Science & Social Studies Pins

I am so enjoying the 10 Pin Summer Linky Party.  Ashley @ Just Reed hosts a weekly linky to share links for a specific topic.  I was already a Pinterest addict, now she is enabling that addiction. - However, she is making me go back and look at what I have already pinned, so that is a good thing!

This week we are sharing Science and Social Studies pins.  I am looking forward to seeing what others share.

1.  This landform flip book is such a cute idea.  I like that it enables students to see each landform in reference to the others.  And - it's a freebie!!!

2.  If you have a Smartboard - or the Smartboard software, this is a fun activity.  Students get to drag states to their appropriate location!!!!  My students had a blast with this last year!

 Source: Smart Exchange

3.  Pearson has some nice resources for teaching American symbols, and they are adding to them.  Right now, there are 3, but they have many others listed as coming soon.  These include movies that are very relatable for students.

Source:  Pearson School.com

4.  Don't you just love foldables?  I do, and I am planning on doing more of them this year to add to my journals for each subject.  This foldable is for learning about explorers.  Adding that interactive piece, allows many kinesthetic learners to get more involved.

Source:  The Inspired Classroom blog

5.  One of our final units of the year is learning about our own state - West Virginia.  I usually have students create a brochure for a tourist attraction or the state in general.  I had found this pin, and thought - "I do that!"

Source:  The Inspired Classroom blog

6.  This pin is just AWESOME!  I am going to use this for sure!!!  It shows each planet as if it were as close to us as the moon.  Neato idea!!!!

Source:  Unknown

7.  Who doesn't love to use edibles when teaching - especially Oreos!!  This pin uses Oreos to show the phases of the moon.  My kids loved this one too!!

Source:  Unknown

8.  This website has all kinds of interactives for all subjects, and science is no exception.

Source:  All Free Teacher Resources blog

9.  Love to get a little dirty, then this pin is for you.  I think the kids would enjoy this project idea for teaching how erosion occurs.

Source:  TLC How stuff works

10:  When learning the states of matter, my kiddos love the slime/goop labs we have.  I found this one after the fact this year, and might add it to the mix!!!

Source:  All Things Simple blog

So many links, so little time.  I hope I found some that inspire you.  I can't wait to explore those that others share!!!  Make sure you link up so that you can add to my pins!!!

New Books & Standards-Based Report Cards

What a busy - but productive day today!

First, I attended a Social Studies textbook adoption meeting.  Originally our county was not going to buy social studies books, but enough of us voiced a concern that our administrators decided to give us the opportunity to check out some options.  They brought us 2 options - one that is the traditional text, and a second one that has a student consumable book as well as all the teacher resources online.  This second choice (from Pearson) allows for any upgrades that could happen over the next several years.  It is also more compatible to the common core.  We had proponents for both series, but ended up going with the second choice - Yeah!!!!

I don't foresee myself using it as a text I will be dependent on, but rather a resource that we use throughout the year.  One great advantage of the books we chose is being able to add any resources we have or can find to the online portion.  It is so interactive.

Once that was over, many of us in grades 1 - 4 (as K has already completed theirs) had a meeting to discuss developing standards-based report cards.  Many of us have discussed this for a while now.  It is so exciting to finally see it actually happening.  We began our discussion, and then we actually started looking at resources - many examples from other school systems - and started working on what we wanted in our report cards.  Much of the time was spent looking at how we could combine similar standards into one cohesive element on the report card.

I think these report cards will allow for such a richer conversation between teachers and parents.  They will allow parents and students to see just what needs to be worked on and what is mastered.  After all, what does an A, B, C, D, or F really mean?  A standards-based report card just makes more sense to me!

How many of you are using standards-based report cards?  Do you find that they are better than the traditional report cards?