Information about the first grade Exploration Tubs.
Safety Tub
Water Droppers
Seeds
Boats
Sink or Float?
Exploration tubs, or learning centers, promote content vocabulary as students engage in exploration, discussion and build connections to real life experiences. Students with low language skills tend to have greater difficulty interacting socially on the playground and applying information they have been taught (e.g., English Language Learners, Poverty, Learning, Disabilities, Slow Learners, Highly Mobile). This lesson will model strategies that develop essential content vocabulary.
Intended Learning Outcomes
Process Skills
Symbolization, observation, description, prediction, data collection, investigation,
problem solving, form conclusions
1. Safety Tub
Books:
Be Safe on Your Bike by Joe Maloney (Rosen)
Don’t Talk to Strangers by Nicholas Wrazen (Rosen)
What if You Get Lost by Elizabeth Kernan (Rosen)
Safety on the School Bus by Sarah Florence (Rosen)
Safety at the Playground by Joe Maloney (Rosen)
Safety Signs by Scott Peters (Benchmark)
Safe at Work by Margie Burton, Cathy French, and Tammy Jones (Benchmark)
2. Water Droppers
Books:
Water by George Huxley (National Geographic)
Water Can Change by Brian Birchall (National Geographic)
3. Seeds
Books:
Plant Fruits and Seeds by David M Schwartz (Creative Teaching Press)
Seeds, Seeds, Seeds by Brian and Jillian Cutting (Wright Group
Level 1)
The Seed by Christine Young (Wright Group McGraw-Hill, emergent)
Plants and Seeds by Colin Walker (Wright Group Level 1)
Where Are The Seeds? by Pauline Cartwright (Wright Group Level
1)
Seeds Grow Into Plants by Mario Lucca (National Geographic)
4. Boats
Books:
The Boat Book by Samantha Berger and Pamela Chanko (Scholastic)
What’s on the Ships? by Harley Chan (National Geographic
Windows on Literacy)
Who Sank the Boat? by Pamela Allen (Putnam and Grosset)
Jack’s Boat by Nick Bruce (National Geographic Windows on
Literacy)
5. Sink or Float?
Books:
What Will Float? by Fred and Jeanne Biddulph (Wright Group)
What Sinks? What Floats? by Wendy Vierow (McGraw-Hill)
Is It Floating? by Fred and Jeanne Biddulph (Wright Group Level
I)
Sink or Float? by Michele Ashley (Rigby Kinderstarters)
Sink or Float? by Leslie Fox (Harcourt Level 1)
What Floats? by Rebel Williams (Wright Group, emergent)
An Apple Floats by Christina Wilsdon (Outside the Box)
Some Things Float by Lesley Pether (National Geographic Windows
on Literacy)
Students with low oral language skills tend to have greater difficulty interacting socially and applying information they have been taught. The established routines of most classrooms are less evident on the playground, and children with low language skills frequently also lack judgmental and negotiating skills.
* Adapted from Strategies for Reading Assessment and Instruction Helping Every Child to Succeed by D. Ray Reutzel and Robert B. Cooter, Jr. Merrill Prentice Hall