Sue Parrish

This three day unit sets the tone for a year full of cooperation, respect and enthusiastic learning. Teacher/student, and student/student relationships are built, and the classroom becomes an emotionally safe and happy environment where learning is the expectation. Included are three days of detailed lesson plans and a power point presentation to guide the daily class discussions and games.

This 1-2 class period lesson allows students to develop working definitions of the important skills, observation and inference. Using "mysterious" objects, students make factual observations and then use those to support reasonable inferences about the nature of the objects. Worksheet and formative assessment included.

This fun, hands on activity uses an everyday birthday candle to spark kids into creating of a working definition of the important science skill of observation. For 21 years I have used this as an introductory activity for science class, and kids LOVE IT. Also would work well for one of those "down days" in between the rigors of state assessments.