Sum It Up Saturday: Basketball

This is the end of my first week back to blogging here.  My plan on Saturdays is to link to the previous 5 days so that you have the entire unit easily accessible in one post.  Do you prefer it this way or would you rather I just post the entire unit at one time?  If I post entire lessons at once, it may result in more than one unit a week, but I can't promise that.  I also realize that I did not include science in this lesson plan.  I will share some ideas on that in a minute.  In future weeks, I think I will move the fun ideas to the Sum It Up post on Saturday and include science ideas on Fridays.

Basketball

Some science ideas related to basketball:

- Anatomy and Physiology: Learn about the muscles used while playing basketball.  Younger kids can focus on the parts of the body being used (heart, brain, arms, legs, back) and more advanced kids can learn the muscle names, insertion points, etc.  You can also talk about aerobic exercise and how muscle cells work.  Adapt this to whatever ability you are working with.

- Physics: This post on reference.com has some great ideas for exploring physics with basketball, especially in regards to potential and kinetic energy and the law of conservation of energy.

- Scientific Theory:  Practice dribbling the ball.  Make a prediction about what will happen if you dribble ball faster or slower or from your waist level, your knee level, or your chest level.  Try it and make notes of what happened and try a new prediction.  You can do the same thing when practicing making baskets.  Try changing the bend of your elbow before you release the ball, or try closing your eyes when you take a shot.  

Math Monday

Time Travel Tuesday

Writing Wednesday

Think Of Others Thursday

Fun Friday

Science Saturday: Martin Luther King Jr.

Ok, I know today is not Saturday, but I started the Martin Luther King Jr unit last January and failed to post a Science section for it, so I am posting it now. Here are the other links for this unit:
Math Monday
Time Travel Tuesday
World Wednesday
Think About It Thursday
Fun Friday

Now onto the science activities:

There is not a whole lot that I came up with outside of human biology and genetics.

- Discuss how we are the same inside, even if we look different on the outside. We all need the same things to live :air, food, water and we all have a brain, heart, lungs, bones, etc.

- Make a list of the various characteristics that are the same and different in people. Example: Same: we all have a heart, 10 fingers, 10 toes, etc Different: hair color, eye color, skin color, etc You may need to explain that illness or disability may also make some people have different characteristics (more/less than 10 fingers, albino coloring, etc)

- Explain why some things are different in people. Vocabulary word: genes

Science Saturday: New Years

I just logged in and saw that I never hit the publish button for this post. This was supposed to post on 12/26. My apologies. Hopefully, you can use it in following years.


- If one of the New Year resolutions involves eating healthy, a lesson on nutrition would be a good science lesson.

- You could also learn about the rate at which things of different weights fall and how that rate can be controlled.

- This is a fun time to learn about fireworks and how they work. How Stuff Works has a great explanation and a video about how fireworks and sparklers work. ***Note*** This is a great time to discuss firework safety as well.

- Study the current season in different parts of the world and why it is that way. How is it that it is summer on the southern hemisphere, but it is winter here?

- Study why a cork pops when a bottle of wine/sparkling grape juice is opened.

- Any study of corks and/or carbonation at this time is appropriate. You can even make homemade soda.

Science Saturday

There are several ways to include science this week. First, would be to talk about the giant panda. Unlike American bears, panda bears do not hibernate and are unable to walk on their hind legs. One reason they do not hibernate is that the food they eat does allow them to build up enough fat storage to make it through the winter. Their diet consists mostly of bamboo shoots and roots. Although they can be found in zoos all around the world, the giant pandas natural habitat is the mountains of central China.



Pandas tend to start reproducing around age 4-6 years. Mother pandas carry the baby for 3-5 months, a much shorter time than humans. The baby pandas are born weighing approximately 3.5-4 ounces and with all white fur. They will begin to show black and white coloring at around 1 month of age.


Currently, giant pandas are an endangered species, with only about 1500 remaining in the world. Endangered means at risk of becoming extinct and extinct means no longer existing. There would be no more giant pandas anywhere in the world.

Another option for science this week is to learn the symbols for gold (Au) and silver (Ag) from the periodic table. One way I was taught to remember the symbols for gold and silver was Aggg, silver. Auuuuu, (pronounced Awwww) gold. Older kids could also learn iron (Fe) and copper’s (Cu) symbols, which are combined to make bronze. Bronze is an alloy combining both iron and copper.

Other topics that could be taught this week include nutrition, exercise, heart health, lung health, muscles, etc, pretty much anything that goes along with athleticism.

Vocabulary:
Endangered: at risk of becoming extinct
Extinct: no longer in existence
Alloy: a combination of two or more metals