Ever since the Next Generation Science Standards came out, I have overheard or often been asked for help by teachers who flat out admit the struggle they have with effectively implementing these still fairly new standards in the classroom. Especially with kids at the Kindergarten and First grade levels. 

So today's post is the first in a series I'm going to do on the Next Generation Science Standards for Kindergarten and First grade teachers. 

Here's what it's going to look like: 
First, (today) I'm going to do an introduction to the standards, (including the standards themselves and the performance expectations as well). Then I'll jump right into the Kindergarten standards and then move on to the First grade standards. By the end, I guarantee that you will be feeling more confident about boosting science instruction in your classroom while effectively engaging your cute little learners! I also have some FREEBIES for you today!

For you to be successful in teaching the science standards, it's important that you know and understand them yourself...to know what they are asking of students...to know what future ideas or concepts you are building a foundation for.

There is a great series of videos on YouTube from Bozeman Science, created by Paul Anderson, that goes into great detail explaining everything you need to know about the Next Generations Science Standards-great in depth behind-the-scenes information that will help you understand them at a whole new level. 
I highly encourage you to check these videos out. If anything, even just the first video in his series on the NGSS. You won't be sorry you did.

So what exactly are these standards asking our students to do? Well, at the Kindergarten level, here is what is expected of students:

And at the First Grade level, here is what is expected of students:
It's important that students know what's expected of them, so here is a FREEBIE that you can hang around your classroom. Having a visual hanging up will help them stay focused and on task.
Now let's move on to the standards. Do you already know what ideas you'll be teaching?

At the Kindergarten level, you'll be covering these Core Ideas:
-Motion & Stability: Forces & Interaction (I call this the "Fore & Motion" unit.)
-Energy (I call this the "Our Sun Warms" unit.)
-From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
(I call this the "Living Things" unit.)
-Earth's Systems (My "Weather Patterns" unit.)
-Earth & Human Activity (My "We Love Earth" unit.)
-Engineering Design

At the First Grade level, you'll be covering these Core Ideas:
-Waves: Light & Sound
-Structure, Function, & Information Processing
(I call this my "Grow. Survive. Thrive." unit.)
-Space Systems: Pattern & Cycles
-Engineering Design

When it comes to the NGSS, I firmly believe it's important to keep the standards simple. The more you complicate them, the harder of a time you're going to have getting your littles to understand the concepts that are involved.
Here are two sets of FREE "I CAN" Poster Sets for your classroom. One is for Kindergarten and the other for First Grade:

Tomorrow I'm going to share a topic that I like to cover before I dive into the standards with my students. If you have any questions about NGSS or the standards, please feel free to email me at TheBarefootTeacher@gmail.com. Just remember, I did not create these standards and am in no way affiliated with them. I'm simply a fellow teacher, sharing my interpretation and ideas on the NGSS!

-Til next time
           

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It's January...which means it's Polar Habitat time! 
Today I'm going to show you what's included in my winter top-seller Polar Habitat Pack. You'll find everything you need...and more...to supplement your Polar Animals theme. This non-fiction pack includes more than 200 pages of activities. It was made with PreK-2nd in mind. Most of the activities can be as easy or as hard as you want them to be.

Set of 3 Differentiated Emergent Readers
(With Corresponding Class Books)
Each book is 15 pages long. There are 3 different levels to choose from.
Easy - "The penguin lives in the polar habitat."
Medium -"The penguin spends most of its time in the water hunting for food."
Hard - "The penguin spends most of its time in the water hunting for food. It is not able to fly, even though it has wings."
There are also colorful, matching class books for each level. You can laminate and bind them or even just hang them around the classroom to use as 'facts posters'. 


Vocabulary Posters & Pocket Chart Pieces
Here is a list of the Polar animals/objects that are included in these posters and pocket chart pieces:
...ice floe, (blue) whale, seal, penguin, walrus, puffin, snow goose, moose, Arctic fox, Arctic hare, snowy owl, polar bear, igloo, Eskimo & Inuit (You can choose which term is used in your location. I recognize that in some areas, "Eskimo" is considered derogatory and yet in others it is the acceptable term, so I've included both.)


Write the Room {Polar Hunt} Activity
This Write-the-Room comes with colorful animal/object pieces that you can hide around the room! Send your kids hunting for Polar themed animals/objects and then have them write the ones they find.


Polar Flip Book
Color, cut, & glue various Polar themed animals/objects to create a Flip Book. A great activity to practice fluency!


Polar Organizers & Fact Sheets
These organizers and fact sheets are perfect for individual research projects. All of the animals/objects listed above are included. Once they are completed, you can laminated and bind them to make a class book! 


Labeling (Writing or Cut/Paste) Sheets
You can choose if you want your littles to cute and paste the words into the blanks...or have them write the words. There's plenty of room to do either way. 


Polar Head Bands
Simply color, cut out, and glue onto a sentence strip to make the perfect Polar Animal Head Band. A perfect 'costume' pieces for students to wear after completing their individual animal report. You can have them wear it while they stand in front of the class and tell facts about the animal they researched! 

You may have seen that I blogged the other day about this Polar Color-by-Number FREEBIE. It's part of my Polar Habitat Pack too! 

Well, I hope these Polar themed activities make implementing your theme a breeze! Thanks for stopping by!

-Til next time

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I have a new release out!
Polar Habitat Label It

It includes 16 full sized classroom posters, 16 pocket chart pieces...
 ...and 12 animals to label! 
The Label It printouts come three different ways so that you can best choose what type of writing lines your littles need.
I like this labeling set so much that I'm going to start making more of them to go with other themes as well! 

Hope you enjoy them as well, 

-Til next time
     

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Happy New Year! 
Let's get the New Year started with a FREEBIE!

These daily math, literacy, and writing activity sheets were made, with the common core standards in mind, to be independent practice sheets for students to do as morning work, homework, at a center, or for use in any other way you would see fit!
If you like it, you might be interested in the full pack, which includes enough pages for the entire month of January! Each week follows the same format so that students can work independently after the first day of instruction.

This resource is also available in a Common Curriculum Everyday Bundle.

Hoping 2016 brings amazing things your way!
-Til next time
         

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Happy New Year!
Did you make a resolution? I did - My goal is to blog more often this year. In fact, I already have a ton of exciting things already in the works! 

Well, as it's almost time for school to start back, I wanted to share this New Years activity pack with you. 
It's packed full of tons of New Years fun!
Here's what's included:
-New Years Emergent Reader 
with Resolutions Writing Prompt
-2 Beginning Sound Activity Pages
-2 Short Vowels Activity Pages
-2 End Sounds Activity Pages
-County by 2s
-2 Rhyming Sounds Pages
-Measuring (Tallest)
-Color Words Activity
-Missing Numbers
-Syllable Practice
-3 Piece Cut/Paste Puzzles
-Tens Frames Practice
What's YOUR New Years resolution? I'd love to hear it!

-Til next time
       

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It's Polar Habitat time! 
One of my favorite themes to incorporate in the classroom.
To get you started, I have this FREE quick-print Polar themed Color-by-Number just for you!
There's also information inside the download about how you can get your hands on even MORE Polar Habitat fun.

Need more FREE resources? How about these Penguin Poetry pages...

What else can you do to bring your Polar Unit to life?
Do you need more art ideas?
This Polar Bear Print is a favorite of mine, 
from the Preschoolers Want 2 Know blog...

Or what about these cute egg carton penguins from KiwiCrate...
Cute, Cute, Cute!

Don't forget fun games for your classroom:
I ordered this game from MPMSchoolSupplies.com to go along with our Polar Animals unit. This game offers a fun way for students to develop logical thinking skills and spatial reasoning abilities. Plus, let's admit it, it's just downright adorable! 

The back of the box gives an example of what the game and pieces looks like: 

The blue tray was quite a bit smaller than I was expecting, but then I realized that if it were larger, then the pieces would have to be larger and that might make it more difficult for students to use.

Five penguin ice floes are included of various shapes. The penguins slide up and down on the pieces, causing the pieces to take a new form. This alone take the game to a whole new level!

Did I mention already how CUTE the penguins are? Ok, just checking!

 A Challenge Book is included for kids to use. It offers Starter, Junior, Expert, and Master challenges. As well as...answer keys! (Phew, thank goodness, haha!)

Students must work to put the penguins in the matching places on the blue game tray.

Directions are included in the front inside cover of the Challenge Book:

This is what Starter challenges looks like:

Here are some Junior challenges:

And a sample of Expert challenges:

And finally, some of the Master challenges:

Thank goodness for Answer Keys! {wink!}

 My kids wanted to instantly start with the Master challenges, but quickly learned they needed to start with the Starter ones first. This is my son, who is going into 2nd grade, attempting to solve some of the Starter challenges. He didn't realize at first that the penguin his right hand is touching, slides up and down the ice floe, creating a new shape for the piece.

 It took him a good fifteen minutes before figuring out the first Starter challenge! Even my husband took a stab at helping him out. (Were we just making this more complicated than it needed to be? Or do we as a family just need more practice on our logical thinking skills, lol!)

I loved watching him think as he worked. It's actually a lot harder than you may think! Take a try yourself, you might be surprised!

I very highly recommend this game! It's a ton of fun and will be a great surprise to pull out during our Polar Animals unit. I'm thinking the kids can do it at indoor recess as well.

You can find Penguins on Ice and other games like it under the Critical Thinking Games tab at MPM School Supplies.



Wishing you tons of Polar Winter Fun!
~Til next time
           

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Calling all Illinois Kinder Teachers! 
I'll be presenting a session at the SDE December conference...will you be there? 
I'd love to know ahead of time if you're planning on being there so that we can meet! 
As you can see, I'll be giving a presentation on enhancing science instruction in your classroom. My focus or goal is to equip you with resources that will help you feel confident  and excited about teaching the NGSS standard concepts...giving you an opportunity to relax and have just as much fun with the activities as your students are!

So let me know if you plan on being there. I look forward to meeting some new Kinder-teaching friends!

Til next time,
   

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