picture books and potato guns - oh my!

I went to a conference this weekend - one I've never had an opportunity to go to... TeSOL. (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages). It was very interesting - but there was one stand out session... by JeeHae Lee from Troy University - Dothan Campus. She was able to incorporate picture books with science, math, and social studies in a way I greatly admire.

Some of the best things - using a book called "Magic Potato" she was able to integrate science and teach about Boyle's Law (volume and pressure) using a potato gun. THE BEST PART - was watching her shoot the potato gun in the conference room. :)

Using Rainbow Fish she incorporated science again - wit UV beads! We strung a bracelet (pipe cleaner) with a few UV beads. She lead us through some predictions that we could use in our classroom -
     - predict what color they will change
     - predict how long it will take them to change color
     - predict how long it will take them to change back to their original color
WOWZA! What a neat way to really incorperate and truly CROSS curriculum! The reading specialist in me loves this! I'm off to bother her email her for the powerpoint presentation she used at the conference... wish me luck. (Funny thing - all I could think of - why isn't she on TPT!)

I love being able to make connections through materials like this. I am happy that the Common Core pushes this - how do you make this happen in your room? :)