August is here, and that can only mean one thing: The new school year is right around the corner!
Teacher Vision offers some tips for starting off the school year, such as organizing portfolios for students and designing bulletin boards. There is also a list of science tips, including:

• Have a Science Table in the classroom, and keep changing the theme: rocks; seashells; insects; birds; magnets; inventions; and so on.
• Put a prism on a countertop on a sunny day to catch the children’s attention and to launch a unit on color, sunlight, or refraction.

This is an especially nice suggestion:

• Memorization is not the key at this level. Exploration and discovery are important. Explain that real scientists work in this way, too.

Check out the list and add your suggestions here. How are you preparing your classroom? What is the first science you want to teach your students when the year begins?