Guest Speaker

As difficult as it is for me to admit, I'm not an expert on everything.  So when it came to teaching about mixtures and solutions, we have some basic supplies but for my munchkins, this wasn't enough.

I invited one of my close friends Katie in to be a guest speaker. She holds a degree in chemistry and works at a local titanium alloy plant.

She prepared a power point and several basic experiments for the fifth graders.  She was gracious enough not only to speak to my class, but the other four classes as well.

She went over mixtures and solutions, demonstrating how mixtures can be separated out again into their separate entities while solutions can't.

Oil and water (with food coloring) as well as lemonade packets and water:

My students were super excited when they learned they were able to then drink the lemonade afterward!

Thanks Katie for coming to play science with our fifth graders!

Solids, Liquids & Gases Sort

Since my best selling TpT product of the year was my mixtures and solutions sort, I decided to make another science sort.  

This one requires students to sort task cards into solids, liquids and gases based on the description.  It's a great review for standardized testing!

Snag yours here!

Mixtures & Solutions Sort

It's funny, my best selling product on TpT is my mixtures and solutions sort.   It's been downloaded a few dozen times and rated 11 times with 3.9/4 stars as an average.  It's a little funny to me because I spend so much of my time focusing on literacy and small groups.  My science focus this year is on land forms, earth and space, not chemistry...but that's ok!  My students loved it last year, another awesome teacher in my grade level uses it this year with our fifth graders, so it's still relevant :)

I always like to do a literacy connection with mixtures and solutions.  We go over solids, liquids & gases because it's connected with chemistry.

We read Dr. Seuss's Bartholomew and the Oobleck...

...before making our own oobleck (cornstarch, water & food coloring).  They analyze whether the oobleck is a liquid or a solid based on their five senses.  From there, they can decide if it's a mixture or a solution.

Happy reading fellow scientists!

New product: Mixtures & Solutions Sort

One of my students' favorite science topics is mixtures and solutions.

I don't know if it's because the unit is very hands-on and we make chemical reactions occur (often with a loud noise or foaming bubbles).  Maybe it's because mixtures and solutions is kind of like potions and they wish they were at Hogwarts (that would be my dream).

Since supplies are limited and we can't necessarily have a chemical reaction a day, I created a sort for mixtures and solutions, available here.

I would go over the difference between mixtures and solutions, then allow students to complete this sort as a table team.  While they were discussing, I would walk around listening and doing an informal assessment.  Students would then walk around and critique one another's work in a gallery walk format.  They're allowed to look and discuss why they agree or disagree, but they can't touch one another's work.  After they've gotten a chance to observe the other tables, they return to their seats and we go over just a few of the answers.  They discuss why a particular combination is either a mixture or a solution.

We repeat this activity several times throughout the unit and again before testing.

Hope your students enjoy it as much as mine do!