Circuits Lesson and Holiday String Lights Activity Bundle

Engage your students in building electrical circuits with a hint of Christmas spirit! These activities are perfect for before the holiday break in any science classroom. This bundle ties circuit electricity with a fun holiday activity creating circuits with string lights.

Part 1- Lesson Plan

Your 4th-graders will read about circuits, batteries, the chemical reactions caused by electrolytes, and lemon batteries. The three content comics are designed to lay the foundational understanding of electrical circuits and how they work.

Each content comic is accompanied by Doodle Notes and a follow-up worksheet. Both supplementals are perfect for interactive notebooks.

Once your learners have grasped the concepts of circuits with the help of these comics, they will embark on an inquiry-based STEM challenge. The Powerful Fruit Inquiry prompts fourth graders to think outside the box and design an investigation testing a variety of different fruit batteries. The provided comic will guide them through the process using step-by-step illustrations.

Part 2- Holiday String Lights Christmas Circuits Activity

Learners will love this holiday activity using light bulbs from Christmas lights to build circuits. The intro activities guide students in building a very basic electrical circuit using a 9-volt battery and aluminum foil.

They are then challenged to build more complicated circuits and extend their understanding of electrical energy.

What do you get?

Google Slideshow

• Within the PDF you will see a link to your own copy of a Google slideshow
• Content comics are separated into individual slides making it easy for you to teach the concepts before they plow through reading the comic
• Editable
• Shareable
• Animated

Content Comics

• THREE different comics designed to lay the foundational understanding of the concepts
• Students will read about circuits, how batteries work, electrolytes, and lemon batteries
• Includes diagrams of electrical circuits and currents
• Both color and black-line versions of each
• Easy to print up and deliver to each student
• Aligned with NGSS standards (4-PS3)
• Doubles as an anchor chart poster
• These comics make reading the content FUN!

Doodle Notes

• Words are removed from the content comics creating a fill-in-the-blank activity
• Students can follow along as you utilize the Google slideshow
• Keeps learners involved in the learning process
• Makes note-taking more enjoyable
• Fun to color
• Glue into interactive notebooks

Follow-up Worksheets

• Designed to reinforce understanding and prepare 4th-graders for the inquiry
• Maintains the comic style
• Another great addition to interactive notebooks
• Can be used as classwork or homework
• Provides additional support
• Still fun to color!

Inquiry-Based Fruit Battery Activity

• The Powerful Fruit Inquiry is a hands-on, student-lead activity
• Learners are prompted to use what they know to create circuits using various fruit batteries
• The comic lays out the steps using illustrations making it more approachable to students who avoid reading
• Includes a follow-up lab report worksheet
• The worksheet circles back to the circuit content

String-Light Circuits Holiday Activity

• Students are challenged to create circuits using Christmas lights
• These are great activities for before a holiday or Christmas break in and science classroom
• Follow-up questions, a detailed lesson plan, and extension activities included

Easel Activities

• Upload assignments directly to your virtual classroom
• Makes it easy to assign makeup work
• Another great option for homework or substitutes

Detailed Lesson Plan

• Step-by-step lesson plan template providing ideas as to how you can utilize this resource
• This resource can have a duration of a week or more

Answer Keys

Get more with the ELECTRICAL ENERGY AND CIRCUITS LESSON PLAN BUNDLE!

What makes Cool School Comics such an impactful learning tool?

They are FUN! 

• This is the most crucial benefit.
• Students are more willing to participate and more engaged.
• The content STICKS.

Visual learning is EFFECTIVE. 

• About 65% of the population consists of visual learners.
• Visual information is processed faster.
• Students who SEE information are more likely to retain it.

EASY to implement! 

• These lesson plans are complete and ready to go, requiring minimal prep time.
• You only need to make copies, upload supplementals to your virtual classrooms, and set up the hands-on activities.
• Lots of flexibility! You can print these as posters, add them to interactive notebooks, hand them out to students, or share them virtually. There is plenty of room for modifications.

ACTIVE LEARNING

• Every lesson plan has a low-prep, wallet-friendly, hands-on component.
• Instructions are in a visual format
• Follow-up questions or a lab report are always included

Comics make content ACCESSIBLE

• Naturally differentiated, comics accommodate a wide range of learning abilities and styles.
• Great for science classrooms with a diverse population of learners
• They can simultaneously rope in both your gifted and struggling students (and everyone in between).
• Reluctant readers gravitate toward comics.
• Comics help English Language Learners (ESL, ELL, EDL, MLL) and some SPED students find success.

Be the hip teacher seizing the graphic novels craze. Your students will LOVE it!