I wrote this post three ago as I was preparing a lesson for a class I taught entitled Content and Pedagogy for Elementary Science and Social Studies. For years I lamented having to combine two su...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2019/02/cross-curricular-teaching-with-feathers.html
My class this evening focused on the skills of observation and classification. In thinking about classification, we engaged in a series of sorting activities with a variety of materials (buttons,...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2019/02/jelly-bean-classification.html
In October of 2011, one of my students, now a highly successful classroom teacher, created an annotated bibliography on connecting math and art in the teaching of multiplication. I've updated tha...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2016/05/connecting-math-and-art-to-teach.html
My math classes focus on teaching math for understanding, not rote memorization of processes. For sure knowing basic facts and how to compute is important, but understanding strategies and why pr...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2016/01/teaching-for-conceptual-understanding.html
Based on fossil evidence, how can scientists know what color dinosaurs were? In this TEDEd lesson, Len Bloch shows how making sense of the evidence requires careful examination of the fossil and ...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2016/01/what-color-were-dinosaurs.html
September 25th is Math Storytelling Day . Today (every day!) is the perfect opportunity to encourage and nurture the love of mathematics through reading about math. There are many terrific books...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2015/09/books-for-math-storytelling-day.html
Last week on Science Friday there was a segment entitled The Science of Story Time . While it begins with a discussion of a study that shows reading with kids has positive effects ranging from i...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-science-of-story-time.html
This is an old (2010) video, but I keep returning to it because I love the notion of a math salon. A while back I wrote a post describing the components of elementary school homework I believe...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2015/09/informal-math-rich-experiences-richmond.html
Last week I was interested in a story I heard on NPR. It began with the question "How many trees are there on the planet?" I started to think about how one would make such an estimation. My gues...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2015/09/how-many-trees-are-there-on-planet.html
In a letter to Robert Hooke in 1676, Isaac Newton wrote "If I have seen further it is by standing on ye sholders of Giants." Newton, just like the scientists of today, relied on the work of scie...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2015/03/thematic-book-list-biographies-of-early.html
"Honeybees are some of nature’s finest mathematicians. Not only can they calculate angles and comprehend the roundness of the earth, these smart insects build and live in one of the most mathe...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2015/02/honeybees-and-hexagons.html
There are many types of storms, including thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and blizzards. Caused by extremes in weather, storms can cause severe damage. But extremes are not limited to stor...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2015/02/thematic-book-list-extreme-weather.html
Weather describes the condition of the atmosphere at a particular place at a given point in time. Generally weather is described in terms temperature, pressure, wind conditions, moisture, etc. B...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2015/02/thematic-book-list-weather-introduction.html
My last thematic list focused on water and the water cycle . It did not include books on clouds or any form of precipitation. These things are integral components in the water cycle and are nece...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2015/01/thematic-book-list-clouds-rain-and-snow.html
Water is a miraculous substance. It is the only compound that commonly exists in all three phases (solid, liquid, gas) on Earth. The unique properties of water are a major factor in the ability ...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2015/01/thematic-book-list-water-and-water-cycle.html
Turbulence is a concept that is difficult to model and understand. Amazingly, Van Gogh captured it in his work Starry Night. Learn more by viewing the complete TED Ed lesson by Natalya St. Cla...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2014/12/finding-math-in-van-goghs-starry-night.html
Here's a terrific video on "the brown food chain." Watch it and learn how pond scum and animal poop contribute enormous amounts of energy to our ecosystems. Learn more by viewing the complete ...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2014/12/dead-stuff-secret-ingredient-in-our.html
The team at Numberphile printed one million decimal places of Pi onto a piece of paper. Can you guess how long it stretched? Or which digit appeared most often? Watch this video to learn the an...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2014/12/one-million-and-one-digits-of-pi.html
It's been a while since I've created anything for my math class, but after spending two days at the NCTM regional conference in Richmond, I was inspired to make some new resources. Today I'm sh...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2014/11/manic-monday-part-part-whole-flip-cards.html
Between September-November (2014) the Cornell Lab of Ornithology will be awarding a classroom set of binoculars to approximately 6 schools where educators have made outstanding efforts to engag...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2014/10/binoculars-for-young-citizen-scientists.html
Here's how this TEDEd lesson by Emma Bryce opens. > "What's tasty, abundant and high in protein? Bugs! Although less > common outside the tropics, entomophagy, the practice of...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2014/09/should-we-eat-bugs.html
What happens when you combine math and Minecraft? Apparently, quite a lot. In the webinar Mathcraft: How to Use Minecraft to Teach Common Core Math (53 minutes), third grade teacher Jim Pike...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2014/07/minecraft-and-math.html
The New Media Consortium is sponsoring a free mini-course on polar bears and climate change. Here is some information about the course. POLAR BEARS IN A CHANGING CLIMATE Polar Bears Internation...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2014/05/free-mini-course-on-polar-bears-and.html
During the month of April I celebrated National Poetry Month (at my other blog, The Miss Rumphius Effect ) by posting a set of related poetry and children's books on science. Here's a list of m...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2014/05/science-poetry-pairings-posts-from.html
I started this list back in early March when the trees outside my office were still absurdly naked. I was waiting for winter to relinquish its grip and thinking about blooming trees made me happ...
http://bookishways.blogspot.com/2014/04/for-earth-day-thematic-list-on-trees.html