Engaging elementary students during science block doesn’t have to be a challenge. In fact, it can be a ton of fun! And with Studies Weekly Science, you already have access to tons of resources that can help make learning fun.
Here are some science activity ideas to spark your imagination:
It’s Project Time!
Studies Weekly Online has a whole series of science videos for elementary students called Project Time where students learn about the fascinating world around them. Your students will be laughing and learning as they listen to the comical science extraordinaire, Discovery Dan, explain scientific phenomena at a level elementary students can understand.
Take a Field Trip … With or Without Leaving Your Classroom
Field trips add variety to the school year and keep students interested in what they’re learning. And with science, there are so many places you can go, from children’s museums and city parks to local farms and orchards.
Another option is to bring the field trip to your classroom. Some museums offer to put on in-class, hands-on learning activities for local schools, so check your area to see what’s available. You can also contact local farmers to see if they can bring baby animals for your students to interact with. Giving your class these unique experiences breaks up the monotony of your school week and helps students see science is all around them, even in their own community.
Holiday-Themed Science Activities
One way to make science more relatable is to do holiday-themed science activities. Students can build leprechaun traps around St Patrick’s Day, decorate Easter eggs, or learn chemistry by baking Christmas cookies. And of course, Earth Day is the perfect time to teach students about life science, recycling, weather patterns, and other topics about how the planet works.
Worksheets and Graphic Organizers
Graphic organizers increase student engagement by helping students make connections, identify patterns, and describe or define abstract concepts. The best part is you can use them throughout the learning process to keep your kiddos engaged in the lesson.
Each Studies Weekly Science unit has multiple graphic organizers you can print out for students to work on individually or in groups, or you can put them up on your smartboard and fill them out as a class. However you choose to use them, they can get students thinking on a deeper level so they stay interested in the content.
Printable PDFs/worksheets are under the Graphic Organizers tab in Studies Weekly Online.
Interactive Notebooks
An interactive notebook is a tool students can use to make connections, revise their thinking, and deepen their understanding of the world around them. Whether for writing down class notes or observations during a science experiment, interactive notebooks help students stay focused and process information quicker.
To create interactive notebooks for your class, you can have students draw their own book covers on a piece of paper, glue them on the front of composition notebooks, then number the pages and create a table of contents. For more information and ideas on using them, read our Interactive Notebooks blog.
Hands-On Student Projects
Arts and crafts not only keep students engaged, but they also develop their motor skills. Here are student artifacts your class can make to showcase what they’ve learned:
File Folders
Students summarize what they learned by cutting out images from their publication and gluing them into the folders. Then they write about the images, and present them.
Display Trays
Students use our Display Tray Graphic Organizer and add words and images from their publications to create a 2D “display tray” showing what they learned. Have students go around the room and look at each others’ trays.
Popsicle Sticks Puppets
Students glue images from their publications onto popsicle sticks to create “puppets” to show the class or an activity group. Ask them to explain what they know about each puppet. This is a wonderful, simple way to assess understanding and clear up any misconceptions.
Pop-up Books
Follow this 3D Pop Up tutorial video to show students how to create fun and easy pop-up books. Students can show and explain a topic to a group after doing research.
Flip Books
Follow this Flip Book tutorial video to show students how to make a flip book to match information to pictures, show cause and effect, and more.
Triorama
Have students follow instructions on this Graphic Organizer to create a triorama. This is a fun way to have students summarize or analyze an article.
Enjoy the Outdoors
What better way to get students excited about science than to have them explore nature. You can take your class on a nature walk, local park, or just stay on school campus. Have students wander around and look for different plants, rocks, birds, or insects. To develop their artistic skills and attention spans, have them draw one thing they found then show their artwork to their classmates.
Get Them Up and Moving
Children have so much energy and are still learning basic motor skills, so getting them up and moving is always a good idea.
When teaching life science, you can ask students to move around the classroom like different animals such as bunnies, dogs, or horses. For units on climate, students can act out different weather conditions like wind, snow, or rain.
Giving students a chance to stretch their muscles and take a mental break can not only keep them engaged but also reduce stress and prevent behavioral issues.
See how Studies Weekly’s K-5 Science curriculum can build your students’ STEM skills.