Insights

Book excerpt: This module builds on children's prior experiences with balls and how they move. Children focus on two themes: the properties and characteristics of balls and some of the factors that affect the way balls behave. Children begin by comparing how a wide variety of balls roll and bounce; next they construct balls out of clay and many other materials; and then they explore the movement of different balls as the balls roll down ramps, through tubes, and around bends. Each Teacher Guide includes: Specific teaching and management strategies Detailed teaching sequences for teaching the first three phases of the Learning Experience (Getting Started; Exploring and Discovering; and Processing For Meaning) Reproducible masters for Student Science Notebook pages, Group Recording Sheets, and Home-School Worksheets Extension activities in science, language arts and social studies Assessment materials (an introductory questionnaire, embedded assessments, and a final questionnaire consisting of performance and written components) Science Background (provides general science concepts as they are introduced and developed in the module) to help prepare teacher Teacher and Student Resources section (annotated lists of children's books, teacher reference books, and technological aids) This module builds on children's prior experiences with balls and how they move. Children focus on two themes: the properties and characteristics of balls and some of the factors that affect the way balls behave. Children begin by comparing how a wide variety of balls roll and bounce; next they construct balls out of clay and many other materials; and then they explore the movement of different balls as the balls roll down ramps, through tubes, and around bends. Each Teacher Guide includes: Specific teaching and management strategies Detailed teaching sequences for teaching the first three phases of the Learning Experience (Getting Started; Exploring and Discovering; and Processing For Meaning) Reproducible masters for Student Science Notebook pages, Group Recording Sheets, and Home-School Worksheets Extension activities in science, language arts and social studies Assessment materials (an introductory questionnaire, embedded assessments, and a final questionnaire consisting of performance and written components) Science Background (provides general science concepts as they are introduced and developed in the module) to help prepare teacher Teacher and Student Resources section (annotated lists of children's books, teacher reference books, and technological aids)