I decided to take on my own challenge of incorporating a STEM activity every day for a week. It turned out to be a huge success where both my students and I had a blast. Here were the various …
If you are looking for activities to include in your school’s STEM Night, or if you are just looking to add some STEM activities into your PE program, view the ideas below from PE teacher Jennie Graves. There are 4 activities … Read More
Free STEM Websites, teacher Resources with fun activity ideas & well designed lesson plans focusing on thinking skills. Science Technology Engineering Math
I received a handout at a workshop I recently attended on different factors coaches can look for in classroom observations. Collecting quality evidence during observations and presenting it in a clear manner to teachers is such an important piece of improving teacher practice and student achievement…so this handout really got me thinking about what I look […]
Fairy Tales STEM Blog Series What are STEM Tales? STEM Tales are a way to integrate literacy and STEM/STEAM activities for kids in first through third grade. The stories engage the kids, and as they read through the story they are seamlessly lead through the Engineering Design Process. Click any of the images below to read more about the STEM challenge, read this post about how to run a STEM tale challenge, or visit my Teachers pay Teachers shop where you can purchase one STEM tale, sets of 3, or 12 altogether. Goldilocks and the Three Bears Robin Hood Rapunzel Hansel and Gretel Beauty and the Beast Jack and the Beanstalk The Ugly Duckling The 3 Billy Goats Gruff The 3 Little Pigs Snow White Little Red Riding Hood The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Make a straw rocket with a free printable file! This STEM activity is for kids of all ages and they will love playing with their creation!
Fabtastic ancient Greek architecture STEM challenge & activities! Perfect for all ages: preschool, kindergarten, elementary, middle, high school, and adult!
Reading and STEM together! Here's a blog post suggesting five picture and five STEM challenges you can complete today!
Hi Friends…. The past two weeks we have been working on Prefixes and Suffixes in our second-grade classroom! My kiddos were having such a good time brainstorming words with prefixes and then figuring out the meaning. They really had a strong grasp of the concept… I was pretty impressed. After our whole … Prefixes, Suffixes and a FREEBIE Just for YOU! Read More »
Hello Friends, Well, we are now in the 4th quarter. As always, it hardly seems possible that we are in the home stretch! The fun thing about the 4th quarter is how independent and competent my students have become. They know our classroom routines/schedules and are pretty capable of accomplishing most everything that I ask them to do. That makes for a smooth running day which of course, causes a spike in learning - woo hoo! I thought that I would share four STEM activities that we did this past week. I took a class this past summer on the Next Generation Science Standards. An area that fascinated me was the turn that teaching is taking from teacher directed to student generated learning. I have always been a hands-on teacher, but I often would give my students the whole picture before giving them the opportunity to try it out. In my class, I was told that students should be given the opportunity to explore FIRST; then the discussion of what they experienced is turned into the lesson. It is a learning tweak that has challenged me as a teacher. I have had to let go and allow my students to find a path to the outcome without much direction from me. It's been fun watching them start with a hypothesis, test it out, and eventually come to a conclusion. Each of these activities took about 10 minutes. I set a timer and my kiddos rotated through each one. ACTIVITY 1: Your teddy bear is stuck at the bottom of a well. You have a rope. How can you get your animal out of the well? As you can see from the photo above, Teddy was in a bucket in the "well". The chair was the well. My students were told that they could not climb into the well to get Teddy. They had to get both Teddy and the bucket out of the well at the same time. It was interesting to watch them try to figure out what to do. Finally, they realized that if they looped the rope over the handle, they could PULL Teddy AND the bucket out of the well. After rescuing Teddy, they asked if they could put other animal friends in the well. Of course! This allowed them to understand that you need more strength to pull something that is heavy compared to something that is light. ACTIVITY 2: How does a parachute work? Follow the steps to make a parachute. Tie your parachute to a small toy. Have a race between a toy NOT tied to a parachute and a toy that IS tied to a parachute. Which toy hits the floor first? If you were on the top of the mountain and needed to get down, would you jump or use a parachute? Why? This activity was hard for my kinders; mainly because it involved tying knots! If you have a parent volunteer, I would suggest stationing them at this activity to help with the tying. I also suggest that you use lightweight paper and as well as a lightweight toy. We used regular copy paper and it was really too heavy. We also tied a clothespin to the bottom of the yarn which seemed too heavy. We did this activity as a follow-up to our gravity explorations. Their task was to understand how a parachute creates AIR RESISTANCE that slows down the effect of gravity. The fun part in this activity was that that they were able to stand up on a "mountain" (ladder) and drop their parachute! ACTIVITY 3: Set up the empty bottles. Try to knock the bottles down without using your hands. How can you knock the most bottles down at the same time? This was a simple activity to explore PUSH. The hardest part of the activity was collecting the empty bottles! We used empty water bottles. My husband suggested that I weight them somehow with rice or sand. BUT, I did not and the kids still had a good time and learned something about push and strength. ACTIVITY 4: How can you get the pom-pom from one end to the other without using your hands? I wanted my kids to experiment with wind power and to come to the conclusion that wind is a force that PUSHES. I applied blue tape on two sides of a table. I laid out various sizes of pom-poms in which to experiment. They used their wind power to PUSH the pom-poms from one side of the table to another. The next day, we discussed our conclusions. They then did a recording sheet showing their results. If you would like the recording sheets and the station signs, click HERE. This is a Google doc. If your school blocks sites that are outside the network, you will be unable to access this download at school. You will have to download it at home. Until next time, my friends! Blessings,
Graphing comes to life with fun paper airplane math activity! Create, fly, collect data, & use technology for serious learning.
One of my students’ very FAVORITE enrichment activities is our monthly STEM Family Projects! In fact, it’s the only homework I’ve ever assigned that my kids actually BEG for! Each month, I send home an assignment sheet like the following with my Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade Gifted and Talented students. The objectives are very...
Five engineering challenges for kids – with wooden clothespins, binder clips, and craft sticks! It’s a simple STEM activity that kids of all ages will love. Move over, expensive building sets! These simple materials were a huge hit with my boys. The first time we got them out, Owen (almost 7) spent well over an […]
Read a few ideas for your past and present or then and now unit. There are free lessons and activities as well as other fun hands-on, engaging ideas.
Critical thinking are a set of skills children need to make good independent decisions. Critical thinking abilities involve children analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating information in order to recognize patterns, distinguish right from wrong, offer opinions, anticipate reactions to their actions, compare scenarios to choose favorable outcomes, as well as consider a variety of solutions to
A whole month of daily low-prep STEAM activities for kids. You are going to love all of the low-prep STEAM activities that we have in store!
See unique and creative plant life cycle activities and teaching ideas with hands-on plant needs experiments for kids.
This blog post explores innovative and engaging lesson plans for any novel unit... ranging from task cards to book instagram pages to a novel podcast project. Student choice is key here, and students can find something they would like to complete in order to convey their reading, comprehension, and
STEM stands for “Science, Technology, Engineering and Math”. In education, STEM is a subject that includes mostly project-based learning where students work together to solve a pr…
Have you tried the egg drop project yet? This was our 4th year in a row taking part this super fun STEM activity for kids! Check out how to do it with your children or students, and be sure to print out our two free printable recording sheets. Follow our STEM and STEAM Activities for …
STEM Bins for Elementary Students “I’m finished! What do I do now?” How many times during our teaching day do we hear these words from our students? Oftentimes, it is much too often, and students are provided a handful of the same options to keep them busy until our next transition. Sometimes students are instructed...
Build a marshmallow and toothpick tower for a fun and budget-friendly way to explore STEM with kids. Free printable.
29 FREE Pentomino Puzzles and Challenges. Includes 3 piece pentomino puzzles for young kids, 15 animal pentomino cards, and more!
Project-Based Learning for a Unique Hatchet Novel Study Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen, is a classic survival story that resonates with tweens and teens alike. It lends itself well as a middle school read aloud or book club choice, and offers ample project-based learning activities so that your students can experience Brian's adventures right alongside him. I have read and reread this book multiple times, each time exploring ways to make this book really come alive for kids. While there are many possibilities for STEM challenges, I have narrowed it down to three building challenges that can be done either full scale or small scale. If you can get out in nature to do this it will make even more of an impact and give the kids a real feel for what it might be like to solve problems with items found in nature. Watch the video or read on! Disclaimer: I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchase helps support my work in bringing you downloads of value and information about educational resources. The link below is an Amazon affiliate link. You can read my full disclosure here. I also wanted to make sure to add in some math and science activities that could have helped Brian in his isolation. **Spoiler Alert** If you have not yet read this book, you may want to stop here. I will be referring to several happenings in the book, so be forewarned. How Far Off Course Could Brian Have Gotten? When we aren't yet too far into the book, and Brian has successfully survived the first leg of his adventure (crash landing), he at first thinks a search and rescue team will find him before long. At one point, though, he realizes that he could be quite far off course of his original flight path. How far off course? This is the first exercise in the Hatchet STEM resource I created to accompany this book. The page shown above is one of three options so that kids can work at the level that is appropriate for them. Brian quickly realizes he needs a shelter, so the first STEM challenge is to create a lean-to shelter. Design a Shelter for Brian STEM Challenge for Hatchet This one is amazing to do outside if possible! It can be quite challenging to create one that will hold up to weather and animals. In addition to shelter, the other main important survival issue is food. Can you design and create a bow? Design a Bow for Brian Hatchet STEM Activity The bow ties in nicely to two science experiments, springs and refraction (when Brian tries to catch the fish but they are at a different location than they appear). Science Activities for the book Hatchet For these, I created a simple Hooke's Law experiment that you can do with springs or rubber bands to measure the deflection of a spring and calculate the spring constant, and then a refraction experiment to explore how light bends through water. Measure the Deflection of a Spring for Hooke's Law For the Hooke's Law experiment, measure the deflection of a spring depending on the weight applied. You can do this as I've shown above, hanging a spring off a craft stick supported be two cardboard tubes. Explore Refraction of Light Science Activity For the refraction, use a laser pointer to shine a light on graph paper or a coordinate plane, record the results, then place a glass of water in the line of the laser light and see where the light lands. The final STEM challenge ties in to the end of the book when the plane's tail becomes visible and Brian seeks out the survival pack in the plane. Design a Raft STEM Activity for Brian in the Read Aloud Hatchet Design and create a raft: In addition to the challenges, there are engineering vocabulary cards and background information to go with the challenges. Another great challenge to do after this one is to create an FM receiver/radio. It could be fun to create a transmitter too, but likely not a good idea based on local laws in your area. You can find a few simple FM radio kits, such as this Snap Circuits one (which I favor, because you can build and rebuild it over and over): or this one from WeMake if you are doing this as a homeschool project or group science fair project: I hope you can use some of these activity ideas while studying Hatchet. If you would like the supporting resources that I have created, please click on the image below to head to my Teachers pay Teachers shop, where you can purchase them: Not interested in the paid version? No problem! Pin this post so you can come back later to remember all the challenges I've shared above:
At the end of the year, once testing is over and kids have lost their minds are ready for summer, it's the perfect time to pull out the messy science experiments to review all the fun skills you've learned this year! One of my favorite activities to do with kiddos of ALL ages is to make OOBLECK! If you've never made oobleck, you are in for a treat. It can get a little messy, but it is the BEST sensory experience! Oobleck has properties of a solid and a liquid (great review of matter!) and it's easy to make (measuring skills review!) and actually easy to clean up- if it gets on the carpet, let it dry completely and then it can be vacuumed up easily, as it turns into a dry powder. To start the lesson, read the great book by Dr. Seuss, Bartholomew and the Oobleck. *affiliate link to the book on Amazon* Then, allow students to make the oobleck! (If you want to make it ahead of time yourself as one big batch, that is okay, too! Remember, it is two parts cornstarch to one part water. One year I accidentally flipped that conversion and OOPS- we did not have oobleck that day.) You can download this free directions page to help your students make oobleck on their own: As I mentioned above, oobleck has properties of a solid and a liquid: it will take the shape of its container like a liquid, but with force (like a hit, poke, or squeeze) it acts like a solid! It can be rolled into a ball, but it can also flow and drip like a liquid. Oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid. And make sure to show them this awesome video of people walking, and even DANCING, on a pool of oobleck!! (HERE IS THE SAFESHARE LINK) Your kids will LOVE all the oobleck excitement! It's a great way to finish the year with a bang- and a splat! :) Have fun!
If I were in Harry Potter World, I would expand time between when I teach Volumes of Revolution and the AP Exam. This way, I could do a hands on project to actually embed the knowledge in the student brains. But alas, I'm just stuck with regular old days and a time-crunched teacher and students who are teenagers. This year, I had my students do this project for the days they were in class. It's the first time I've done it, so I made notes in my document for when the inevitable things went wrong this year that I want to improve upon for next attempt of this project: You'll be shocked to learn that students can't convert between ruler tick marks and decimal numbers. SHOCKED, I tell you. You will also be floored by the fact that directions are for "other people", when you are doing a project, you should just keep asking about the next step. Anyway, I liked how they turned out: It was a good mix of freedom for their creativity, an in-depth practice of regression and degrees of polynomials and piecewise functions and graphing. It was a sad awareness of just how shallow some of the students' knowledge was of how to find a volume of revolution. I don't have a grading rubric (everyone is a winner!), but I think I may add one next time.
Unleash the thrill of hands-on learning with STEM activities for Hatchet by Gary Paulsen=. Bring the book alive with practical classroom activities!
Thank you for visiting the Montessori Nature Resource Library! I am thrilled you are here! Montessori printables are a great way to supplement your child's learning in the classroom and at home. These materials are
Creepy crawly spiders! Heights! The dark! These are some common top fears to name a few, and if you're anything like me, heck, you're not too fond of any of those three. But do you know what the number one fear is? The one that outweighs all others? Glossophobia. (Cue the eery music) Dun, da, dun! Now before we get all panicked and shriek in horror, what exactly is this dreadful phobia? In layman's terms--the fear of public speaking. Even if you don't personally suffer from glossophobia, you probably have experienced some type of symptoms like a racing heart, sweaty palms, dry mouth, or some type of mild anxiety before speaking in front of others. So how do we get better at communicating in a group setting, and how do we prepare our students, even at a young age, to do this? Like other academic skills, how to participate in a discussion is something that needs to be taught explicitly. When I was early in my teaching career, whole class discussion typically consisted of me asking the questions while my students provided the answers. Sure, the questions were good, and by good, I mean the kinds of questions that were open-ended and required critical thinking. But still, I was the one that was doing all the leading. I was doing all the asking. I was doing all the steering. I was the driver if you will. Now instead imagine a classroom where the students are the ones in the driver's seat. The students are the ones asking the questions AND providing the answers. The students are the ones steering the discussion. Over my years of teaching, I have learned (and am still learning!) to "release control," and recently, I envisioned a classroom where student-led discussion was the norm. Thus, began my quest of how to make this happen. If I wanted my students to truly lead the discussion in my classroom, then I would need to give them the skills and tools to be able to do this. This is where gradual release comes into play. Gradual release is the process in which you basically pass the baton slowly from teacher to student as students gain independence with a particular skill or concept. Here's how it works. 1) You teach the skill directly. This involves direct instruction and modeling. 2) You involve students in the process while you still support. This is often referred to as guided instruction. For example, for a math lesson involving the steps of solving a story problem, you now do a few story problems "together." 3) You give students independent practice time with the skill while you provide feedback, both affirming and adjusting (i.e. "I see you drew a picture to help you solve the problem, great job choosing a strategy. Let's double check your addition in the tens place...") . 4) You wrap up the lesson by clearing up misconceptions, going over answers from independent work, and perhaps informally assessing students through say an exit ticket or cold calling with popsicle sticks. In sum, you go from "me" to "we" to "you." So I thought, why couldn't this process be used for teaching student-led discussion? Using the idea of gradual release, I broke down teaching student-led discussion into the six steps below: The outline above involves starting in baby steps. First, introduce students to discussion stems. It is best to only start with a few at a time as well as to choose more concrete stems to begin with like, "I have a question..." or "I agree/disagree with..." first. These stems give students the language they need to jump into the discussion both in the format of asking a question as well as replying with a comment or relevant thought. I have designed 16 meaningful discussion stem posters for students to refer to. The posters come in three different sizes, one perfect for hanging up on your classroom walls, one perfect to put on a ring and use for a small group, and one perfect for students to use as their individual resource. Second, have students begin with less-academic, more fun topics vs. essential questions that require critical thinking. The goal here is that students can initially focus mostly on their communication skills vs. having to delve into deep thinking. Of course, once students have had ample practice learning the process of student-led discussion, then by all means dive head first into critical thinking guided by your academic units! For teaching student-led discussion with juicy yet "easy" topics that hook students' interest, I created 20 discussion starters to use. Third, give students time to write down their thinking and plan out what they are going to say about the topic rather than making them think and speak on the spot. I created some planning templates that can be used for any topic or essential question so that they can be used for meaty academic topics too. (P.S. They are editable so that I can type in my topic or essential question and make as many copies as I need!! Whoopee!!) Fourth, set clear expectations before you start the student-led discussion such as what respectful listening looks like. Teach, model, and have students model these expectations so that you are setting students up for success. Fifth, give students a goal as to how many times to speak and over time, increase it. For example, for the very first practice, you might say something like, "Today, everyone needs to speak at least one time. You may participate by asking a question, making a comment, or responding to someone else's comment. If you want to participate more than one time in the discussion, you may." Here's a rubric that can help students self-monitor and self-evaluate their communication skills. Sixth, the very first time students practice student-led discussion, participate as the teacher as needed, calling on students who may need some encouragement. Over time, you will participate less and less until not at all! I made some recording sheets as an assessment tool to give students feedback, celebrate sutdents' successes, and support students in making growth in their communication skills. They come in different forms where I can record specific discussion stems students used or just in general whether students asked a question or made a comment. I also made them different sizes--one for whole class, one for small group. (PPS These are editable too so that student names can be typed directly on the sheet!) The key to this whole process is baby steps. You want students to feel safe, encouraged, and confident, and the way to do this is to give students the tools they need up front and then release them slowly towards independence. To see this "How to Teach Meaningful Student-Led Discussion Pack" in detail, click on the image below! With the resources in this pack, your students certainly will not suffer from glossophobia as you create a safe and welcoming environment where students lead the discussion as your norm. Now as calming other fears like spiders... Good luck! :)
It is intimidating for many of us homeschooling parents to teach STEM subjects to our kids, but this free STEM Curriculum for K-12 will help! TeachEngineering covers many STEM subjects, from geome…
One reason I am such a big advocate for blended learning is that using the various models allow me to spend more time on the aspects of my job that I enjoy and feel are most valuable for students. I don’t want to waste precious class time talking at my students. I want to sit […]
There’s an old saying you might remember. “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.” I think that means March is unpredictable and may have some intense weather. Perhaps even some wind! So we decided to harness that wind power with some wind-powered projects! First- Wind-Powered Cars This was somewhat more…
Secret message coding bracelets are a unique form of wearable communication that allows individuals to encode and share messages through patterns of beads.
Help get children excited about science, technology, engineering, and science with these free STEM Challenge Cards. 24 fun STEM activities!
This fun, free printable opposites matching game is great for reinforcing learning about antonyms. Useful with students in kindergarten through first grade.
Use this ratios and proportions activity to help middle school math students see the application of ratio and proportion concepts.
{Download FREEBIE pack here.} Economics is my absolute FAVORITE social studies unit to teach. There are so many hands-on activities to do with students and they are so eager to earn and spend money! One of my favorite activities is to end with our "Madden's Marketplace." This is a chance for students to put into action all of the things they have learned about being producers and consumers. To begin with, I send home a letter asking students to create paper goods. Why paper? It's something all of my students have at home (or I can easily give them). I want my marketplace to be fair for all students. I'm sure I could let them have the freedom to create any product, using any materials and I would get some amazing masterpieces. I would also get some elaborate (and expensive) items. That's not what I want. I encourage parents to spend NO money on this and for it to be STUDENT CREATED. I really want them to take the initiative. Here are some samples of paper products my students created to sell this year - everything from rockets to bookmarks to lanterns to hats. I incorporate the making of goods into my students' homework schedule, encouraging them to create two products per night. Before the due date, we work on creating "shops" in class. We create our "shop" by gluing two file folders together. The picture below is using legal-sized file folders, but that just happens to be what we had available. Shop Parts: Signs: Initially, we create the signs for our shops, color the awnings to make them eye-catching. Open/Closed: Next, we create open/closed signs that sit atop our shop so we can easily flip the sign to show the status of our shops. Slogan: We then come up with a catchy slogan. We talk about slogan's we know from commercials. Why did those stick in our heads? We learn to use a play on words, alliteration, onomatopoeia, etc. to make our slogans catchy so consumers will remember them. Product Description: Students each write a product description detailing WHAT their product is and HOW it works or can be used. We talk about the importance of letting consumers know exactly what they are getting. Commercial Script: Finally, students write commercials to "sell" their products to their classmates. We use hooks to get their attention, repetitions of our catchy slogans, and persuasion. Other Components: We also glue on the Consumer Comments, Price, and Interest Inventories, but we leave all of those blank initially. On the day of the marketplace, students set up their shops and lay their products out on display. Then, they have a chance to walk around the classroom and "window shop." They are encouraged to take a good look at all of their options, reading the product descriptions and examining the merchandise. After students have had a good look at all of their choices, I give them stickers (I would recommend 3-4). They walk around and place their stickers on the "Interest Inventory" of the products that interest them the most. The results of the interest inventory are used by the shop owners to determine if they have a high demand or low demand for their products. Knowing the demand helps them determine a price for their product. High demand = higher price. Low demand = lower price. The only rule is that all prices have to be in whole dollars. Once prices are set, then students are ready to go shopping! There are many different ways to let students shop. Some years, if I've done economy-based management system, my students will use "money" they've earned to shop. This year, I just gave them all $12 to shop with. I'm always torn about letting my students split into groups to run their shops (half shop while half work) - it always seems that students don't get to shop at all of the stores in that scenario. To solve that problem, I let all of my students shop at the same time. To do this students create "tokens" to leave at their shop. They create the same number as products they have to sell. For example, if Katie has 10 kites to sell, she creates and leaves 10 tokens with her name or shop name on them. Once each shop has tokens, students are ready to shop. Since there are no workers at the shops to collect money, I give my students "consumer spending logs" with pictures of dollars on them. Since I gave my students 12 dollars to spend, their consumer spending logs had 12 one dollar pictures. As students go around to the shops, they color in the dollars they've spent and pick up tokens (NOT products) that they will trade in for their purchases once the shops close. Once all of the tokens are gone, that shop is "closed." Once a student has colored in all of the dollars on his/her spending log, they are done shopping. It really works out quite well. Once students have traded all of their tokens in for their goods, they are given paper for providing feedback to the shops. They slip these into the "consumer comments" pockets on the storefronts. They love reading the feedback from their customers! <3 After wrapping up our shops, students are often left with some extra products. Instead of having them take their own products back home, I let them put another economics concept into practice - BARTERING! They have a blast working out "fair swaps" for their products and really working to get the other things they may have wanted but didn't have the money to purchase...and of course, they do all of this while proudly wearing some of their favorite purchases. :) All in all, it is a fun day of learning. Students take their roles as both producers and consumers seriously and come away with a real sense of accomplishment! If you would like to download this packet of FREE resources to hold your own Economics shop, you can do so HERE. Enjoy!
Easily teach kids binary using a free binary app and fun binary puzzles! Kids learn and practice binary in a fun, creative, and hands-on way.
Science units are wonderful for teaching science concepts in a special education classroom… especially those with multiple grades. The science units help me differentiate and teach and reteach the science concepts year after year. Focus On Vocabulary Many students struggle with all of the vocabulary and language that come with science concepts. From scientific tools ... Read More about Teaching Science In Special Education Classrooms
Pin Hi there! Welcome to English Daisies: English for Families. This website is dedicated to helping parents teach English at home. There are audios, grammar…
