What's it all about again?

I've had a rather busy week travelling through Wairoa and I have a plan for a post that's going to take some time to set up so thought I'd Just do a quick one today with some musings I've been talking about through my visits this week.

Could these be dinosaur footprints at Coronation Reserve, Mahia... 

One thing that I'm really keen on is that science is everywhere! It's why I set up the Facebook page "science happening nz" to show articles, photos, and activities. But the problem is I'm not thinking about Tuesdays and Thursdays after lunch in Terms Two and Three! I'm thinking reading time, writing time, sharing in the morning at roll time, and after lunch when the kids all get back in! I'm also thinking a bit about maths time but generally that's not the subject at the top of my head (maybe I should start thinking a bit more about it). 
We need ideas to engage students and enthuse them. We need local contexts and stuff that's interesting!

Mahia beaches -incredible rock formations

If I can collect a dozen rocks off a beach and have a class focused and excited for 45 minutes, so can you! Use a photo as a warm up for writing to get kids brainstorming vocabulary, or offering predictions and inferences. Take a whole class reading session with a local newspaper's article that's science-based. What do you think about the article generally? What about reading it 'as a scientist'? What vocabulary was difficult? Were there any inferences? What about opinions? Does anyone have a question that we could ask to clarify our thinking? Who could we ask? Grab a picture and get the students thinking about the differences between an observation and an inference -who can come up with the most observations (or which group), write a descriptive paragraph from a science point of view and then from a writer's point of view -they might be quite different!
And here's my last point. Although we're doing science at a literacy time, and we are developing and learning literacy skills for example, can we be developing science skills too. I like my capability indicators and encourage teachers to think about deliberately developing 1 or 2. I know that quite a few may be in evidence but our 'deliberate acts of teaching' need to be focused on an indicator -checking where students are with it and then thinking about where to next. It's vital we do this if we are wanting to develop student ability in science!
Although I post often on Facebook, I have no idea whether they are being used at all but the page is turning into a big resource that I hope will be useful!
So do have a look: https://www.facebook.com/sciencehappeningnz/. Have a try and get back to me how it's all going! 

These might just be my faves at the moment... goosneck barnacles! They look extra-terrestial!

Keep on sciencing!
Paul