Middle Grade Thematic Unit: The Final Frontiers - Ocean and Space

 

CREATE stations have been a great way to integrate library stations with the curriculum. Each letter in the acronym stands for a different activity. Students rotate through their activities once a week when they visit the library. 

Here is what CREATE stands for: 

C - Computer Choice Board 
R - Robots 
E - Engineering
A - Art
T - Thinking Lab
E - Explore and Research 

You can check out the structure and explanation HERE from one of my previous blog posts. 

In fact, in previous blog articles, I have focused on each CREATE letter and broke the station down by grade level. Currently, I am compiling my lessons with a focus on the grade level and the theme. 

This thematic unit can be completed in the library with grades 3-8! 

READ-ALOUD OPTIONS:

Space: 

Zathura (picture book)

Hidden Figures (Biography)

Race to the Moon (Fiction, choose your own adventure)

Gravity by Jason Chin (picture book)

Ocean:

Shipwreck by Gordon Korman (fiction) is found on the EPIC app and students can listen to the audiobook. This is an action-packed ocean survival novel that will appeal to fifth graders. 

Lifeboat 12 is an amazing verse poetry book that takes place during WW2. Another great survival story where the characters are stuck out to sea trying to escape Hitler's invasion. 

Corresponding Stations and Choice Board:

COMPUTER

Our computer choice board combines the ocean and space theme with these digital CREATE activities. The activities include videos, art tutorials, and coding. They can be done independently. 

You can view the choice board HERE.

If you would like to edit the choice board, click HERE. 

ROBOTS

Ozobots are perfect robots for students to code while learning about space. We code our robots to follow the path around the sun for a fun and educational space-themed activity. You can find the link to the article HERE.

ENGINEERING

Space connectagons are an excellent way for students to create and engineer while studying space. If these are no longer available, the geometric connectagons or brainflakes can also be used to create solar systems. 

Legos are also the perfect tool for engineering and creating both ocean and space challenges. 

ART

For our art station, we have our Quivervision station where we can go in-depth with both themes.  To focus on the ocean, there are several coloring sheets: 

Orca
Shark
Sea turtle 

For the space theme, we have the moon coloring sheet and the space comparison coloring sheet. These are outlined in this blog post HERE. 

Looking to use Quivervision as an art library station? Here is a tutorial on how you can get started: watch the video. There is also a great slideshow to get you started that you can access here.

THINKING LAB:

There are a couple of really fun activities and thinking games that help students understand the concept of gravity that can relate back to our space theme. 

EXPLORE:

Explore station allows students to research the topics in small bites with a meaningful impact.  Here is a worksheet we used to locate an article about the planets in the print encyclopedia: 

We also used a Britannica Resource Pack to look up the keyword, planets. This allowed us to get an overview and general information to support the classroom teachers. 

You can access these worksheets through TPT (free download): 

PLANETS FREEBIE

Return to CREATE Stations: A is FOR ART - Fourth Grade Station

The Olympics were fun and our One Book One School launch has been exciting, but now we are back to our regularly scheduled CREATE stations. Our art station primarily focuses on the Quivervision app and turns our artwork into augmented reality 3D images.

Our fourth graders are learning about the solar system and the planets. If you recall, they spent their time in the robot station coding their Ozobot to revolve around the moon. That lesson can be found HERE. 

To continue to learn about outer space in the library and supplement the students' learning, we have our Space Comparison Quivervision art coloring page. 

Getting started....researching and front loading:   

The perfect introduction to this lesson is a Britannica resource pack that focuses on the solar system and planets.  If your school or county subscribes to the Britannica database, then take a look at the resource pack I curated HERE. This is a great place for students to get a basic overview by reading and listening to articles. 

I also have students access PRINT encyclopedias with different articles that cover the various planets. I love having students identify nonfiction text features while they are researching at the same time. It covers so many standards of learning while covering important content. I have an activity that I am sharing here that has our library learners answering questions while accessing these library resources.

Check out this FREE resource from my TPT shop:

Library learners can also complete this quick research activity while in their fourth grade EXPLORE station (more on that coming up in a couple of weeks). Either way, having students read about the planets in conjunction with the Quivervision coloring app is the perfect combination! 

Next step...COMPLETING THE ART STATION: 

Whether the research is used as an introduction to front load your learners or part of another station, the visual effects of the Quivervision app really brings understanding to this topic. When students first arrive at this station, they have a selection of coloring sheets, markers and colored pencils. I try to have at least two coloring sheets for them to complete. One quick tip: do NOT have them color the background of the worksheet; have them focus on the space rocket or the moon. Sometimes when the background is colored in, the app can't read the image and the AR won't work! 

After students color in the worksheet(s), I give them the iPad mini and click on  the Quivervision app. Once it has loaded, they enter our classroom code, find their name and their avatar. Then they use the app's camera mode to scan the QR code to launch their color sheet. Once it is launched, the app continues to in camera mode to scan the entire page. Focus the iPad over the coloring page. Wait for the page to turn red and then blue. After it turns blue, wait for it ...VOILA...you have an AR picture. 

 Interested in this station? Below are the station signs I created that can be used at the students' tables or part of your lesson plan template; hope these help because they include the standards, directions and I can statements. Click on the sign below to access this free resource from my TPT store. 

If you would like a simpler sign that is in a chart form, this one below covers all three art stations at this table. Click on it to make a copy. 

This is not the first Quivervision lesson we have completed. Check out my earlier post about our 5th grade plant cell lesson HERE. These cell worksheets turned out amazing and the kids really grasped the different parts of the cells through coloring, labelling, and discussing it together in their library station. 

E is for ENGINEERING - 3rd and 4th GRADE

 

Third grade engineers.... we connect to the science standards of learning and have students use TEGU blocks (purchased with Scholastic Dollars) to create simple and compound machines.

These blocks are awesome because they are magnetic, come with a ton of different shapes and sizes...andy they come WITH WHEELS. Any building material that comes with WHEELS is a must at the elementary school level. We review the basic simple machines: wedge, pulley, inclined plane and wheel and axle. Students discuss, brainstorm and build their machines in groups of 2 or 4. 

If you would like to access my materials for this engineering station (they are editable to fit your needs), you can access them HERE (they are free). 

Both my 4th and 5th graders will be using the Little Bits this year. In the past, it was mostly just the 5th grade classes but with the changes in the SOL standards, I am definitely going to have my 4th graders experiment with these! These fit into their classroom lesson so well. For this station, I made 2 notebooks that have the different ideas and directions for the students to follow. The PDF I used is HERE. This is 76 pages, so I didn't use all the pages, but I printed the basic circuits: light sensor, temperature sensor, buzzer, and of course the car (an all time favorite to build). Students are also encouraged to free build. Check out the explanation of this station HERE. It includes signs, standards, and procedures. Hope these help! 

       

My engineering students sit at the yellow E table where their materials are stored. The chart I use for this table is below! If you would like this chart that outlines this station, you can make a copy HERE. It covers third, fourth and fifth grade. 

R is for ROBOT: Ozobots for 4th Graders

 

Ozobot bits...the robot that follows code and reads colors! This is an awesome library station because it can be in the robot station OR the art station. 

Learners can code Ozobots a few different ways: 

• Using Ozoblockly on the chromebook, learners drag and drop block coding to get the Ozobot moving.
• Coloring with markers, learners color the correct code on Ozobot worksheets or just plain white paper. 
• Clipping together Ozobot puzzle pieces that can be purchased (I bought one set on Amazon and another through eBay), learners create a color-coded path for the Ozobot to follow.
• Just getting started with Ozobot? I use this introduction video with my students:
   
  Introduction to Ozobot - Part 1.

Depending on the week, we use the puzzle pieces OR we code with our makers. I love using the Ozobot worksheets, and in 4th grade when we are learning about the planets, earth, moon and gravitational pull, we complete the eclipses worksheet from the Ozobot worksheet. It directly relates to the fourth grade SOLS for this quarter, so now is the perfect time to use the Ozobots and have them follow a path around Earth. 

Here are the materials for the 4th grade Ozobot Station: (one per participating student)

• plastic bag with a black, blue, green, red marker 
• Ozobot worksheet: Eclipses-celestial-mechanics 
• Ozobot code cheat sheet:  Ozobot Code cheat sheets
• Ozobot robots (students can share or each have their own Ozobot...collaboration can be very successful with this station). 

Check out the 4th Grade Ozobot science and library Lesson  HERE. It outlines the lesson, the standards, and learning goals (freebie on TPT). 

If you would the station sign for grades 3-5, here it is for you to copy: 

Check out the station sign for grades 3-5 HERE and make a copy if it is helpful! 

C is for COMPUTER (create stations grades 3-5)

Let's recap...we have an acronym for our Library stations, and we have a system. Now we can break it down. As mentioned before, the Letter C for grades K-2 indicates a CONSTRUCTION stations. 

Check it out here...CONSTRUCTION STATION for K-2

However, if you are in the upper grades, C stands for COMPUTER or CHROMEBOOKS. Our library has 10 computers, and we used library funds to purchase 4 chromebooks. On the computer, there are many websites, activities, and symbaloos that students can access... there is also a digital choice board that was inspired and modeled after Shannon McClintock Miller's choice board. I rearranged the activities to fit in my CREATE categories and added some of my own. I also included the National Day calendar that another awesome educator shares through facebook. 

Click on the picture below to check out my Gordon Libguides and take a look at my CREATE digital stations: 

If you would like a copy of the CREATE digital choice board for NOVEMBER to revise, click HERE.

To view it, click HERE. 

Even though I love the choice boards, I also created interactive bitmoji classrooms for students to look around and locate different activities by clicking on pictures.  This was compiled by using all kinds of resources in the bitmoji community and all the generous educators during the pandemic. Hope you enjoy it and can use it for your own classroom. 

COPY Bitmoji Classoom

VIEW Bitmoji Classroom

Finally, the upper grades also have access to Minecraft EDU (the really old version), but I have enough worlds downloaded that it still works and the kids still enjoy building. The kids do love playing in the interactive worlds as a team. It builds great teamwork and collaboration. 

Here is a sign I use at the ORANGE computer station: 

To view the COMPUTER STATION SIGN, click here. 

If you would like to use it, feel free to make a copy and edit the sign to fit your needs.