Pumpkin Time STEM Quick Pick

This week, my kindergartners are learning about pumpkins. A quick and easy STEM activity is just what my little pumpkins need to learn how to be creative! You can either grab a book such as the Itsy Bitsy Pumpkin which I love... or even the 5 Little Pumpkins that have a springboard that you could use to have them build a wall, gate, or step that the pumpkin can sit on!

I love to use the little pumpkins we grow in our school garden, but any little pumpkin can do! Here are the other materials that you can use...

Materials:  tongue depressors, cubes,  ten number blocks, blocks, and book such as the Itsy Bitsy Pumpkin
                                                          

I use a tray to place all of the different choices on and then I set out the blocks at their table tops.

 Quick Pick Ideas: A quick pick for me is an activity that can take less than 30 minutes including a book a STEM challenge. We were able to learn the life cycle of a pumpkin, as well as read a story then pose the challenge. I then have the trays set out at the tables for the students to go to when I am done with the book and science lesson. I also set out one little pumpkin per table for them to test their designs with. We learn about modifications real fast when a pumpkin doesn't balance.

Links You Might Like:
Fall STEM Ideas
Fall Flip Book
Pumpkin Themed Activities
Digital Pumpkin Activities with STEM and Math Connections

Time to make Science Child's Play with this quick pick! Your little pumpkins will love it! This is an easy activity to "patch" together as well.

In this post, for your convenience, you may find Amazon Affiliate links to resources. This means that with your purchase of items Amazon will pass on small percentages to me. This will not create extra costs for you at all! It will help me keep this blog running!

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Bird Beak Stations

Each year, I pull out my bird beak stations, and each year I love watching my first graders as they learn hands on how birds have different beaks that allow them to survive in the habitat they live in.

I love starting off this lesson by asking them to tell me what makes a bird a bird. We create an anchor chart that has a nest of great words including birds ... have 2 legs, have wings, have feathers, lay eggs, have beaks, fly, have two eyes.

I then share the book Beaks by Robin Brickman.

Beaks aren't just for eating...this book is great in showing other ways such as building, finding a mate, and digging to name a few!

I then take the first graders around from table to table to show them how they will be using their beaks to eat! I read the sheets to them, give them a check off list, but going in a circle from station to station is easy enough! I was able to get my supplies from the Dollar Store or from my classroom or home. There are seven stations in all! Here are just a few fun stations in action.

How fun to dig for worms! Wheat germ and gummy worms!

Time to crack open a sunflower seed!

Watch the woodpeckers as they dig for bugs! I use Mung beans because I had them, but rice or split peas work perfect, too! Grab the tweezers and a sponge and your all set!

My little hummingbirds love the nectar! Droppers, graduated cylinders and a little flower prop and we have a fast flying bird ready to eat!

When we are all done with the stations, because I only have an hour with my students, we finish up by having them create a bird that they saw in the book or they simulated in our stations. We add it to our anchor chart. If they get done nearly, I share with them a live eagle cam (yesterday we watched it eat a squirrel for lunch!) and compare it to a live bird cam from Cornell University!


Want to teach adaptations in a hands-on engaging way? Grab your set of Bird Beak Stations HERE!

After setting up all of the stations with supplies...I put them each in a baggie and they are all set for the next year!

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Superbowl Football STEM

This weekend is the Superbowl, what a great time to add some "super" fun STEM to your school day! We have had indoor recess all week, and I don't see an end in sight. If your kids are getting cabin fever like mine, STEM activities are perfect additions to indoor recess! Not too cold where you're at...then adding these STEM challenges in a math or science station to teach measurement, graphing and statistics as well as controlled experiments might be just the thing!

The Super Bowl is a perfect opportunity to get the attention of your students while adding cross curricular activities. Here are my top five ways to add some theme based lessons this week:

1. Geography: Give your students a map and have them plot different super bowl locations.  Find out how far they would have to drive or how much a plane ticket would be to attend the Super Bowl.

2. Math: With the plotting of cities, have students plan a trip. Add the dollar amounts of what it would cost to travel, get lodging, buy a ticket, and purchase food or souvenirs. Younger students might like plotting the winners of the Super Bowl in a graph!

3. Language Arts: Time to design a logo for your favorite team. Write about your reasons for color choices, mascot, and why it is your favorite team! They could even write an advertisement for their favorite treat, beverage, or toy that might be featured in a commercial. They could create it on an iPad or video tape the commercial with a group.

4. History: The history of football is always fun to research. Epic books which is free for educators has some great non-fiction books. There are some great Football Themed fiction books as well, but here are a list of my free favorites!

I use EPIC books all the time to help me find access to books that I can project or share with my students. From A-Z to statistics...background of the game at multiple levels to books that can get them excited about a certain player, here are my favorites:

5. STEM and Science: Catapults are a great way to add some science of how a kicker makes a field goal or how angle affects how high or far a ball will go.

                                                 STEM Football Stations
My STEM Football challenges have three activities for your students. Creating a football kicker, a goal post, and a stadium help with a perfect little extra to add to your classroom. Each challenge includes a teacher-friendly direction and supply page that guides you and your students to know what to do to create each football themed challenge.

These activities were designed for my after school classes which range from students from grades 2nd-fifth grade. Perfect for after school, early finishers, indoor recess, homework, centers, family challenges, and gifted and talented resources for example.

I love the different ways that students are able to be creative with the supplies I give them!

Creativity, Teamwork, and Hands-on Learning are all perfect additions to the benefits of STEM!

When they add a how to or directions it is a great way to add a writing activity!

Are you ready for some STEM football? Find the STEM Football Challenge Pack HERE!

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Shark STEM Connections

They can be scary from their movie stardom to their sharp teeth and bad reputation...sharks are like the big bad wolves of the ocean! However, their reputation shouldn't really be as bad as they are portrayed! Only 100 people each year are attacked by sharks and only 25 out of the 368 species of sharks actually attack people. To get to know sharks better, my students who live far from any ocean celebrated a bit of a shark week sensation!

We started off with a great EPIC book connection, Sharks! by Ilene Tremble which helped us develop background knowledge. We proceeded to learn even more about sharks by creating a lapbook that had us researching habitats, food chains, and characteristics for survival. These are all part of the NGSS standards that are woven throughout elementary school!

Once they were finished with their lapbook, the students had an opportunity to create one of the sharks they learned about. It had to have the same features that the real, researched shark had and needed to be able to float in a bucket of water. These were some constraints that they had to follow.

For the last STEM sensation the students worked in teams to be able to build a shark cage that allowed a person (plastic figure) to be submerged in a shark (fish) tank...equip with our very own sharks (plastic)! This activity surely stumped my higher level thinkers, because it had to sink in the water, but it had to be made out of something water proof!

Some issues that came up was that fact that many designs tipped over when placed under the water. Some of the cages didn't allow for the diver to even see the sharks swimming in the water!

Here is a cage that tipped over on its side. The shark is getting a bit close for comfort!

Want to celebrate your own shark week? Follow this link to get all these ideas in one place: Shark Lapbook and STEM Connections Pack

What a perfect motivator for any time of year! STEM and Literacy Connections, writing, and research as well as engineering, a perfect theme for intermediate grades!

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STEM Lessons and Family Traditions

This week I had a new student arrive in my science room. He had an amazingly unique name one representative of our Native American culture here in Wisconsin. so I asked him if he was Native American and his reply was, "No, I am HoChunk." I shared with him that he was in fact a first American and a little bit of what that meant. It made me start to think about heritage. My future son in law is Cherokee and with this little boy's statement it made me realize that many of our youth often may have no clue where their ancestors came from or even what a tradition is. I know it might even seem funny for the science teacher to try to figure out ways to even add it in her classroom, but sometimes learning about one's self and who we are and even where we came from allows for our students to make valuable connections in any classroom.
                             
From the Hmong New Year to Cinco De Mayo from Kwanzaa to Hanukkah you can find ways to tie a story...writing idea or STEM activity to get your learners sharing! Here is how we did it in February...

Chinese New Year/Holiday Connections: 
This week marked the start of the Chinese New Year, the year of the dog. I teach an enrichment group of 16 fourth and fifth graders so it made me think how can I connect the two with reading, math, and a bit of STEM?

We sat in a circle, a bit of restorative practice and community building...and I began asking them what a tradition was. I shared the definition and then proceeded to share some of our family favorites. We have a pickle on our tree and if you find the pickle you get an extra gift. We tie dye t-shirts each fourth of July, we still have an Easter Egg Hunt, we play Christmas Bingo for prizes every year, and we on birthdays set out their favorite ice cream, drink, candy bar, and gum and decorate the table area in the morning when my kids wake up. We talked about holidays can have traditions as well as cultures. I gave them time to think and then we shared.

The Hook:
I then started to share about the Chinese New Year and what you might see on a placement at a Chinese Restaurant. We looked at the mat and figured out what year they were born in and what animal represents them. We also looked at what traits that they are suppose to possess.

Making Connections Can Be Simple

Time to make those connections...my group was comprised of Hmong, Hispanic, African American, and Anglo students. I showed a video that gave them great background in the Chinese New Year! Love that it was made for kids by Panda Express (yum!)

STEM Activities and Challenges: 

We then were able to pick what Chinese New Year Activity they wanted to do...Chinese dragon puppet, Fortune Coin Purse, or Pagoda Structure. As we worked on our projects, I continued the discussion. This is where the magic happened...I asked our Hmong students what color clan they came from...One of them said White ...and another replied he didn't know. She went on to ask him to say mom...which he said, "mom"...she asked him to say mom in Hmong and she told him he was also white because of how he said it! We listened to traditional music while we worked and I shared a Dragon Dance on the Smartboard.

Another student asked me where I came from and I told them all that I was English, Scottish from the Narrn Clan, Bohemian and Austrian. They asked me about my clan. This my friends, is what it is all about...making connections with our students.
                                                        
That day, we not only made amazing pagodas, coin purses, and dragon puppets, but we learned about Quinceaneras (when one of our students turns 15 she will have a special party as a rite of passage), special foods such as Pho everyone eats at holiday time, the Hmong New Year and how it is similar to the Chinese New Year in dance and outfits, our zodiac sign to just name a few! We must take opportunities to learn about our students and to let them interact and share. We can learn so much about each other and build a sense of community where our students can build bonds and friendships!

Looking for a four STEM ideas ready to go? From puppets to coin purses, pagodas, and fire crackers this pack is sure to get your learners talking and connecting! Find the STEM Chinese New Year Pack HERE!

How do you connect with your students? Do you have any classroom traditions? I would love to hear them. Leave me your amazing ideas in the comment section below!

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STEM Lesson Features Water and Sheep In A Jeep

Ok, people...some of you are on break already, some of you even get done by this next week, but for me...I have to teach until December 22nd. STEM after school classes for the second quarter start up this week which leaves me two weeks before a break.

I have been getting a lot of great questions from educators about finding time for science and STEM in their classrooms which to me can go hand in hand with language arts. However, in our district our language arts curriculum is set in stone, so then what do you do? Finding time to tie in a picture book along with a science concept...followed up with a STEM connection is the way to go!

Here is this week's  plan:
1. Start with a concept you need to cover is science...let's just say water. I have to teach this in 3rd grade.

2. Find a book that can tie it to a lesson on that topic. Let's just pick Oil Spills...

3. Now for an anchor chart...How do we use water? How do we hurt water? How do we protect water?

4. From taking a dropper with one blue drop of food coloring dropping it in a glass of water, you can add more water and dilute it, but that blue is still there.

5. A writing lesson can come of it such as a public service announcement for kids to help kids make good choices about protecting water, you can do a letter to congress, or even a poem.


6. How do you add STEM? We give 20 minutes to create a pipeline that goes from Canada (one side of the table) to Gulf of Mexico (the other side of the table) that is made out of cups, different types of tape or putty, and straws. They are the oil companies and I am the American People. They need to make sure there are no spills so that the water is protected.

STEM Challenge:  Can you create a safe pipeline from one side of the table to the other to show the importance of protecting our freshwater from oil spills?

Objective: Learn about the distribution of water on Earth and the importance of keeping fresh water clean.

Materials: 

• Oil Spill! by Melvin Berger
• styrofoam or paper cups
• straws of various types
• tape of various types
• modeling clay/ sculpy (if you want to add this component)
• towels

I give each group time to draw and design a leak proof pipeline picture. They need to discuss how important it is to be very careful and accurate in their cutting and connecting the pipeline. I ask them where do they think leaks will occur and how can they  make sure it is sealed properly.

Supplies to build a pipe line...

I give them time to create. Most groups have leaks. We share, clean up, reflect and then talk about how important it is that we look at all points of view when determining if it is worth creating something that could have a negative or positive impact economically.

Now, if this is too controversial, I also do an oil spill in a bucket. I have rocks as land, plastic animals are real animals, and sticks and paper leaves that are placed in the rocks as trees. You can also use just three paper bowls with water and a spoon full of oil. You can have a demonstration or in groups where they get three different ways to separate out the oil from the water: skimming: by using a spoon they can try to skim the oil off the top...collecting and measuring how much they were able to skim off the top. Next, you can test absorption: give them cotton balls and have them absorb the oil off the top, squeezing it out to measure this method, and then finally dispersal. Use Dawn dish washing soap to disperse and then collect the oil to measure.

What they will see is that none of these ways are 100% accurate. What could be invented that might be better at skimming, absorbing, or dispersing so it is a better solution to an oil spill?

Cleaning Up An Oil Spill Isn't Easy 

Now show Steve Spangler's video...

Technology is ever changing and this is a new solution to an oil spill. This is a great way to learn what a polymer is! What a great way to have them find ways to help protect the water even as a kid...

I have included a the lesson plan and record sheet for you and your learners HERE!

Looking for more STEM water activities? This pack is where it is at! From Hurricanes to shoreline protection that focuses on erosion...these are the extra resources I use during my FOSS Water Unit!

If you are a primary teacher, I have another great way to integrate something real fast through your rhyming lessons...grab Sheep In A Jeep by Nancy Shaw.

Here is this week's plan:

Objective: How can you create a force that will push a Hot Wheel to a specific location?

Materials:

• Sheep In a Jeep by Nancy Shaw
• Hot Wheels one for each person
• a rainbow paper road/race track
• color words to pick from so they know where they will push to

What a great way to teach rhyming words, but to also teach about force and motion in the process! Grab some hot wheels, create a road out of the colors of the rainbow papers taped together, write the colors are note cards for the kids to pick from...then set up a race. Discuss giving a force to something...it means a push or pull. The harder you push the more force is acted on it. If I need to get my car to go to the orange on our road, I will push it soft, but if I need to push it to purple I will need to push it hard. What if I had a bigger car to push? I would have to push harder to get motion going because of the mass.  We make this a bit of a challenge...who can closest to the color chosen! They love it!

Grab the freebie. Want more? Grab the whole STEM pack here which includes more science activities, technology component with 12 rhyming slides with Sheep In A Jeep theme, 6 engineering lessons and two math activities along with record sheets and worksheets!

Sheep In A Jeep STEM Pack Found HERE

Five more days...Thursday's forecast is for over 10 inches of snow and Friday is a bonus school wide movie half day and celebration the other half. I think I can...I think I can...enjoy the freebies and ideas! I love your letters and questions...it helps me know what you need!

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