Greetings!
My heart goes out to all those affected by the recent tornadoes in the South!
If you haven't already, please consider helping out by texting REDCROSS to 90999. Your next phone bill will be charged $10.00.
While these events are fresh in everyone's minds, including your students, I would suggest grabbing this teachable moment to perhaps save lives in the future. I am devoting much of this newsletter to teaching tornado safety to young people. Always a good idea!
Much of the anxiety in your students can probably be traced to not knowing what to do. If you arm your students with How-To-Be-Safe, much of their fears can be alleviated.
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Question from a Teacher: Looking for an Outdoor Activity for Rocks & Minerals
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 QUESTIONS FROM A TEACHER: Thanks for this outdoor email, Marcia. Can you inspire me to come up with a lesson that can be used outside in conjunction with minerals and rocks? We have a brick school building and a wetland area but how can I use the school property for minerals and rocks? Thank you, Dave
MARCIA'S ANSWER: Hey, Dave! A good one would be where they collect, say, 10 interesting pebbles each. Back inside, they glue them on tag board and then try to identify each rock or mineral sample. I've actually done this and it's a good one with high interest! --Marcia UPDATE: Click here for a NEW! LabSheet for this off-the-top-of-my-head activity!
And thanks to Dave for prompting me to come up with this! |
Teaching Tornado Safety
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 If you haven't seen it already, here is a link to my Tornado
Activity. This is a good way to start a mini-unit on Tornado
Safety.
Once this activity is finished, move on to talking directly about Tornado Safety. The one worrisome thing that has come out of this tragedy is how unprotected people were in areas where there were no basements. Huddling in the bathtub with a mattress over your head was not enough. Nor was hiding in an interior room or closet. The tornadoes were so powerful they took everything down to the cement slab. Many of your students will have heard this in the news. How do you arm them with information that can ease their anxiety?
My suggestion is you talk about the building of safe rooms. FEMA has quite a bit about safe rooms on their site. Check out the following links:
FEMA also has a great page just for kids. Click here.
The American Red Cross also some good materials for teaching about tornadoes. Check out this link for materials for three different age-level.
I found a nice activity which I would suggest using right after the Tornado Activity. It contains the Fujita Scale plus three scenarios describing tornadoes. The students must decide the Fujita # and give reasons for their choices. I like this one because it puts the students to work thinking.
I find most online activities to be fill-in-the-blank worksheets.
I always strive to rise above that type of assignment.
Click here for a couple of active-learning approach activities from Marcia.
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Teaching the Night Sky
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Many of our students will be raising anxious eyes to the sky this spring. Why not balance that with the beauty of the night sky!
Email me for a Constellations Teaching Idea download.
Check out the following good ideas from other websites:
Globe at Night: Teacher Activity Packets StarDate.org: Teacher Lesson Plans and Activities Earth and Sky: Tonight Page |
As the Space Shuttle era comes to a close, it might be a good time to revisit the whole Space Spin Offs concept. This activity is a stand-alone or can be used when you teach Astronomy. Have them read and answer questions about a news article on Spin Offs, with a partner is best. Then introduce the Spin Offs Poster Assignment. They may need to research more on a computer. Requires two days, minimum. 
