- Everyone knows that teaching clouds and the weather is not difficult, just boring. However, you can make it interesting by showing your students how clouds are formed. What you will need is a jar, a match, tape, black paper, a flash light, and a small bag of ice. What you will do is fill the jar 1/3 of the way full with warm water. Then you will light the match, hold it in the jar for a couple of seconds, and then drop the match into the water. Next, quickly cover the jar with the small bag of ice. Now you just shine the flash light into the jar and watch the clouds form. Of course, the black paper will be taped on the jar so you all can see the formation. You can explain at anytime how clouds are formed during this experiment.
- Another idea for teaching weather into your science class by assigning two kids a week to be meteorologists. What you will do is have those two students report the weather for the week, make suggestions on what clothing may be appropriate, and the weather conditions. This can include wind conditions (good time to introduce the Beaufort scale), cloud cover, precipitation, temperature, etc…..
- Another great tip for teaching about weather in science is to help your students create weather measuring devises. For instance, you can make a rain gauge for rainy days and an anemometer for windy days.
- Although elementary science consists of younger kids, it is a great time to introduce chemistry and biology. For this tip/project, you will need balloons, a thin/narrow funnel, one tablespoon of active dry yeast, one teaspoon of sugar, measuring spoons and cups, warm water, and a ruler. You will prove to your students that you can, indeed, blow up a balloon without putting your mouth to it. Place the funnel into the balloon and either help your students or supervise them as you all place the sugar and yeast into the balloon. Next, fill the measuring cup with warm water and tie the balloon closed. Measure the balloon and then sit back and wait. Your students will be awe struck as the balloon expands. You can explain how the sugar and water make the yeast grow, which releases bubbles full of carbon dioxide; hence the balloon expands and you have just taught science.
- Here is a great tip for teaching space and the solar system. You can use a basket ball, your own head, a black marker, and a lamp in a dark room to teach about the different phases of the moon. What you will do first is mark a point on the basket ball because one side of the moon always faces the earth and this will let you know which side that is. Next, you will turn on the lamp and turn off all other lights in the room. Now, stand a few feet away from the lamp, because this is the sun, your head is the earth, and the ball is the moon. Hold the ball up so that it creates a shadow on your head. This would be a solar eclipse. If you hold the ball slightly to the left of your head, there would be a crescent of light on the ball. This would be the new crescent. Turn around so that your head creates a shadow on the ball to create a lunar eclipse and let the ball be fully lighted for a full moon.
- Probably the most important thing you can remember is that science at this level needs to be basic; your kids are not ready to learn rocket science.
- For teaching about life science, take your students on a nature scavenger hunt. You can hunt for things like bugs, birds, other small animals and collect things like bird nests, feathers, acorns, plants, even berries or sea shells depending on where your school is located. Place the items in baggies and have hand sanitizer available.
- If you have a successful scavenger hunt, you can then create a display board or have your students start a nature book (to record the things they saw and heard in nature). On a display board, label the items you have found.
- Go on an ant hunt. Once you have found some ants, allow your students to study them under a magnifying glass. Ask your students how many legs, feelers, and body sections they see. Talk about what the different parts of the ants are called.
- Another animal/insect science tip is to study what ants eat. Find an ant hill outside and then place different types of foods in paper cups around it. See which foods the ants like best or if the ants left the cup and returned with more ants.
Scavenger hunts are great for teaching science — it takes some setup and you always get unexpected things!