I am so excited to get these lesson plans rolling! Each week of your school year can now be stress free because I am going to be sharing my lesson plans with you for free every week!! This will be for elementary science grades 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th since those are the grades I have curriculum for. I don’t want you to miss out on a single free lesson plan, so make sure you sign up right now to get these sent straight to your inbox!!

This week we will continue on with the Matter and Energy physical science concept standards for 5th grade Science! The physical science standards are what schools typically cover first, but you can check out my elementary science scope and sequence to see which weeks line up with your school’s scope. Here is your stress-free lesson plan for the week.

Standards Covered:

TEKS

5.5 (C) identify changes that can occur in the physical properties of the ingredients of solutions such as dissolving salt in water or adding lemon juice to water.

NGSS

5-PS1-2 Measure and graph quantities to provide evidence that regardless of the type of change that occurs when heating, cooling, or mixing substances, the total weight of matter is conserved.

5-PS1-4 Conduct an investigation to determine whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances.

Guiding Question:

How do the properties of the ingredients in a solution change when they are mixed together?

The Lesson:

And now, for all the fun and engaging learning! Click the image to grab your printable lesson plans for the week. Click any image in the post to grab the whole lesson set that’s ready to print and teach.

To make my life easier, I plan each each with the same structure. Students like the routine and it helps them know what to expect for each day of the week.

Monday

Each day of the week, students will walk in and get to work on their Daily Science Starters. This is a favorite activity of mine that I started using in a middle school science classroom. I saw how well it got students in science class mode AND deterred misbehaviors while students were waiting to get started. Each day has its own question that leads into the learning for that day. I like to go over the question and let students share their answers with the class. You may catch some misconceptions with these, but the questions are just to get students thinking.

Before moving into the lesson, complete column one of the Word Wall Builder Chart. Have students think about what each key term means before they learn about it. This is a way to get vocabulary on their mind and to help students identify their own misconceptions as they learn more through the week. Word Wall Builder Charts are my favorite way to make your word wall more interactive and useful. I always provide printable versions for students to record their own answers, plus a class version to post in the room through the week. You can see below that I use sticky notes to make my chart paper reusable each week.

To start off the lesson week, I like to give students an activity that grabs interest and activates or establishes some schema (background knowledge). This can be a great starting point for noticing some misconceptions, too. For this week, we are making it fun with Color Solutions. Students will work in a group mixing their favorite colors together. The twist comes when they try to pull their color back out!

Now that you have solutions on students’ minds, you can introduce the base knowledge for the concept. The informational text is not a tell-all text. It is designed to give students terminology and conceptual base knowledge of the concept, so that the real learning and discovery can come through hands-on learning and labs. There are three key terms in bold that students will define using context clues. This will work with the Word Wall Builder Chart to build student knowledge of each key term.

Differentiate this text as needed for your students. Some things I like to do is continue a gradual release of this activity with students who need the assistance.

Follow up the reading with a graphic organizer to process and use the information they read so they can better retain that information. I create a themed graphic organizer for each text that doubles as visual notetaking or note doodles or coloring notes. They use what they read or learned to complete the graphic organizer. This one shows them how the molecules look/act in a beaker for each state.

End this day with the Content Area Focus Wall Exit Slips and/or introduce the project (if you plan to do the weekly projects). Weekly project make a great extension for this lesson. Your campus STEM teachers could use them to help you cover each topic, or you can use them for enrichment opportunities for your high achievers or GT.

Tuesday

After Science Starters, complete the context clues part of the Word Wall Builder Chart. This will refresh student memories so they can work on their Summary Writing with Key Terms. These key terms from their reading give students a guide for writing a summary about what they have read. This is a second way they interact with the reading and process the information. Work with your ELA standards to encourage best practices for summary writing.

And now for one of my favorite teaching tools: the anchor chart. Anchor charts will be a great reference for the rest of the year. Free classroom decor!! Anchor charts can be created on chart paper using the printable version as a guide. You can also make your anchor chart using a dry erase poster to save on chart paper. Students will have their own copy to reference in their notebook. Have students follow along by creating their own or filling out a printable version in their interactive notebook. Anchor charts are the perfect teacher input for interactive science notebooks. I provide moveable pieces for each anchor chart that can be added to make these more fun and interactive for their notebooks. Today’s anchor chart will define each state of matter .

End this day with the Content Area Focus Wall Exit Slips and/or work on the project (if you plan to do the weekly projects).

Wednesday

My favorite day of the week!! Lab day! This week is a simple science investigation for students to explore solutions. Students will observe, then mix together the salt and water. They will separate the solution and observe the substances again to see how mixing the substances together changed the substances.

Add in some vocabulary practice with the matching cards, if you have time leftover after the lab. The vocabulary practice pages make good homework practice!

End this day with the Content Area Focus Wall Exit Slips and/or introduce the project (if you plan to do the weekly projects). Weekly project make a great extension for this lesson. Your campus STEM teachers could use them to help you cover each topic, or you can use them for enrichment opportunities for your high achievers or GT.

Thursday

By this point in the week, we have given students all of the teacher input activities so we can move on to the student output activities. Students will now process and apply the information they have learned.

After Science Starters, complete column 3 and 4 of the word wall chart by filling in the actual definition of the words and illustrate the word.

It is time to complete the Output activity for the Interactive Science Notebook. For this topic, they will create their own mixture and have a partner decide how to separate it. This is across from their anchor chart, so they can reference it before asking for help.

Analyzing Data is one STAAR-like question that students work through to apply what they have learned. This also builds their test taking skills throughout the year. Going over these in depth can help you teach students how to work through questions like this. I love how having these each week really set students up for success when testing day comes. You can see an image of the Analyzing Data page plus a look at the project pages.

Friday

You made it! The weekend is near!! Friday is a simple day. After going over the last Science Starter of the week, the main activity is the formative assessment. A Claim It and Explain It writing is such a good way to assess what students learned. This is an open ended write with a specific purpose. I always give a question that student answer with a claim. Then, they explain their thinking with evidence and reasoning. This is a good time to work in the three vocabulary pages, if you haven’t used them as homework assignments. If you have time left over, you can play a couple of my favorite review games that prep students for the end of the year. Science Says and Diagram Draws are a fun way to make science words and science diagrams stick throughout the year. I love to play Science Says anytime we have extra time in class or my students just need a brain break.

I hope this gives you some good ideas for a whole week of learning. My goal is to provide you with engaging lessons that are ready to go each week so you can spend far less time planning and prepping, and far more time spoiling yourself **because you deserve it!** Enjoy your weekend!!

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To make your teacher life even easier, I have put my lesson activities and materials into easy to use files. This saves all the time we spend scrolling and collecting lesson resources. Just print and add simple lab supplies! Or, go digital for NO PREP! No making copies, and the lab is virtual – Talk about saving your sanity.

Here is the lesson plan link again. And, don’t forget to join the Science Newsletter so you never miss a planned week of learning!