Happy August, Internet!
I've been up to my neck in busy since landing my job. I had the entire first 6 weeks of school rigorously planned out, powerpoints made, labs planned, activities designed....
And then my principal called and asked me to teach 7th grade instead of 8th!
Honestly, I don't mind. I actually prefer 7th grade as it's mostly Life Science (and I majored in Biology). Plus, I had about 6 weeks of lessons already planned for when I was trying to get a job at my Student Teaching school, so it's not nearly the hassle it might have been.
I'm writing today to share my summer prep on a lab we'll be doing mid-September. In the middle of our "flow of Energy" unit, we cover the following...
TEKS 7.5 (B)...demonstrate and explain the cycling of matter within living systems such as in the decay of biomass in a compost bin
I recall my mentor teacher's neighbor taught a class of 7th grade, and they did compost bottles early in the year. I decided it would be an excellent activity for my kiddos. I'll publish the powerpoint and journal pages later when we actually get to the lesson, but there's a little pre-planning and work that I need to take care of first. If you're planning on doing compost bottles, you might want to follow my lead on this.
Composting takes time. Like, weeks of time. I didn't want the kids to go through all the work of making these compost bottles only to move on to another unit before they could see in any results. So I decided to make a few compost bottles today, allow them to do their thing for 5-6 weeks, and bring them up to school during the "lets check our bottles" day I have budgeted (about a week after the kids do their bottles). This way, the kids could see what will eventually happen to their bottles without the hazards of time travel = )
There's tons of resources out there on how to do compost soda bottles but here's my take.
I pulled the labels off of 2-liter coke bottles and used an x-acto knife to cut the top off...at about the first ring...where the bottle curve turns into being straight sides.
I then rounded up my ingredients.
I found the following in the bottom of my fruit/veggie drawer in the fridge:
Two immensely rotten (and fungus-y) cucumbers and some half-rotten radishes. BLEGH. I have a traditionally strong stomach, but even that made me queasy. Had to clean out the whole drawer, and promise myself to be far more vigilant with respect to that drawer in the future.
Since I don't believe in coincidence, I took this as a sign that I was supposed to be making compost bottles today (tomorrow is trash day and they would have gotten thrown out).
I was also fortunate in that my mother pulled weeds from the fence-line and garden a few days ago.
I also had a half a bag of potting soil from our spring gardening at my disposal.
I wish we still got the newspaper, because I would have loved to use that. And if I'd thought about it, I'd have used our coffee grounds from this morning. Things to remember in a few weeks!
At any rate, I layered soil, rotting veggies, watermelon rind (from lunch!), grass, and mists of water until the bottle filled up.
Once full, I shoved the cut off tops into the bottles. I used my x-acto knife to poke small holes along the sides so we could get some air in there. I plan on shaking them once a week to aerate.
If all goes well, the kids will have three 5-week old compost samples to compare theirs to. Here's hoping!
I also found this cool game, and I plan on letting the kids play after we finish up the lab. http://compost4fun.recyclenow.com/
I'm not sure if we'll have computers at every desk like I'm used to, but even if we don't, I can run the game and they can tell me what to grab. They'll enjoy it regardless.
Hope August is treating you all well!
Ms. Kat
I've been up to my neck in busy since landing my job. I had the entire first 6 weeks of school rigorously planned out, powerpoints made, labs planned, activities designed....
And then my principal called and asked me to teach 7th grade instead of 8th!
Honestly, I don't mind. I actually prefer 7th grade as it's mostly Life Science (and I majored in Biology). Plus, I had about 6 weeks of lessons already planned for when I was trying to get a job at my Student Teaching school, so it's not nearly the hassle it might have been.
I'm writing today to share my summer prep on a lab we'll be doing mid-September. In the middle of our "flow of Energy" unit, we cover the following...
TEKS 7.5 (B)...demonstrate and explain the cycling of matter within living systems such as in the decay of biomass in a compost bin
I recall my mentor teacher's neighbor taught a class of 7th grade, and they did compost bottles early in the year. I decided it would be an excellent activity for my kiddos. I'll publish the powerpoint and journal pages later when we actually get to the lesson, but there's a little pre-planning and work that I need to take care of first. If you're planning on doing compost bottles, you might want to follow my lead on this.
Composting takes time. Like, weeks of time. I didn't want the kids to go through all the work of making these compost bottles only to move on to another unit before they could see in any results. So I decided to make a few compost bottles today, allow them to do their thing for 5-6 weeks, and bring them up to school during the "lets check our bottles" day I have budgeted (about a week after the kids do their bottles). This way, the kids could see what will eventually happen to their bottles without the hazards of time travel = )
There's tons of resources out there on how to do compost soda bottles but here's my take.
I pulled the labels off of 2-liter coke bottles and used an x-acto knife to cut the top off...at about the first ring...where the bottle curve turns into being straight sides.
I then rounded up my ingredients.
I found the following in the bottom of my fruit/veggie drawer in the fridge:
Since I don't believe in coincidence, I took this as a sign that I was supposed to be making compost bottles today (tomorrow is trash day and they would have gotten thrown out).
I was also fortunate in that my mother pulled weeds from the fence-line and garden a few days ago.
I also had a half a bag of potting soil from our spring gardening at my disposal.
I wish we still got the newspaper, because I would have loved to use that. And if I'd thought about it, I'd have used our coffee grounds from this morning. Things to remember in a few weeks!
At any rate, I layered soil, rotting veggies, watermelon rind (from lunch!), grass, and mists of water until the bottle filled up.
If all goes well, the kids will have three 5-week old compost samples to compare theirs to. Here's hoping!
I also found this cool game, and I plan on letting the kids play after we finish up the lab. http://compost4fun.recyclenow.com/
I'm not sure if we'll have computers at every desk like I'm used to, but even if we don't, I can run the game and they can tell me what to grab. They'll enjoy it regardless.
Hope August is treating you all well!
Ms. Kat
No comments:
Post a Comment