Solar System Curriculum

I have been fortunate enough to start working with some talented educators in my district on some new Science curriculum initiatives.  Fifth grade seriously has the best curriculum!  I am loving this group because it parallels well with my own development and work on creating new resources for my classroom (and yours!).  One of the units in 5th grade science is the Solar System.  I went through some files I had accumulated from student teaching and my first few years that were on these topics.  I was amazed how true this cartoon was:

I pretty much disposed of all the printed materials I had because they all had Pluto as the 9th planet and no mention of the dwarf planets.  It is remarkable to see the changes in science and I am so excited to see how quickly we need to update our curriculum resources as we learn more about our own planet, our solar system, and beyond.  What excites you about science?  Do you talk with your students about this?

 Photo found online, if you know who to give credit to, please contact me so I can update the post.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Spring Break Reflection

Image
 Spring Break has now come and gone.  As I walked into work (a bit early) I was greeted by this beautiful sunrise from the door of my classroom.  As I think back on this Spring Break I am feeling grateful, empowered, and excited: I am grateful to have had the time to take my Middle Generalist test toward National Board Certification.  Only a couple of weeks and I'll be able to start uploading my other components, it has been a very busy year.  I am empowered by the movement that is building up in my state around education and providing more of a voice for public education.   I am excited for the learning to come this quarter.  Yes, we will be state testing, but I am excited to hear students' discussion of the the key events and effects on society as we learn out the 1800s in Social Studies. I can't wait to see what students' Women's History Research Projects look like. I am excited to run a simulation on Westward Expansion as students problem solve in wagon
Read more

Relationship Building and Student Names

Image
I have had many students over my years of teaching and I have had some with similar names.  Some of my students have had unique or less common first or last names, regardless they are those students' names and my first job is to pronounce it correctly.   If I am going to foster a relationship with a student, my goal from my first encounter with the student is I must get their name right.  Being a culturally responsive educator is one who values all aspects of that student and there is a lot in a name.  Over the years I have witnessed educators casually make mistakes with student names, the intention was not to hurt the child, but it can.  I am by no means an expert orator or a master of various languages to better pronounce words.  My students hear my mistakes but they also see my desire to ensure I say their name correctly because what I ask for is their feedback.  I don't want to take a mispronunciation and run with it for the year because a student wasn't asked for
Read more

Google Apps for Education (GAFE)

Image
Just this year the district I teach in became a Google district, with simple changes such as we are now all using gmail, also came some new applications for our practice.  Google has, what can feel like at times, as endless sites to use in your teaching, planning, and with students directly...but many times as resource is needed.  Something so you can quickly look up an answer, which is why I was so happy to recently find a list of tutorials  . So my teaching friends, or parents who are trying to learn more about what their students may be using or anyone interested, check it out, use it and spend this summer learning a little more or save the link for the future!  What kind of ideas can this stir up in your planning imagination?
Read more