A Rockin' Good Time

Rocks, man, rocks!

How much fun does teaching about rocks sound? About as much fun as teaching about soil!

 Thanks to Reading A-Z, an Aims science project, and our iPod Touches, we managed to learn a lot about rocks and enjoy ourselves at the same time. Oh, thank Heaven!

We began with the question: What makes rocks break?

Reading A - Z has this great little book about rocks. It is a level C book, but it is totally appropriate for the lesson.

Screen shot of the book.
Readinga-z.com is awesome!
I love their leveled readers.

This book is great for building background knowledge and learning the proper vocabulary on the subject. Many of my kids have never seen a "mountain" mountain (landfills don't count) in their lives, so reading the word boulder was brand new for them.

Then, we matched the vocabulary words with the proper sentences and added them to the anchor chart.

On to the science project...

The project is called Ice Breakers and it is from an Aims activity book. First, we discuss how rocks can break in nature. The kids speculate how rocks break to make boulders, stones, pebbles, sand, and dust. When one of them finally brings up water, I asked them how would water break the rocks? Do you think it will break if it was frozen?

We fill out the prediction chart:

For the project, you will need water balloons, plaster of paris, and the freezer. I prepared the water balloons ahead of time. I called the kids up one at a time and had them help me mix the plaster of paris and add it to their model rock.

We let the rocks dry in the classroom. Then, we put them in the freezer for two days. After the two days, I took the water balloons out and the kids were amazed to see that the plaster had cracked off and the balloons had broken.

We concluded the activity by using our iPod Touches.

The kids had to verbalize the activity and explain what they had learned using the app Sonic Pics.

The app has them add pictures, text, and their voices to create a little video project (like a power point.)

*I'll have to add one of their projects in another post.

Then, for some writing fun, we wrote about what we would build with a bunch of rocks. They were cute and enjoyed thinking about how we use rocks.

Here's a copy of the writing activity:

Download (60 KB)

Enjoy!

iPod Smilebox

Check out my Smilebox on the many uses of an iPod Touch in the classroom. We love them!!

A free slideshow design by Smilebox

iPod Touch Part 2

    Another thing I have done with my iPods is to load every single book I have on CD into iTunes. Now, the kids can use the iPods during their Listening time. 
     This works out great because the kids keep breaking my CD players! I've gone through three of them in five years!! They cost more then the stinkin' pencil sharpener that I have to replace every year.

I LOVE my iTouch!

Hi everybody!
     This year I am very lucky to have been awarded a class set of iPod iTouches. I have to admit I was extremely nervous about allowing my firsties to handle these $300 devices. However, I have seen what my 2 year old niece and nephew can do with their parents' iPhones, so I knew anything was possible.
     Our district wanted us to find as many free apps as possible, but I wasn't having much luck in that department.  I decided to buy myself an iTunes gift card and buy the apps I really wanted.


App #1: Big Words

This app rocks! It is a very simple concept. Black background and you can type words to display on your iPod. 

We use this app all the time. It is great to use during word building lessons. No more pain in the butt plastic letters or letter cards to mess with. It's easy to use during small group guided reading lessons and again as response clickers for whole group lessons for math, science, etc.  The best thing about this app is that all of my children have a voice. They get to respond and not sit back in the shadows. Everyone gets to be a part of the lessons.