If you have been following our adventures this year, you'll notice we've enjoyed some visits from special guests. Well, yesterday we enjoyed having Mrs. Pennington teach a science lesson on classification. We all know science is her favorite subject, and this year she gets to teach the whole county a thing or two! Many of my students had her last year, so it was a special treat for them to see her again!
About 10 minutes prior to her arrival, I broke the news to my class. They were guessing who it was and got so excited when I confirmed it was indeed Mrs. Pennington!
Classification isn't the easiest thing to comprehend, but I am sure the students know it well enough to teach to a friend now!
Here's what went down:
They had a bag of trailmix with an invitation to look at it, touch it, examine it, but NO EATING or TASTING! I am sure it was hard for some to look at all of the sweet treats lying on their desk, but they refrained. We saw some students begin grouping things before even knowing that's what the lesson was on.
Next, they were asked to make sense of all of these objects. Then students started grouping by shapes, colors, sizes, texture, and types of food. It was awesome to stand back and watch the learning taking place! Students were recording what they were thinking in their journal.
Then, the dichotomous key was introduced and the cereal was sorted. Students divided it into color and no color, circle and not circle, squishy and not squishy, and the list went on. They classified everything down to the marshmallows.
They enjoyed classifying little creatures called Mellanarks as well. The result was a class full of not only trailmix scientists, but higher order thinking that helped them figure out the world around us!
Students will begin learning how to classify animals and plants soon! I can't wait to teach vertebrates and non-vertebrates and vascular and non-vascular!
Thanks Mrs. Pennington for allowing us to take part in a cool lesson!
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