Learning Out Loud

How does the weight of matter change when it is combined? Mix up some gingerbread to explore. Begin by observing an anchoring phenomenon: ice melting and a snowflake forming. Students will then investigate matter, mass, mixtures vs. solutions, physical and chemical changes by mixing together separate ingredients to make gingerbread. As a class, they will weigh each ingredient individually and find the total sum weight of the ingredients. Then, after combining the ingredients into a mixture, they

Have you ever noticed that MOST snowflakes have six sides? My students did too and wanted to investigate why. In this activity, you and your students will observe the same anchoring phenomenon as my students. As they watch snowflakes form, they will make observations in their observe, think and wonder chart. Then, they will read an informational passage about the reasoning behind why snowflakes form in this way. They will answer comprehension questions focused on content specific vocabulary and

Conducting research to help close gaps in student performance, I read a great deal of research on how to best teach word problems with my students. The research showed that explicitly teaching word problem types and the drawings that accompany them, in addition to teaching reading skills with story problems are better at increasing student performance on word problems than teaching keyword identification. These numberless word problems focus your students on the task of identifying the various

Are you using STEM in your classroom? Do have some amazing ideas, but want your students to focus on the engineering and design process while doing so? These STEM Think Sheets follow the engineering and design process and walk your students through a more reflective process while they are doing STEM activities in class. There are three versions (without lines, with lines, with smaller lines) that can be used for ANY STEM activity in your classroom. Help your students think like engineers as they

Wanting to increase math discussion in your classroom? Whether working in whole group, small group, or individually, asking challenging questions that encourage our students to struggle and explain their thinking will improve their math reasoning skills and competency in math discourse. These 28 cards can be used as you facilitate discussion, either from you or by distributing the cards to students so they can ask questions of their peers about their work. You can also hand them out to small gr