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Where Should It Go? Recycle? Compost? Incinerate? Landfill?
Students discuss what happens to trash after it is collected. They sort "clean" trash into groups depending on whether it should be recycled, incinerated, placed in a landfill, composted or if it is something we could avoid using.
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Simple and Complex Machines Used In Agriculture
Young scholars explore agriculture and the current technologies and research that continue to make Earth a viable planet. This four lessons unit introduce students to simple machines and the concepts of force and friction through a...
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Solar System Adventure
Students study the solar system and our galaxy, then write a science fiction story based on what they discover. They utilize worksheets and access websites imbedded in this plan to gain ideas for their stories.
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Arthropod Key
Students identify the types of pests and categorize them. They identify their food chain and create a poster showing the food chain for the pests.
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Mighty Earth Movers
Note that although the publisher lists almost all of the Common Core standards for both math and language arts, you will most likely want to take the general topic and choose which area to focus on. Regarding math, pupils measure worms...
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Erosion
Pupils discover the meaning of the word erosion and discuss effects of rocks and sticks upon the soil. They then work in small groups to construct a model of erosion to make observations and then write them in their science journals.
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Pollution
Third graders investigate pollution. They discuss pollution and its effects. They create a Venn diagram of pollution and people polluting. They create a landfill and predict what will occur over a week's time. They create two air...
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Animal Classifications
Third graders work in small groups to investigate how to sort a variety of items into groups and subgroups. They work on a class chart based on the activity which show how the items are classified based on commonalities. Upon completion...
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Classified Information - Part 1: Shapes
Third graders investigate how and why scientists use classification. They discuss classification strategies using animals, and as a class fill in a flowchart with their responses. Next, in small groups they cut out a variety of shapes...
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Making Fossils
Third graders examine the differences between cast and mold fossils. They discuss geological time and how many fossils are millions of years old, then create a cast fossil using clay and a shell, and a mold fossil using a shell and...
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Sundials: Keeping Time Like Native Americans
Students explore the use of sundials. They observe the shadows cast by the sun and record the times at various points throughout the day. They create sundials and record the location of the shadows and the time of day. They view a...
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Tools of the Trade
Third graders explore and identify the tools that can be used to measure length, mass/weight, and volume. They discuss how things are measured using different units, and observe the difference between the English and the Metric systems....
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Build-A-Horseshoe Crab
Students discover many facts about horseshoe crabs. Students identify the main body parts of horseshoe crab. They explore the habits of the horseshoe crab and their importances to the ecosystem. Adaptations for younger students are...
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Commercial Use of Plant Hormones
In this plant hormone worksheet, students will read 5 statements and determine if the effect given occurs because of natural or synthetic plant hormones. Then students will complete 2 short answer questions about why hormones are used in...
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Feely Balloons
Learners use their sense of touch to identify different types of solids. In this "Mystery Solids" lesson, students feel various balloons filled with items such as rice, flour, salt, beans, etc. They use their senses to come to logical...
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Oobleck/Slime War
Students compare slime recipes. In this properties of matter instructional activity, students make Oobleck and glurch and compare the properties of each and examine the solid and liquid properties of them.
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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Students develop a recycling plan. In this environmental lesson, students develop a recycling plan for their school. Students write an outline of the plan to present to their class.
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People of the Desert
Students study the importance of caring for desert water sources. In this desert lesson, students investigate water resources that are available in deserts. They listen to a read aloud about the Sonoran Desert before working in groups...
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What is Matter?
Students create a definition of matter. In this physical science lesson, students work in pairs to sort items printed on cards into several categories (matter, non-matter, and unsure) and agree on a definition of matter.
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Winter Survival
Students examine what animals need in order to survive. In this investigative lesson students play a "role" of an animal in winter.
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Food Chains in a Forest
Learners explore food chains in the forest. In this food chain lesson, learners listen to the story The Tree in the Ancient Forest by Carol Reed-Jones. They create a food chain to match the story and then create a food chain of their own.
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Forest Habitats
In this identification lesson, 3rd graders view photographs of different kinds of forests, learn where forests are located, and discuss seasonal changes in forests. Students read Look What I Did With a Leaf, collect leaves, identify what...
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Sky and Cloud Windows
Students monitor the weather, clouds, and sky. In this weather lesson, students create a sky and cloud window to focus their sky observations. They write observations in a notebook and include the date, time, cloud cover, types of...
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Make a Crossword Puzzle - water vocabulary challenge
In this crossword puzzle worksheet, students follow directions and click on the links to make a crossword puzzle about water. Students follow 6 sets of directions.