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Task cards (or similar?) for Science?


Sahamamama
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Creeks Edge Press science task cards

http://creekedgepress.com/Home_Page.html

 

Targhee, have you used these? If so, did you like them? Are you still using them?

 

I searched old threads (2011, 2012) and found a lot of buzz on these Creek's Edge Press cards, but then.... nothing. Blogs posting reviews from a few years back don't seem to have any updates on the cards, so I'm wondering how things went along over time.

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Targhee, have you used these? If so, did you like them? Are you still using them?

 

We used earth and space science 3 years ago. It was not very successful because of ME. The task cards are great, but I other circumstances (including an in diagnosed LD and unreasonable expectations for my then 1st grader) made it so we stopped after week 14. The cards are good, but you ether have to spend time training kids in working on task cards or work with them on the task cards.

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We used the Creek Edge Earth Science cards in 6th grade and they were really good. There is a wide variety of activities on them and you can use your own books and resources. I think I tried to have my dd do too many things from each card. With my next dd, I'm going to limit how many of the activities she does per card to make it a bit more manageable. We had a really good year of science with them.

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Tops is wonderful, but the set-up is quite an endeavor. Be sure to get any materials kit they offer, and block out time to pull things together.

Though once you get to the middle/high school levels, it's pretty much all the same materials for everything. We just keep a "TOPS box" under the science bench.

 

ETA: As klwalukas just said. :)

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We used earth and space science 3 years ago. It was not very successful because of ME. The task cards are great, but I other circumstances (including an in diagnosed LD and unreasonable expectations for my then 1st grader) made it so we stopped after week 14. The cards are good, but you ether have to spend time training kids in working on task cards or work with them on the task cards.

 

Thanks, Targhee, this is good to know. I was thinking that some of the sample cards looked a bit full, and that it might be good to just pick out a few things to accomplish for this go-around (2nd/4th), then use the rest of the work for a later phase (6th, 7th, 8th, 9th?). I was also thinking of only structuring part of our year's Science around these cards (not all of it), and definitely working on the skills of working with these cards and building a Science notebook.

 

August 2014

(1) Finish up Health & Safety, Chapter 7 (First Aid)

(2) Complete some Science Pockets (Weather)

(3) Work on Weather Kit

 

September 2014

(1) Finish up Health & Safety, Chapter 6 (Disease Prevention)

(2) Complete some Science Pockets (Weather)

(3) Work on Weather Kit

 

October 2014

(1) Wrap-up any loose ends from Health, Pockets, Kit

(2) Daily Science: Magnets + Book Basket

(3) Introduce Science Notebook approach + Task Cards

 

November 2014

(1) Begin Health & Safety review (students re-read material independently)

(2) Daily Science: Sound + Book Basket

(3) Science Notebook + Task Cards -- practice using these tools, complete one track*

 

December 2014

(1) Continue Health & Safety review (independent reading)

(2) Daily Science: Sun, Moon, Stars + Book Basket

(3) Science Notebook + Task Cards -- practice again, complete another track, practice adding vocabulary to section in notebook

 

January--July 2015

(1) Continue Health & Safety review (independent)

(2) Science Notebook + Task Cards (2-3 tracks per month, for a total of 20 tracks)

 

*Track = Work & log the work; Work & log the work; Complete a report (summary, labelled drawing, project, display, collection). For example, one track might be:

  • During Science work time, the student reads about honeybees from an animal encyclopedia and other resources (20 minutes), then logs what was read and done in the notebook (10 minutes);
  • During Science work time, the student observes honeybees in the back clover fields (20 minutes), then logs what was done in the notebook (10 minutes); and
  • During Science work time, the student writes a summary of her learning (report) and/or completes a labelled drawing or diagram and/or completes another project related to that week's work (30 minutes).

I thought we could use the task cards to give some structure to the student's self-directed work. That is, the student could choose what card to work on, and (with my help) decide which tasks to complete. With guidance (at first), the student would learn how to pull together the resources we have that match up with the inquiry she's making. Do you think the cards would work that way?

 

 

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