JoinAll Resources
Book Chapter
This activity is about observing an abandoned spiderweb. Take a walk to look for spiderwebs and caution children not to touch if the web has spiders but to observe the movement of the spider. If no spiders, spray the web with water to make it easier ...
Book Chapter
This activity focuses on making a giant spiderweb out of yarn. Discuss the different spiderwebs investigated earlier and let the children know they will be building and testing a giant spiderweb. Encourage children to describe how they think spiders ...
Book Chapter
This activity is about observing birds in the environment. Take the children for a walk around the school looking for birds. Taking pictures of the birds observed can greatly enhance the activity. After the walk, ask children to describe and draw pic...
Book Chapter
This activity is about attracting birds to the school yard. The children put out empty milk cartons with food and place a pencil or wood dowel through small holes cut into the sides of the carton. Birds will be able to perch on the dowel and reach in...
Book Chapter
This activity is about using different materials to build a bird nest. Before starting, share books about different types of birds’ nests and discuss the many different materials, locations, sizes, and shapes. Children will choose materials and be...
Book Chapter
This activity is about looking through empty cups and water-filled cups to see how things appear. Give each child an empty cup and one half-filled with water. Ask them to look through their cups at each other and at objects around the room. Have chil...
Book Chapter
This activity is about discovering that water evaporates. On a sunny day, give children buckets of water and wide paintbrushes for painting the outside tables and benches. Have them to also paint something that’s in the shade. Encourage them to not...
Book Chapter
This activity is for finding out which items absorb water and which do not. Give each child a variety of items to experiment with to see what happens when they put some water on them. Use the word absorb when discussing with the children what they fo...
Book Chapter
This activity is for finding out what happens when various foods are placed in colored water. Have a variety of vegetables available and let each child select one to put in water to see what happens. After a few hours or longer of soaking, let the ch...
Book Chapter
This activity is for discovering what happens when different materials are mixed with water. Give children five cups, each filled halfway with water. Show them the materials you have—sand, salt, sugar, flour, pepper—and explain that they are goin...
Book Chapter
This activity is for finding out how drops of different liquids behave. Give the children each a piece of waxed paper and ask them to try dropping a small amount of water onto their paper in order to make drops. Ask children to describe what they fou...
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This activity is for finding out what happens when materials stay in water for a long time. Give children an egg carton and let them put water in each compartment. Then choose different items for each compartment and predict which items will change. ...
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This activity is for making and testing different bubble makers. Put out materials listed and ask children how they could use the materials to create a bubble maker. Children love making bubbles! They will test all the materials you make available. E...
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This activity is for making things with sand and water. At a sand table or in a sandbox, let the children begin by exploring dry sand and then add water to the sand. Wet sand allows children to try out many more ideas than dry sand does. Encourage th...
Book Chapter
This activity is for mixing two primary colors to create a secondary color. When introducing mixing of colors, always start with the primary colors and choose only two. Point out the different shades that children are producing as they use more of on...
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This activity is for dipping paper towels and other materials in colored water to make designs and test absorption properties. Give children paper towels and encourage them to fold any way they want, and then to dip corners or sections into the diffe...
Book Chapter
This activity is for dropping water on a semi-absorbent surface to see what happens. Children can work in pairs with one dropping colored water from an eyedropper into a box, and the other one tilting the box to see what happens to the water. When ...
Book Chapter
This activity involves mixing water with cornstarch and exploring the result. Have children measure two cups of cornstarch and one cup of water into their bowls. Then have them compare oobleck, water, and cornstarch and describe how each feels and lo...
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This activity involves observing properties of a new material. Away from children, make a batch of snappy with recipe provided and put on table for them to use. Children will work with the snappy for a long time—pushing, pulling, rolling, and stre...
Book Chapter
This activity involves looking for seeds in fruit. Put out fruit for children to see and give them an opportunity to touch and smell each of them. Then cut the fruit and give each one. When one of them uses the word seeds, repeat the word and encoura...
Book Chapter
This activity is for observing seeds in fruits and vegetables. Show the children a small assortment of seeds and ask them what they think the seeds are and where they come from and then discuss their ideas. As a follow-up activity, provide children d...
Book Chapter
This activity is for observing and sorting seeds. Distribute an assortment of seeds to each child. Ask them to put together all the seeds that seem to be the same and encourage them to sort their seeds according to different properties or characteri...
Book Chapter
This activity involves sorting seeds by one attribute. Have sorting boxes ready for each child and distribute one set of seeds to each. Provide children with magnifiers and let them explore their seeds. After their initial exploration, call out a cha...
Book Chapter
This activity is about observing seeds while they absorb water, change size, and become soft. Give a lima bean seed and magnifier to each child and suggest putting it into water. Invite the children to look at their seeds several times during the day...
Book Chapter
This activity is about observing the inside of soaked lima bean seeds. Give each child two presoaked lima beans. Have them loosely wrap the seeds in a moist paper towel and place them on a plastic plate. Allow the children to carefully unwrap their ...
Book Chapter
This activity is about planting a terrarium. Have each child choose a container and a plant and then follow the planting procedure. Place the terrarium where it will get plenty of light and have the children observe and describe their plants regula...
Book Chapter
This activity is about exploring an ear of corn. Encourage children to describe how the cornhusks feel, smell, and look. After a few minutes encourage children to find out what is inside the cornhusks. Then cook the corn so they can taste it. A foll...
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This activity is for investigating how heat changes things. Hand out some unpopped popcorn kernels to the children for observation. Then make some popcorn! This is a science investigation that they can eat so allow children to describe how it tastes...
Book Chapter
This activity is for comparing and grinding fresh and dried corn. Let children handle the dried and fresh corncobs and talk about what they see and feel. Give children time to explore and then put all the dried kernels in one bowl to soak in water ov...
Book Chapter
This activity is for using a variety of seeds to make a collage or wreath. Have the children help you begin saving seeds from fruits and vegetables and also from the plants around the schoolyard. Observe which seeds children seem to be most intereste...
Book Chapter
Pondering Pumpkins: The Outsides
This activity is for investigating the exterior of pumpkins. Select a few pumpkins of different sizes for small groups of children to observe and compare. Give the children time to look at and touch the pumpkins and then challenge them to figure out ...
Book Chapter
Pondering Pumpkins: The Insides
This activity is for investigating the insides of pumpkins. After finding out what children think the insides of pumpkins are like carefully cut the pumpkins in half horizontally around the middle. After their observation, ask the children to share w...
Book Chapter
This activity is about finding interesting objects in nature to make into a bracelet. Give children a bracelet by placing a piece of masking tape around the wrist, sticky side out. Then take a nature walk so they can make “nature bracelets” by pi...
Book Chapter
This activity is about looking for weeds when taking children on a walk. When back in the classroom, have them observe the weeds they pulled and put in their bags. Then have them tape all the weeds together on a big piece of paper to display with a h...
Book Chapter
This activity is about going for a walk to look for animals in the neighborhood. Encourage children to talk about how animals look, how they move, and what they eat and make a list on chart paper of all the animals they remember seeing. As a fun foll...
Book Chapter
This activity is about making observations of a tree over time. Choose a tree that is near the school and one that changes through the year. A deciduous tree—one that loses its leaves—makes the best subject. Visit the tree and repeat this activit...
Book Chapter
This activity is about visiting a nursery to observe plants, flowers, and trees. Encourage them to look for many different colors, shapes, and smells. If possible, bring back plants from the nursery for children to plant at school or to take home. ...
Book Chapter
This activity is about putting pieces of a branch together to make a whole branch. Take the children for a walk and encourage them to observe trees, with focus on the trunk and branches. Then show them the branch puzzles and challenge them to put a p...
Book Chapter
This activity is about exploring the shapes, sizes, and colors of fall leaves. Take the children on a walk to collect leaves and challenge them to find something interesting about the leaves. Back in the classroom, have them sort the leaves in differ...
eBook
Supporting Emergent Multilingual Learners in Science, Grades 7–12 (e-book)
Many middle and high school teachers are educated to teach science content—they don’t anticipate that one day they may be teaching it to students who need to learn both content and English. If the day has come when you’re facing that two-pronge...