Becoming Scientists and a FREEBIE!

When I was student teaching I discovered something that I never knew: I L.O.V.E. teaching science! Funny story-I discovered this while creating a plant unit for student teaching and I have the farthest thing from a green thumb out there. Seriously, I think a plant dies just when I look at it! Ha! Good thing that even dead plants work as great scientist projects! ;)

Now, whenever I tell my students that we are going to be scientists (a.k.a. have science) my kids let out a cheer that rivals the cheer that they give when I tell them we have gym! ha! Ok, so maybe the gym cheer is a *little* louder, but it's pretty darn close! ;)

Here is part of the reason that my kids beg for science:

They actually BECOME scientists and get to wear Scientist Lab coats anytime that we do science!

Since science involves lots of hands-on experiments (which I LOVE) and often incorporates supplies and instructions that need to be handled and followed carefully, I came up with the idea to turn old, white T-shirts into scientist lab coats! During science, I address students as "Scientist {insert last name}." All scientists must listen to the head scientist {a.k.a. me} or they will loose their scientist lab coat and the privileges that come with it. Trust me-I've only ever had to take away one lab coat and then there are no problems! At the beginning of the year, I ask parents to send in a clean, white t-shirt and then after learning about being scientists, I have the kids make their own lab coats.

Here's how you can have your class become scientists!

I promise that not only is this very easy to do, but it is also very effective!

I have the students keep their lab coats in their reading book bags on their chair, so that they can easily get and wear the scientist lab coats for science!

We will soon be putting on our scientist lab coats again for a SWEET SCIENCE experiment: Valentine's Day style!

We will be using three types of Valentine's Candy to make a hypothesis, conduct an experiment, and state a conclusion:

Font and Clipart by: Miss Tiina and KPM Doodles

Why not make have your kids make scientist lab coats and then use them with this sweet FREEBIE! Just click on the Sweet Science picture or page to download your free copy!

What ways do you like to motivate and engage your kids during science? I'd love to hear your ideas!