Fictional Stories in Science
Using Fictional Stories as a Pathway to Science Content
Science Sites for Education: February 29, 2020 Highlights
Recently I added a page to this website called, Science Sites for Education. If you click on that tab, you will learn about my Facebook page, where I share sites that I have learned about that have the potential to positively impact the K-12+ science classroom. My goal is to post a site a day, but some weeks are more successful than others. This week I successfully posted a site a day, and I created a PDF highlights those posts. You can find that PDF HERE.
If you like these site shares, be sure to “like” my Facebook page, and share it, and this labor of love, with your colleagues and friends.
Thank You and Happy Learning!
–Kalynda
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Hour of Code: Prep Time
Organize an Hour of Code during Computer Science Education Week, December 9th-15th.
There are many ways to get your class, grade level team, content area team, and school involved. Here are some of those ways/resources:
- Code.org
- This site has resources for students and teachers (divided by elementary, middle, and high school). It also has background knowledge about the event, and ways to help promote it.
- Computer Science Education Week: Hour of Code
- This site has a walk-through video about the Hour of Code, tips for teachers, and a link for Hour of Code tutorials.
- Hour of Code
- This site has activities, how-tos, and ways to promote it.
What is another way to get started and prepared for an Hour of Code???
You could read a book 🙂
Like this one:
OR….
OR…
Check out other great STEM Picture Books
on Amazon.
on Amazon.Whichever way you approach the Hour of Code, your students will be glad you did. 🙂
Happy Coding!
–Kalynda
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Preparing for the Holidays?
How about giving the gift that gives this season?
You might be thinking I mean books…and if so, you are both right and not completely right. 🙂
The other night I went out to celebrate my friend’s birthday. The days leading up to that night, I kept thinking about what I could give her as a gift. It couldn’t just be anything for this longtime friend. I wanted to give a gift that was her, a person who not only gives so much of herself, but also has a passion for books.
Hmmm.
Then…BOOM, of course…a donation of books for those that are in need of them. I am surprised by how long it took me to come up with this idea. My boyfriend and I have been giving each other (and some family members) gifts where we donate, in their name, to an organization that supports a cause they are passionate about. We have been doing this for quite some time, because truly, although we have needs, and often a tight budget to fulfill those needs, we deeply know that we have enough. This isn’t the case for all.
The organization I decided on for my dear friend is called Project Night Night.
Project Night Night helps “homeless children have sweeter dreams” by providing them a package that has “a new security blanket, an age- appropriate children’s book, and a stuffed animal — all nestled inside of a new canvas tote bag” (see above photo). They have donated over 25,000 Night Night packages each year! LOVE!
I found their organization (and many others) through a simple Google search. My search brought me to a post by Chronicle Books that lists “17 US-Based Charities That Put Books in the Hands of Children”.
The gift was received warmly and I am so glad that I was able to give and to find this site.
I know I will be giving the gift of books again many times over, and this list will help me…and I hope it also helps you give the gift that gives…for any occasion.
Happy Giving!
–Kalynda
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#teamtrees
Have you heard about #teamtrees? If not, it is my joy to share this invitation to participate and to help.
YouTuber MrBeast started this invitation movement to make a positive environmental impact, by raising funds to plant 20 million trees around the globe. With $1 per tree, his efforts have spread and individuals, and classrooms, like my 8th grade science class, have joined in and donated. You can learn a bit more from this video by Inside Edition:
Want to get your class involved?
A great way to start the class brainstorming session is to start with a read aloud. Below are some of my favorites:
This was one of the books I purchased through a grant I wrote for an elementary school, to increase their access to stories that share science identities. You can read more about that grant from my post Books on Display. And my follow-up post New Science-Themed Picture Books on Display.
Some additional great reads for your classroom, to help start your own #teamtrees donation are:
This story, Planting the Trees of Kenya, was on of my past featured books. To learn more about the science, literacy, and science identity connections of this book, please see that blog post by clicking HERE.
Happy Fund Raising!
#teamtrees!
–Kalynda
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Cultural Fabric: Follow-Up
About a month ago, I shared a Cultural Fabric activity that I invited my school to participate in. Please see my post Cultural Fabric: Class Building Activity for more information, including a link to a PDF for instructions.
To my delight, they did 🙂, and I am here to share with you some of those results!
Each grade level team (there are two per grade at the middle school where I teach) shared this idea with their advisory class. I really appreciated how the teachers embraced the activity and saw the activity as an invitation to have a class discussion about cultures, about differences, about togetherness…about our strength.
Once the “us” squares were collected, they were turned into “quilts” that were displayed during the week of conferences (and are still up today!). Here are some of those images:
Sadly, I was not at school during conferences to see and capture the initial thoughts and emotions (I was presenting at the NSTA Area Conference in Salt Lake), but many of my colleagues mentioned how wonderful the experience was, and how well it was received. One of my teammates expressed that many students had their parents capture their picture next to their piece of their team quilt. Yay! Happy!
Also, I want to say thank you to you…my viewers! I noticed on my blog data, that this activity was a popular “view”. Thank You! I do hope you share it (and this site) with your teammates as a possible future idea.
And…to help you do that, I made an additional PDF that provides instructions for students, rather than the PDF I originally wrote for teachers, to capture the idea.
My school wants to do it again next year, which will give us time to think of a new key…perhaps a genetics based one. 🙂
Happy Sharing, Communicating, and Embracing Differences!
–Kalynda
Fictional Stories in Science 