Rocks Rock!

As my first year in Fifth grade it is also the first year I was giving the opportunity to teach rocks and the rock cycle! EEEEK!
I was stoked about this opportunity because my mom used to work in a Copper Mine and we had all these samples of rocks and I always found so cool. Not to mention living in various places and seeing all kinds of rocks which were so cool. 

Having never taught Rocks or the Rock Cycle, I didn't have a lot of resources or even know where to start. Thanks to TPT I found TONS of awesome resources! I would like to shout out to Melissa Mazur and her awesome Rocks and Minerals pack that I used in my classroom. This pack comes with so many awesome activities and resources! I used the reading passages, the task cards and the word wall cards. Next year I will use more of the experiments and hands on activities because they are so awesome.

I used the word wall cards as a matching game. I cut the definitions apart from the picture and term. They have really great pictures to match the vocabulary terms and definitions. My kids matched them all first and then played memory with the cards. They loved it and I felt like it really helped the terms and definitions stick with them.

 


The task cards we used as they are intended. The kids worked as a group to answer the various questions. They love working on task cards it gives them a chance to move and talk while answering content related questions.

We have these great reading books that come with our Science textbook. Using these books the kids read to answer questions about the Rock Cycle. It is great to have these resources because they can be used in a small guided reading groups, read to a buddy center or just plain old reading non-fiction choices for the kids.

Sometimes I draw pictures and just love how I drew them! These are two examples of our Rock Cycle and Rock Formation pictures we drew for our Science Notebook.

Happy Teachin' 

Professional Development - what's your favorite and not so favorite

Every year most of us teachers get a survey about our intentions for next year. 

Sometimes I've been asked what Professional Development I think would benefit our staff. This year is one of those cases. This year it feels especially important to answer this question because I really feel like my principal really listens to us when we make suggestions. 

I have sat through so many different professional development opportunities some which were so helpful and some which were a waste of time. As a teacher I know our time is valuable and that we are incredibly intelligent and usually know what is best for our kids without someone reading us some book they wrote or some ideology they have "discovered". While these PD's are important and I don't mean to down play these PDs in anyway, ones that are more valuable to our teaching and classroom are far better than just any old PD. I wish I could be a full time student and just sit in classes all day and learn - seriously if full time student were a job I would sign up! I absolutely love learning.

There are tons of different professional development opportunities out there are there any that anyone could suggest that they LOVED or didn't love I would appreciate hearing your feedback. 

Thanks for helping out in advance!