Today’s post was written by Ms. Parker, who teaches 5th grade pre-scientists in Halifax, NC.
It’s October! I can hardly believe a month of school has already passed. As a second-year teacher, this school year has been so much better than last year. We’ve already done two labs and quite a few problem-based learning activities. As a 5th grade science teacher with no lab tables and limited resources, doing labs can be difficult. Last year I did two labs the entire year – both in the last few months of school because I didn’t feel confident enough in my classroom management until then.
This year has been nothing short of amazing so far! My students are incredible (of course) and when I told them that we’d be participating in Letters to a Pre-Scientist they were all smiles and full of questions. One student in particular said, “Wait, so a different scientist are going to write to each one of us?” I said, “Yes!” and the student said, “This is going to be awesome!” And I agree.
Students and parents know that the letters are in the mail and I have students just about every day asking if the letters have come yet. They are so excited about communicating with their “own scientist”. It is a tremendous opportunity to learn and interact with someone they might never have thought they could in our small rural town.
Below are some photos from the start of the school year: a lab we did about what happens to heat over time, presenting heat transfer scenarios, building edible molecules, and learning how to observe outside.
Scientists: Thank you so much for giving some of your time to write to a future scientist!
