Living and Non Living with the LION KING!!

One of the life science TEKS I have to teach is abiotic and biotic factors, which are just fancy names for living and non living things in an ecosystem.  But more importantly, I have to teach the interdependence biotic factors have on abiotic items and vice versa.

There is no better way to teach this than through the first 4 minutes of Lion King.  Here is what we did:

1. Defined and discussed the words: abiotic factor, biotic factor, and ecosystem. 
2. Worked in our journals from this website about ecosystems and their factors.
3. Have students make a T-chart in their journal.  One side Abiotic Factors.. the other Biotic Factors.
4. Watch the Lion King off youtube.com.  Make sure it is just the Circle of Life song, but the volume is muted. 
5. Have students list as much as they can-being as specific as they possibly can.  Watch the clip twice without any sound.
6. Watch it with the sound one last time just for fun :)  It was so sweet to see my 6th graders singing along.  Love them!

 

When y'all are done watching it, discuss together or in their small groups and see what they have similarly or differently.   We had a blast and the point was hit home.  I think we will watch it again tomorrow and Thursday when discussing how the biotic organisms rely on the abiotic.  How is that present in this video?

Have fun teaching this week!

Clipboards and Post-its

I think it is a requirement of teachers to...

1. Love clipboards... and have about 1 million.... you never know when you need one.
2. Have a near obsession over post-its.  Cant they be used for just about anything!?!? Math... yes.... Science... yes... Reading... always.... Love them!

So what's a better way than incorporating the two into a great gift for my Secret Pal at school.  She's a teacher.... any by that fact... she must love school supplies.  What teacher doesn't???  The smell of crayons... having paperclips in a wide variety of colors... and when paperclips cant work pull out those marvelous big guns.... the bracket clips....

Ahhh yes.... teacher supplies.  

So this is what I made for my wonderful teacher friend:

It took me about an hour and a 1/2.... because I am a perfectionist.... but I did all 3 in that time! :)  That's 1/2 and hour per gift!  (yes... I am a math teacher... )

Here are the supplies I needed:

 Lets start with the post-it note holder.... soooooo easy.  Get yourself a cardboard coaster from a place like Chili's.

Grab your trusty mod podge.  Mine is glossy, but I only used it as a glue.

The secret to all mod podge: some sort of squeegee!!! You must press out all those air bubbles or your paper will crinkle and it will not be pretty.

Use an exacto to carefully cut around the edges of the coaster.

One side was covered in dots, the other in black and white.  After I covered both sides, I dipped my brush in black paint and painted the edges and speckled the side as if I were stenciling.  I really like the effect.

Then just add a big clip with some post-its and you're done!

Clipboard:

Paint the sides first.

Cut your paper to the size you want.  I wanted to use 2 different types of paper.... I started with the bottom and worked my way up.

Mod Podge only the bottom.  I used mine only as a glue; I did not put a top layer of it on.

Use that squeegee to get it nice and smooth with no bubbles.

The toughest part was cutting around the silver head area.  You could paint the top black and skip all the cutting, but I only wanted it covered in paper. 

I used the same painting technique around the board like I did on the coaster.  Then add a little bow... so cute!

I used stickers to spell out her name and some kinda paper boarder sticker that I glued on to add a little whimsy to the area where the 2 papers meet.  The back of the board looks close to he same as the front.  Only difference is I didn't add her name to the back.

 Ta-Da! Done.  And if you want to know more about the teacher survival kit... you can find that post right here.  Or a little more about secret pals.... you can check here.


Have fun crafting.... and if you don't have a secret pal, maybe make something special for that wonderful custodian or secretary who we all know the school would burn down if we didn't have either of them :)