Flat Teacher Adventures!

As we move toward summer break...which mind you we all sure could use...I wanted to keep connected with my students over the summer. I found some great ideas online and I am ready to help you make yourself flat and go on adventures with your students, too! Here is how to do it...

You might be seeing the Flat Teacher posts all over. This idea originated with the book Adventures of Flat Stanley, if you haven't see it...it is about a boy who gets flattened and goes on adventures all over the world! I am giving it a little twist for my own students, many who never get to go too many places. I want them to share their Science and STEM adventures threw posting videos and pictures on our flipgrid Classroom!

Let's Go On A Flat Teacher Adventure!

6 Easy Steps: 

1. Before you do anything, you need to make yourself flat! How to do that? Download the bitmoji app from the App store.

2, Now, head on over to your computer and get the chrome extension: Bitmoji Extension for Chrome

3. At this point you can edit and create your very own Flat Teacher! This is the fun part! For just the right pose such as your full body, search Pose, don't be too specific. Watch out for the space bar...don't do it. I used the words: wave, look, point, jump, run and walk for bitmojis that were without other images. I then right clicked and saved the image to my desktop to insert.

4. I first download my bitmoji  You can also save as a png which will make your background transparent. I copy and paste 6 bitmojis on one page to print and cut out. All I did was right clip and save my pictures to my desktop.

5. I printed mine on cardstock so they were stronger. Didn't have time to laminate because time was valuable...(four hours and out).

6. I used flipgrid for my virtual learning and WOW what a great free program on your computer with use with microsoft and google! I will have all of my students post their pictures or videos within our summer science spot within flipgrid!

If you are using flipgrid you will need to create a new banner. The dimensions are: 1500px x 500 px.

Want to download my science letter? Here you go...Free Bitmoji Summer Science Letter, even if you want to use the idea, you can print, sign and attach your bitmoji!

Have fun connecting this summer with this fun and easy activity that I can't wait to see the response. Flipgrid has allowed so many of my students to have their voice! Let's make Science and STEM child's play...together!
Renee

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End of The Year Science and STEM Ideas

This weekend, we took a little trip to the top of one of the  highest spots here in Wisconsin. We trekked up flights and flights of stairs to finally reach the top. There I was overlooking miles and miles of forests, watching the sway of trees as they danced to the music of the wind. It game me a totally different perspective. 

I guess it reminds it reminds me so much of the last few months of virtual learning. I have always seen the importance of adding subjects such as science into a schedule because science and STEM  can reach students differently through creativity and problem solving...different that reading, math, and writing...we need to take a look at that perspective, too.

• I now have a whole new perspective of what I do for my students when I am in school. 

• I have a new perspective of the impact we have as educators and the way we can help our students learn in new ways.

• I also have a totally different perspective of the tools that I can utilize to meet the needs of my students. 

• I bet that you have a different perspective of teaching as well! There are aspects that work and also some that do not!

Let's find a new perspective on end of the year celebrations then...head on over to my blog for some great end of the year tips and tricks as well as a free resource! Home learning/distance learning/remote learning/virtual learning just to name a few...whatever you are calling it these days, it is all new territory to most of the classroom teachers out there.  It is definitely new territory to me. Now, it is time to reflect and finish up the school year, from the confines of our own homes. Let's find some spectacular Science and STEM opportunities to connect with our kiddos!

Virtual End of The Year Ideas For the Science and STEM Classroom

Have A Virtual Field Day Event

We are hosting ours on flipgrid by making copilots so that more than one person can host on a grid where kids can add their field day event. Perfect for sharing and watching other friends in one spot!

We are housing our ideas and videos in flipgrid along with five challenges for our students and families. The five challenges we included are:

1. Sock Toss
2. 3 Legged Race
3. Book Balance
4. Spoon Walk
5. Cup Toss and Catch

Have A Virtual Field Trip

What a great way to end the school year by taking a field trip. Virtual field trips are amazing! There are lots of different online field trips, which I am sharing my go to's down below:

25+ Virtual Learning Ideas

Yellowstone

Carlsbad Caverns

Hawaiian Volcanos

Great Wall of China

The Pyramids

International Space Station

Houston Zoo

San Diego Zoo

Virtual Farm Tours

STEM/Science Tic Tac Toe Board

This was a fun way to host a weekly event this last few months. Students were given a tic tac toe board that allowed for Science concept reinforcements. This share out can be digital as well! 

Free SCIENCE and STEM Tic Tac Toe Boards

Virtual Award Ceremony

Students can get an award from you through a a google slide celebration. You can utilize google slides in order for each student to get a special science award to showcase what they have shown this year in class or at home. 

I made a free science reward pack for you if you sign up for my newsletter!  I will be sending each child a special slide within the awards that when they click on the link it goes right to their personal award. You can also send a page directly through email, when you copy a specific page a new file with that child's name. 

STEM Connection Celebration

I hosted several STEM events during virtual learning this last quarter. I asked students to bring certain supplies to the meet which can be on ZOOM or google meet. 

The first week: make something to share

• paper, spoon, fork, cup and one item of your choice ...the goal was to make something to share out

The second week: the tallest tower

• we used two pieces of paper and tape...the goal was to create the tallest tower

The third week:  Building Bridges

• Legos, building blocks, cardboard boxes saved ...the goal is to build a bridge for a small stuffed animal or figurine

Find a great STEM challenge that you can host on a virtual meeting. The kids can build right in the meet and share out individually within the meet. It is engaging and the supplies that you suggest can be easily accessible around the house. Want to find your set of Google Slide Packs for your students? Find them here!

Outdoor STEM Pack

Diversity and Equity Themed STEM

Making Connections STEM

Digital Science and STEM Packs

Enjoy your end of the year. It wasn't easy, but when we can celebrate, show how to persevere and be resilient it will help model for our families that we can get through this together and we do have lots to celebrate!

Let's Make Science Child's Play!

Renee

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Sustainability and STEM

March blew in so very quickly! Time for renewable and non renewable resources lessons, tied to natural resources, as well as to wind and water powered hands on STEM challenges. I love using recyclables to let my kiddos create!

First things first, students need to know what sustainable resource means. Doing something in a way that minimizes damage to the environment and avoids using up natural resources, for example renewable energy. 

Here is a list of renewable resources: (can be created again in our life time)

• wind
• water
• sun
• wildlife
• plants

Examples on non-renewable resources: (can not be recreated in our life time)

• oil
• natural gas
• petroleum
• coal
• gasoline

An anchor chart can help you discuss the different vocabulary words and help them visualize the difference. Here is a quick video to help you also explain the concepts of being green in a way that kids can connect!

For older students you could use a little bit more detailed explanation to show it with a three pillar model as well as a global concept: global, economic and social

There are a ton of great activities that you can incorporate along with teaching your students right away at the beginning of the year how to live sustainably and help the classroom, school, community, and planet!

Great Ideas:
 -recycled paper is great and when you make a card for someone with it....so special
-toilet paper tubes can be used for so many great projects...from binoculars, robots, 
-cans can be reused as a pencil holder, but if you can get the big ones form your lunchroom, they make great robots, drums, utensil holders for a present, paint them and have the kids take it home to put their stray plastic bags in, and a great after school project you can  make games for a school carnival!
-start recycling efforts in your school. Think outside the box. Try recycling old markers!

-plastic bottles make a great plant holder, water filter project, bubble blower, car, bird feeder...
-Kurig Cups are in mass in our teachers' lounge. We could store our frozen herbs from our school garden in them, plant seeds in them, turkey or snowman craft, mini pom pom shooters for a STEM project, perfect for an anemometer...
-  egg cartons make perfect animals such as bugs and caterpillars, they make great seed starters, and rock collectors, even lovely flowers! These flowers were started in an egg carton for our school garden! 

For more great ideas that include writing, STEM, research, qr codes and more...check out this newly updated 30 page Sustainability Pack! Find this Sustainability and Earth Day Pack HERE!

I love teaching sustainability all year long! This is a great summer school, back to school, and science unit for anytime!

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Planting Gold with Potatoes Science and Social Studies Connections

I like to start with a book called What's For Lunch...Potatoes by Claire Llewellyn. 

Planting Potatoes is a great way to show your students how their food grows. They can be easily grown in a garbage can or even a laundry basket! I first started planting potatoes outdoors six years ago when I got tired of the FOSS Plant unit planting potatoes in a cup, so why not create a school garden to extend our learning. What we found by planting a garden helped us realize that planting a seed is magic! Not only that, learning that food doesn't all come from a seed from a seed pack is pretty neat, too!

Don't want to plant potatoes? That is okay, too. These lessons can be taught with a bag of potatoes from the grocery store. Want to extend the concept to connecting the Westward Movement and gold rush...keep reading because simulations are perfect for cross curricular activities and getting kids up and moving!

Getting Started: 
What do you need for an introduction potato activity? Seed potatoes and learning stations. Let's get growing!


Next, you can show a little video that shows the process of how they can grow potatoes at home or at school.

Using Potatoes to Learn Science:
Here, we go...now it's time for students to learn about the life cycle of the plant, how it gets from field to fork and also different ways that we eat potatoes. I used  this great site when I first got started it has a ton of resources and ideas: Growing Your Own Potatoes Link

Science Stations Potato Pack

 We use the list we generate in class usually getting over 20 different ways that they are eaten. Here is a few to start with: boiled, baked, chips, pancakes, potato salad, JoJo's, potato skins, German Potato Salad, fries, tater tots, wedges, curly fries, sweet potatoes...

Have them learn about how food gets to our table by watching a quick video and then writing about it!

Interested in your own Potato Pack? Follow the link HERE: Science Stations: Potato Pack


Connecting Cultural Awareness: 
Another great way to add a bit of social studies to your lesson is to discuss where potatoes originated and what cultures eat potatoes at home as a staple food. Europeans typically brought their love of potatoes over and continued to eat them which is why some families eat more than others. We have a great discussion about what everyone's staple food is from rice to tortillas we learn a little bit about our heritage.

Kids that finish my stations get to go and play Mr. Potato Head where I have one of my own children's favorite toy. If you don't have that, have kids make their own by looking at a Mr. Potato Head picture.

Plant some potatoes in a bucket and let them sit until Fall! This is a great way to continue a project that another class started. You can have the planters write letters to give clues as to what is in the bucket or better yet they can go gold mining!

Gold Mining and STEM Connections: 
The best part about planting potatoes is that we get to pick them in the fall! I not only get to see each of my students year after year, I then can continue a lesson! However, not everyone can do this, so a great way to tie STEM activities to a social studies connection is to learn about the gold rush! I help them learn about this in science and then they get to dig for gold...Yukon Gold that is! Tie in measuring and writing and this is a perfect well rounded mini-unit~

Want to give a simulation a try and then connect engineering a wagon and prospector's tool...this pack is for you! Grab the STEM Gold Rush Science and Social Studies Connections HERE!

One potato...two potato...three potato...four, learning about potatoes can be fun and so much more!

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Amusement Parks and Engineering Fun

Finding ways to add STEM into your classroom lessons can be as simple as an end of the year field trip or a smartboard webcam experience. Here is a video link for some Amusement Park Web Cams and ariel views video...

Last week, our fifth graders went to Bay Beach Amusement Park. What a great way to learn about science and have fun in the process. When they are at the amusement park we give them a mini scavenger hunt to look for rides that use simple machines. The Zippin Pippen uses wheels and axles, pulley systems and an inclined plane...

As they continue on their rides they look at the slide...as a simple ride it is an inclined plane: both in the stairs up and the ride down.

When our students get back...we have them review the simple machines used to power the rides. We list the rides that were their favorites: Ferris Wheel, Bumper Cars, Scrambler, Tilt-O Whirl, Sea Dragon, Scat...and we discuss the scientific process it takes for an engineer to build a safe ride. Finally...they get to sign up to design and build their favorite ride as a team.

Stipulations:
1. You must use the scientific process

• Question: How will you create a Amusement Park Prototype
• Research: Which supplies will work out best to create your ride?
• Predict: Predict what will make your ride work safely.
• Experiment: Experiment and build your prototype.
• Conclude: Did it work? What modifications did you have to make? What problems did you face? Did you problem solve and work as a team? Use reflection sheet to help the process.
• Report: Share and report out how your ride works. 

We set out at our STEM store simple materials:

• toilet and paper towel tubes
• pipe cleaners
• cardboard pieces
• tape
• string
• trays 
• egg cartons
• scissors
• materials that students ask for as they build

Here are some of their rides...

As you can see...making connections to background knowledge let's kids really shine. Going to an amusement park or any other field trip and then making connections lets our students use STEM in a way that makes it real.

Stay tuned for a new STEM pack coming this summer to a TPT store near you...

This activity was a great way to end the year with our simple machines in mind. If you are interested in my amusement park scavenger hunt freebie add a comment to the bottom and your email and I will send you a freebie!

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Science On The Fly

On Spring Break, my family traveled to the EAA Museum in Oshkosh, WI. I wasn't sure how exciting it would be for my middle schooler, but we all loved it! It was so interesting to see all of the different planes throughout history, how we used planes during war times, and the story behind flight. Lots of hands on activities to make it fun for all ages! Sometimes all you need is a little inspiration! Sometimes it's where you go...or what you can find in your school library...or that special time of year!

Inspiration from the library!

Planes everywhere! Inspiration on vacation!

Wilbur and Orville Write at Kitty-hawk!

War planes from every era!

As I looked around it really started my wheels turning....STEM Flight Activities!

 Things that fly...helicopters, parachutes...airplanes...rocket ships! Teaching a flight unit is so much fun for all ages. There are great picture books and simple science activities that can facilitate STEM activities that have flight in mind! STEM is a great way to explore things that fly in a hands-on way!

Here is some STEM inspiration for you STEM Flight FUN and Airplane Stations on TPT!

                                              Let's your students soar with this pack!

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