Science Activity Time

In addition to meaningful and fun instruction, solid classroom management, and positive relationships, what can we do?

TScience Activity Time: An Academic Motivatorhe second semester of school in 5th grade can be…intense.  There’s the test prep and the data analysis and the after school tutoring and the hormones and “The Test”.  I tried something new this semester to keep motivation high and work quality high while also giving me time to work with students who need extra help.

Every Friday, students take a quiz over the week’s material.  I quickly grade the quizzes as they turn them in (once I’m done reading aloud to some students).  Then, students graph their quiz scores.

After that it’s… SCIENCE ACTIVITY TIME!

As soon as I introduced Science Activity Time (SAT), the kids LOVED it!  Some made a hand crank powered radio with Snap Circuits.  Some made art of cycles in space with chalk and construction paper.  Some played computer games.  Some read with a buddy. Some made a contraption to test force and motion.

How does it work?

SAT happens on Fridays after we do a unit test or weekly quiz.  The reward is academic!  It lasts about 30 minutes and is for students who meet certain criteria:

1. All work for the week must be complete and high quality.
2. You must not have received a Classroom Referral all week.

Students who struggled with the quiz meet with me briefly during this time to ask questions about what they didn’t understand and clear up any misconceptions.

Students who did not do quality work or have incomplete assignments have the opportunity to get caught up.

There are plenty of easy ideas to use for SAT.  This is not something where I’m going to rotate all of the activities each week.  I added activities over time, but we started with just a few options.

Science Activity Time

Best Bets for SAT

Here are my recommendations based on what students have really enjoyed (affiliate links):

Contraptions

ZOOB BuilderZ

Laser Maze

Roller Coaster Challenge

Brain Builders

Snap Circuits

Snap Circuits Alternative Energy

Snap Circuits Light

Logic Links

 

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7 thoughts on “Science Activity Time”

  1. I love this idea. I’m moving up to a 5th grade class next year and I’m looking forward to my students being able to do more of the kind of activities you mentioned independently.

    Reply
  2. Hello, awesome idea. I was wondering where I could find more info on the graphing of their weekly quiz grades and the “classroom referral” you referred to. I would really like to know your sequence of events to receive a classroom referral etc.

    Reply
  3. Did you allow free choice, or set up like stations? I think I want to do this after tests, because who really wants to move on to a new topic on those days?

    Reply

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