Mystery Doug

Both my PE teacher and instructional coach brought Mysterydoug.com to my attention this year. My kids and I are loving it. Here's how it works.

• Mystery Doug invites elementary students to submit their questions on his site.
• Each week Mystery Doug answers one of those questions.
• He emails his video on Monday. 
• At the end of each video, he shares three new questions and asks his audience to vote on the one he should answer next.
• His videos are short, kid-friendly, and engaging. 

We've watched two so far. A conversation with my instructional coach about science and writing inspired me to ask my students to hypothesize before watching the videos. Here are two examples from "How do they turn wood into paper?"

I can envision eventually asking my students to write about what they learned from the video afterwards. I think Mystery Doug has lots of potential though. It definitely encourages curiosity and lets kids know that it's smart to ask questions!

P.S. If you didn't know already, I published a book for teachers this summer. I'd love to share it with you. Check it out here.

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Two for the Price of One

I love a good, cheap composition book, but I still don't like buying more of them than I have to.  I've seen how some teachers who need more than one per child cut theirs in half, which seems like a creative solution.  I've chosen though to use sides ends.  With a simple flip, one composition book can be both a math journal and science journal all in one.  I'll show you what I mean.

front

back

Voila!  Two for the price of one.

The 5 Senses in Action

This post makes me wonder, "Now why didn't I think of this before?"  It seems obvious, but somehow for 19 years it hasn't been.  For many years I've taught a quick little unit on the five senses during the first part of the year, so that later in the year when I teach science using my district's kits, the kids have some background into how scientists use their senses.  I thought my little unit was hands-on and meaningful until this year when I figured out that maybe the best way to understand the five senses is to be scientists who use their senses.  Um, duh?   So, I found five simple and inexpensive science experiments.  We made sure to talk about our senses along the way.  (I've included links to the experiments and pictures of various science journal pages.)

This is our first five senses science journal entry.

#1: Pop Rocks and Water

They enjoyed listening to and watching the Pop Rocks in the water, which also resulted in a little taste test as well.

#2: Skittles and Water

The S from the Skittles are supposed to float to the top of the water.  That's not how it worked out, but the kids enjoyed it regardless.

#3: Dancing Raisins

This was one of their favorites.  The raisins really danced.

#4: Walking Water

This one takes a little more time to get to the final result, but it's cool nonetheless.

#5: Pencils in a Bag

This really does work, and the kids thought it was amazing.

The words simple, inexpensive, meaningful, and effective come to mind.  If you're interested in trying any of these experiments, click on the pictures.  They'll take you to the directions.  I'm glad I finally figured out that my scientists can learn about their five senses while actually using them.