School & Science & Geologist & Pinterest...

This past summer, I attended a professional development class that addressed classroom management.  NOT the behavior portion; managing all the junk/papers/supplies/etc. that overflow in a classroom.  During the session, the presenter discussed using Pinterest as a resource for school.  I had never heard of Pinterest before; and, being non-technologically gifted, avoided using it for several months.  What a waste of valuable time!  

Once I started browsing other teachers' boards, I was hooked.

Several boards displayed the cutest anchor charts that had been made for classrooms.  Most of them were for Daily Five and other literacy based subjects.  However, I did find some wonderful resources for science! That turned out to be a break for me because I ended up having to plan science and social studies lessons for our team this year.

Anyway, I copied one anchor chart for a meteorologist at the beginning of the year.  As we went further into the year, I decided I needed one for a geologist and botanist.  Here are my posters:

My geologist poster...

the meteorologist poster...

the botanist...
(the a looks like an o, it is because I tried to fix a spelling error  to avoid making a whole new poster)

The posters are used as anchor charts when each topic is covered during science.  The laminated surface can either be written on using dry erase markers, or by attaching post-it notes with vocabulary words written on them.

The students in my class were especially excited about the geologist poster.  I had my son, Ryan (the  geologist), bring his massive rock collection to school and set up a rock museum in the science lab.

Ryan...

Ryan put on a presentation for the students, telling them what you need to study to be a geologist, the types of jobs a geologist can do, and then explained a little about the rock cycle.  He ended by showing them several examples of the different types of rocks.  He had the 6 second grade classes rotate through the science lab one afternoon.  It turned out to be a good experience for Ryan as well, now that he is going through the alternative certification program to teach high school science.  

Ryan's visit was one day last week, and every day since then, students from all of the second grade  classes have been bringing me rocks from the playground to give to "the geologist."  It never ceases to amaze me how excited kids get over rocks!

Anyway, the visit from the geologist proved to be one of the highlights of science lab so far this year. And, our anchor chart serves as a daily reminder of a fun learning experience.

As for Pinterest; it is soooo addicting!  Love it!