Paper Airplane Contest! Teaching Variables

It has been a fantastic two weeks. What a great way to start the year! We have already dove right into experimenting almost daily. Our class wiki is already filled with fun stuff {click here to check it out}. Parent Night was a success. And now for a three day weekend. Woo hoo!

I wanted to share a fun experiment that I found to teach students all about variables. Before sharing this - let me just say that I always start the year with my Marshmallow Challenge, followed by a few simple experiments to get the ball rolling. {I have a packet of the experiments that I do on my TpT site - click here to check that out - it's only $3.00!!} Then, to introduce variables - I let students participate in a very unfair rubber band shooting contest. I announce the contest, then pass out all different sizes of rubber bands. Then I let them shoot the rubber bands from wherever they are standing (all while wearing safety goggles, of course) and then I announce whom I think is the winner, based on what I simply observe. It's very unfair and students immediately give me feedback letting me know! Then we have a discussion about what we would need to do to make the contest fair. We come up with things such as:

• We need to know what the purpose of the contest is, ie. how to we determine a winner? {distance}
• Everyone needs to have the same type of rubber band
• We need to use the same type of measurement to measure the distance traveled for each person
• Everyone needs to shoot the rubber band the same way{we aren't measuring what technique shoots the rubber band the farthest, we are measuring who shoots the rubber band the farthest}

Viola! We've learned about variables! Then I go into a discussion about controlled, independent, and dependent variables. They love it and they get it after experiencing the unfair contest. We then discuss how this is all related to science. {I actually had one student say, "What does this have to do with science?!"}


After we know all about variables, we had a paper airplane contest. We wanted to see which airplane design {independent variable} flew the farthest distance {dependent variable}. Some of the controlled variables that we came up with included:

• Using the same unit of measurement to measure the distance flown
• Everyone must hold the plane the same way when throwing the airplane
• We need to have a large space with no wind {because the wind might have an effect on how far the planes are thrown.}

I found this experiment on this website. It's fantastic! It even has the airplane folding instructions. It also has a worksheet that accompanies the experiment, though I recreated it to meet my needs. Click here to download my version of the worksheet for free. You may make changes as necessary to better fit your needs!

This experiment is perfect to start off the year because it incorporates following instructions, working together, and the importance of understanding math in science. {I had students measure the distance flown in inches and then we converted that to feet.} Plus, who wouldn't want to fly paper airplanes in class?! 

Having a blast so far in fifth grade science. I hope your school year got off to a great start as well!

Monthly Goals Linky

I'm linking up with Jess from I {heart} Recess to share my goals with my fellow bloggers. I know, I know. I am SO breaking the rules by posting twice in one day, but I can't help it. My daughter is being awesome today, so I need to take advantage of it and post away. I've already scheduled two more posts for later this week. I'm Johnny On It today.

Personal: So, I had a baby on Easter Sunday. And I'm happy to say that I am now 3lbs less than I was before I got preggo. This is good news! {I'm still at least 10lbs from where I should be...} But I have to be honest and say that it has ZERO to do with my working out and more to do with breastfeeding. Man! That's they key to losing weight right there. Amazing. I am kinda working out on a weekly basis - but it's not hard core stuff like I am used to. It's just really difficult to squeeze in an hour workout at any point during the day with this little sweetie to distract me. One school begins, I am hitting the pavement as soon as I can get all my stuff wrapped up for the day. I'm also joining a boot camp again - they offer one at my school - and I'm super excited about it! I was pregnant when I joined last year, but I was still able to hang in there. Now that I'm not with child anymore, I have no excuses!! Yikes!


Organization: Last year was my first year teaching. {I'm 30 years old, but I switched careers in the middle of my life.} I went through a TON of different ways to organize all of my teachery things and I never, ever felt organized whatsoever last year. THIS year, I know what to expect. I know what I need, and I know what I don't need. I've created several binders and sheets that I know I will use and my *goal* is to stick with what I have already created and planned for throughout the entire year. I have a feeling this year will be much easier on me than last year was, simply because I've experienced it!


Planning: I have been major struggling with the Light Unit that I taught last year. I was SUCH a mess last year when I taught that thing. It's 7 weeks long - and a lot of the material is really difficult to understand. We have the Carolina Biological kit that accompanies this unit, but it's for middle schoolers. And let me tell you - it was DIFFICULT. I got a headache every time I tried to read it and make sense of it. This year, I'm still using the core content, but I'm scaling it down a bit. It was really too much for my fifth graders. We found ourselves very frustrated last year because the kids and I were both confused. It was awful and I was HORRIBLE at teaching it. I recognize that and I knew i had to do something to make it better and more enjoyable for all parties involved. I've been working on it and I'm almost done, but this was definitely a major goal that needed to be reached.


Professional: Since I attended the Reading and Writing Project training this summer {even though I teach science, I was still fortunate enough to be able to attend ---how awesome is that?!} - I was blown away and inspired. I have to implement the workshop style approach in my classroom and I've been searching high and low for science related fiction and non-fiction materials to help me. I don't know if it will be perfect, but I am definitely going to try. I just love the idea of the workshop because it really puts the kiddos in charge of their own learning. It will be a work in progress, but I think it could really work in science.


Students: Last year, I did not post learning targets. And the kids never really had easy access to each goal that we were trying to reach every day. {I know that's probably terrible, but I'm learning from my mistakes!} This year, I have a Focus Wall in the works, and "Goal Cards" for each student, which will list each learning target for each unit of study that we cover. They will receive a copy of the learning targets for each respective unit of study at the beginning of each unit. There is also a place for them to check once they've mastered each target. Of course, I will also have a copy and I'll ultimately be the judge of when they've mastered them, but it puts the responsibility of what they need to learn on them. I love it! I've also got a new anecdotal note system which goes along with this that I will share on a future post.


Motto: Pain is Temporary...Pride is Forever! I think this saying can be applied to any facet of life. Keeping up with these goals may be painful at times...but the pride that I will gain from keeping them will last a lifetime.

Thanks so much to Jess for providing the cute graphic to go along with this linky. Link up with sweet Jess from I {heart} Recess to share your goals!

Back to School GIVEAWAY!!! $25 Worth of Goodies!

Hiya folks! I have been totally blown away by the generosity of my fellow bloggy buds! I'm super impressed and now I want to join them. I know that there aren't many teachers out there that solely teach science, but I still have some goodies that I think lots of teacher types could benefit from. So - without further adieu....here's my offer. Two lucky ducks will win $25.00 worth of products from my Teachers Pay Teachers Shop!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I hope everyone is enjoying these last few days of summer break...because ready or not {and I'm soooooo NOT} - here it comes! I mean, tomorrow is officially August. Crazy.  We just got word that the construction at our school is complete - and MAD PROPS to those guys because putting an entire roof on a large-ish school in less than three months was probably no walk in the park. So, my butt will be dragging my momma {who, unbeknownst to her, has agreed to help unpack my room} on Monday! I have a slew of new organization and decoration goodies that I'll be using this year. Now that I have my first year under my belt, I know what I need..and what I don't need for my classroom. I'll have some good before and after pics to share within the next week or so.

I'm sitting here with my sweet baby girl in her "monkey seat" {her bouncer} and she is laughing and smiling away. Life sure has changed since I first started this little ole' blog. Love her. She's such a good baby. I am SO gonna miss these days of still being in our jammies at 9am. Well, there's always the weekends!!

Ok, so join me in my generosity and WIN some fun stuff! To enter, follow me {if you don't already}, Pin my giveaway on Pinterest, leave a little love, and/or follow my TpT shop!

Thanks and GOOD LUCK!