Most elementary students love science class: testing the speed of a vehicle they built, observing an animal in its habitat, making a model of the water cycle. All that stuff is interesting to them. Where they tend to struggle is with writing about it. Not only is that the expectation for “showing what you know,” writing is also a key part of doing science. So whether you have English-language learners who need some scaffolding or kids who say, “I don’t know where to start,” you’re going to want these science sentence starters (in poster form!). We think they’ll go a long way toward boosting the confidence of reluctant science writers.
How do I use the science sentence-starter posters?
We designed these posters to be displayed in the classroom where students can see them. When you’re preparing to do an investigation, you can refer them to the Writing About Your Process science sentence starters. Writing About Your Observations will be an important resource during the investigation, while Writing About Relationships, Findings, and Learning can help as they reflect on what happened. Each poster also includes examples so students can see what writing in science using the sentence starters looks like in the context of actual content.