How Do I Teach Science Effectively to Elementary Students?

I was placed in a K-1 classroom with 43 little ones. When we first began we continuously worked on reading, writing, and classroom routines. We didn't see a science lesson for the first few weeks and I was thinking in my head, how are we going to teach science to these youngsters. How will we make sure they understand the science concepts?

While searching I looked for sources for any elementary science teaching. I came across a website that gave 10 science teaching tips for elementary students.
http://www.suite101.com/content/10-science-teaching-tips-for-elementary-school-a65420

These ten tips help students become engaged in critical thinking. Students will retain information and understand more science concepts when thinking critically. It is important to be able to get the most out of lesson plans. These tips will get the most out of each lesson by simply helping the teacher ask appropriate questions.

When teaching our science lesson we kept students involved by having them think of questions they wanted to answer about clouds. After going outside and observing them we were able to answer some of the questions they had. Having them think of questions helped them think of what they wanted to look for when going outside and observing. When we got back inside we looked at the questions they had, and as teachers we asked other questions to get their brains thinking.

Another tip discussed using tradebooks during science. When introducing our topic of clouds we read the book "It Looked Like Spilt Milk" Students weren't aware of our topic until the end. This got students thinking about all the shapes of clouds before we even discussed this.

There was also a tip called hands on minds on. Students are more likely to retain information while working on hands on activities. When looking at the different types of clouds we had students place appropriate photographs of cirrus, cumulus, or stratus clouds by looking at their characteristics. Students were able to physically place the pictures in the appropriate spot during the lesson as a class. They were able to identify the different photos by working together with this hands on activity.