborhood where friends become family,

Where everybody knows everybody

And a place that will always feel like home.

 

I am from Fullerton, a city in sunny Orange County.

I chose to use Adobe becuase I felt like it was the most user-friendly between the two options. I really liked the way that I was able to get images so easily and embed them into my project. I also thought that the final result was clean, looked nice, and was creative! I really like this platform and will definitely use it again. I think that it would be really cool to use this as a get to know me in the beginning of the year!

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.NF.B.3.A
Understand addition and subtraction of fractions as joining and separating parts referring to the same whole.

Context: This will be for identifying fractions as part of a whole. This can be used as a low-stakes assessment or a fun review.

Goal: The goal of this assignment is to provide another visual example that demonstrates that fractions are part of a whole. Students should be able to create their own fractions out of a whole in a fun and creative way!

Grade: 4

Hello amazing fifth graders! Today we are going to review what we know about fractions by creating fraction flags on Google Draw. You are going to get to be creative and develop your own, beautiful flag using different rectangles and triangles. Here is my flag for an example!

Next, you are going to go through and find the fraction amount for each color in the flag! Simplify the fraction down to its simplest form. For example, mine would be 1/8 green, 1/2 pink, and so on. Write in your answers with a text box over each color to explain your work. We will print out these flags and put them in our room! Feel free to get as detailed as you would like.

Let this flag represent you and you personality! Have fun with it!

You got this!

Hi fifth graders! Today, we are going to review what we learned about the water cycle yesterday.

Turn to your neighbor and discuss these vocabulary words.

• Runoff
• Precipitation
• Condensation
• Accumulation
• Transpiration
• Percolation

After you discuss these words with your table groups, you are going to head to Jamboard and create your own water cycle and label the different water cycle terms where they belong and add whatever else you think is missing. You are going to work together and try to make it as accurate as possible! Once you finish, you will be able to compare it to the version we learned from and saw yesterday! We will use this as a guide for when we make the physical models of the water cycle!

Click here for the Jamboard link!

Goals: to familiarize students with scientific water cycle vocabulary and the processes of the water cycle. This will be helpful for our visual learners. This is a precursor to an activity where students are building a water cycle 3D model!

For this interview, I chose to interview my dad! He was born in 1961 and always talks about how fast the world is changing, so I thought it would be fun to interview him about his life with technology!

1.What was your first memory with technology?

“My first memory with technology was with a video game called Pong hooked up to my TV. We used a controller to play. I must have been 11 or 12, so the early 70’s. It was the only game we had but we loved it. It was all the rage in my neighborhood.”

2. What piece of technology were you most excited to get?

“Phones were always just tools to me. The iPhone and the iPad were probably the most exciting because of the invention of the apps and the video calls. It reminded me of the spy movies and books that I watched/ read growing up. I just think it was a really clear example of technology evolving before my eyes.”

3. What piece of technology improved your life the most?

“The laptop was so nice because you could start to do work from anywhere. I am not sure if the iPhone improved my life as it certainly made it more complicated, but it made life easier in lots of ways. I have access to more than everything that I need. The iPhone made my life so much more efficient.”

4. Do you have any predictions for what technology will look like in the future?

“I think eventually we will move away from hand-held anything. I think Elon Musk was talking about having a computer chip inserted into your head. This freaks me out and I will not participate in it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes a big deal. I think that block chain technology holds the most promise – this is the stuff that Bitcoin is based on. It timestamps data and it moves it quicker and more secure way. It holds amazing promise and I think that this technology paired with AI will become a huge part of the future. Crazy sci-fi novels are quickly becoming reality, in my opinion.”

5. Is there anything that you would change about technology?

“I think that technology is just a tool, and people forget that. Think about the hammer metaphor. A good person with a hammer would build a house, a bad person with a hammer would break into a house. I think that technology is the same way. Think about countries breaking into each other’s countries. We rely so much on systems of technology that lives are at stake. It is amazing in how it makes life much easier, but if there was a disaster, it would be life-threatening. I think it is important to design systems that are bullet proof from a safety standpoint, especially the systems that so many people rely on (power, water, data security, etc.).”

6. Is there one piece of technology that you can’t live without now?

“Probably my iPhone. It is a supercomputer, I could literally do everything off of it. I can do my banking, create work PowerPoint presentations, call people, the opportunities are infinite. There are over 1.85 million apps available to download – I think I would be fine with just my iPhone. I don’t feel attached to it at all and I could move back to a flip phone at the end of the day, but it makes my life so much more efficient and portable.”