A New Unit

Wrapping up the first quarter also meant wrapping up the first unit on ecosystems. Our unit for the second quarter deals with the Earth's 4 spheres: the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. The geosphere relates to the earth (soil, rocks, minerals, etc.), the biosphere is made up of all living things, hydrosphere is all the water, and the atmosphere is all things air. We are learning about how all 4 spheres work together in order to make Earth the wonderful place that it is, and we are investigating the different ways that the spheres interact. It will be nice because our first unit on ecosystems will provide the students with a lot of background knowledge for the biosphere studies of the unit. I've got a great set of short, engaging YouTube videos from the Crash Course Kids series that really help provide the students with a solid base of the concepts, and then we will be working on some projects related to each sphere. Throw in some occasional Kahoots and Quizlets to review concepts and vocabulary, and that should all make for a pretty well-rounded unit.
Beyond that, what I'm really looking forward to in this unit is a gaming platform that I'm going to be using with the students called Legends of Learning. I used it every once in a while with my 7th graders last year, and they really seemed to like it. What's great about Legends of Learning is that they have developed games that are aligned to the science standards, and it is very easy to search for games you want to assign to the students. You can set time limits for the students, so they can only be logged into the platform for a set period of time. The cherry on the top is that it is totally free! I created a playlist of games that I'm going to have the students check out tomorrow, so hopefully they will enjoy it!
Well, I've got some grading to take care of, so I'm going to cut the blog off for the night!
Mindfulness thought for the week: Nothing can make our life, or the lives of other people, more beautiful than perpetual kindness.  --Leo Tolstoy

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