Lesson 1 Reflective Summary

Teacher Candidate for Science Endorsement: ____Kimberly McCreary______________

Instructor: _____Terri George______________________________________________

School: _____Picketts Mill ES________ Grade: ___________1________________

Lesson Topic: ___Types of Weather_________________________________________

This was a great lesson. The beginning of the lesson went really well. It took a long
time to set up a weather journal to use for the weather walk, but after all of the
preparation was done, the students enjoyed the weather walk. We were lucky that it
was a rainy day (but the rain had not started yet) so we got lots of good observations of
the weather. When we returned to the classroom, it took a while to get everyone back
together and ready to move to the next part of the lesson, so next time I might address
the procedures for coming back in from the weather walk before we actually walk back
inside. My students enjoyed the story and really had thoughtful discussion regarding
types of weather. I enjoyed doing the ticket out the door because it gave me a good idea
of which students could identify and describe different types of weather and which ones
still needed extra instruction.
According to the ticket out the door and observation throughout the lesson, my
students did really well at attaining the student performance objectives. Almost all
students were able to name one or more types of weather and draw or write to describe
it.
All of the activities we completed during this lesson centered on science
understanding of weather types and describing those types of weather. Students
observed weather and asked questions (we made a list of driving questions after our
weather walk). All activities were completed with the intention of helping students
make sense of the scientific objectives. My knowledge of scientific content regarding
weather helped me to support my students understanding of the concepts of weather.
When I have the opportunity to re-teach this lesson, there are a few things I will do
differently. I will be more clear with expectations and procedures in moving from one
activity to the next. I might allow students to ask their driving questions before we do
the weather walk or have any other discussion about weather. I might start with a ticket
IN the door in addition to the ticket out the door to give me more of an idea of the
progress made from the beginning of the lesson to the end.
 Lesson 2 Reflective Summary

Teacher Candidate for Science Endorsement: ____Kimberly McCreary______________

Instructor: _________Terri George__________________________________________

School: _____Picketts Mill ES________ Grade: ___________1________________

Lesson Topic: ___Measuring Weather________________________________________

My class really enjoyed this lesson about Measuring Weather! The beginning of my
lesson went really well. Students recorded weather information in their weather journal
and graphed the weather on our weather graph. We observed several weather tools
and students were excited to learn about each tool and find out what they are used for.
The information in the First Look video was interesting and engaging for my students.
Something that did not go well was the amount of time it took to do this lesson. This
lesson was really more of a 2-3 day lesson rather than one day. We had to stop and
continue the lesson the next day, because the green screen activity was an entire lesson
in itself. However, my students LOVED working on their weather reports and becoming
the meteorologist with the green screen!
My students were definitely engaged and worked hard to achieve the performance
objectives for this lesson. This was an area they did not score well on in the pretest and
when I did the ticket out the door, they were able to tell a tool that could be used to
measure different types of weather. All activities in this lesson centered on science
understanding and making sense of the science objectives for this content. My
knowledge of scientific content regarding weather helped me to support my students
understanding of the concepts of weather. There were some things that I had to make
sure I learned about ahead of time, like what is an anemometer but overall I was able
to support my students understanding through my own knowledge of the scientific
content.
If I have the opportunity to re-teach this lesson, I will break this lesson into 2 lessons
and make the green screen activity a lesson in itself to evaluate the learning that has
occurred in the unit.
 Lesson 3 Reflective Summary

Teacher Candidate for Science Endorsement: ____Kimberly McCreary______________

Instructor: _________Terri George__________________________________________

School: _____Picketts Mill ES________ Grade: ___________1________________

Lesson Topic: ___Identifying Forms of Precipitation_ ___________________________

This lesson was really great! Using Olaf as the phenomenon for this lesson went really
well. My class was so excited to learn about how to make a happy snowman. The short
videos were good and my students were engaged the whole time while learning about
types of precipitation. We checked back on our cups of ice throughout the lesson and
my class was astonished to see that the ice was actually melting. One area that could
have gone better was the 4 square activity with the cotton balls and foil types of
precipitation. It took a long time and classroom management was more difficult during
this time, because some students finished very quickly and others took a really long time
to complete the activity.
The student performance objectives were attained very well in this lesson. Looking
at Olaf and reading the book on solids and liquids led my students to ask questions
about what precipitation was solid or liquid and answer their own questions. All
activities in this lesson centered on science understanding and making sense of the
science objectives for this content. My knowledge of scientific content regarding
weather helped me to support my students understanding of the concepts of weather.
If I have the opportunity to re-teach this lesson, I might take out the 4 square activity
and just use the ticket out the door activity (draw Olaf in each season) instead. The
main issues I had with teaching this lesson consisted of running out of time and the
activities taking longer than I had allotted.
 Lesson 4 Reflective Summary

Teacher Candidate for Science Endorsement: ____Kimberly McCreary______________

Instructor: _________Terri George__________________________________________

School: _____Picketts Mill ES________ Grade: ___________1________________

Lesson Topic: ___STEM Design Challenge Save Olaf!___________________________

This lesson was fun and exciting for my 1st graders. They enjoyed using what they
had learned to build something to keep Olaf from melting. The phenomenon (melting
cup of ice on the candle warmer) was good as it reminded them of the previous lesson
and helped them to remember the states of matter and how different types of
precipitation are solid/liquid. One thing that did not go as well (and usually doesnt go
well this early in the year with STEM projects is group dynamics while working. I gave
lanyards with each persons job (writer, materials manager, builder, recorder,
cheerleader, etc) to hopefully decrease the arguing in groups, but there was still a lot of
arguing and heated discussion throughout the lesson. I know this is something that has
to be learned, though and I know my students will get better at working as a team and
working through frustration as the year goes on.
The objective of this lesson was to use what we had learned in previous lessons to
create a solution for a STEM design challenge. I think that my class did a good job of
using the vocabulary we had learned and working together to solve the problem. All
activities in this lesson centered on science understanding and making sense of the
science objectives for this content. My knowledge of scientific content regarding
weather helped me to support my students understanding of the concepts of weather.
In the future, if I re-teach this lesson, I will work to ensure that groups are more
balanced based on personality and effort, not only on pretest scores and observation of
ability in previous lessons. I also might want a heat lamp instead of a candle warmer as
it was not very reliable.