Our third STEAM activity once again had my students thinking like a scientist and engineer - but this time to learn more about Great White Sharks. Using the book, Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless, I introduced the importance of wanting to learn more about something you are passionate about, regardless of what anyone may think. I combined that with some facts from Great White Sharks (Nature's Children) to set the stage for what scientists already know about Great White Sharks. After listening to the story, we jumped into our STEAM activity. Our challenge was to create something new and innovative that would help scientists learn more about Great White Sharks. I told the students that they could not simply copy something that they know is already available (like a tracker attached to a shark), but they could use it as their starting point and turn it into what I call "the 50 million dollar idea" (if I gave them 50 million dollars to make their idea even better, unique, and something that will help others, I would give them the money on the spot). They could use LEGOs or their computer for research and prototyping. They came up with some great ideas and are on their way to being scientists and engineers with big ideas and dreams!
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Whew! We made it through our first week of our Digital Citizenship Shark Week! I am so happy that I designed this unit the way that I did for the two week Specials rotations we have at school. This will get each class started off with the same important information about digital citizenship, but it also works in so many STEAM elements. I am breaking up the digital citizenship lessons with a STEAM lesson in between. This has really helped the students stay engaged in the digital citizenship lessons as they know there are STEAM activities worked into those lessons as well as the lesson for the next day. So why not celebrate with a little Fun Friday?! This is where we put what we learned about personal and private information into practice by signing up for a Nitro Type account. We learned how to sign into an online service using our Google account, and then created our public racing name. We talked about how we don't want to use any private information for this name, as others will see it. After we did some racing, I mean typing practice, I gave them a Fun Friday Choice Board that had other shark and digital citizenship activities they could choose from. I was surprised at how many students simply wanted to keep on working on Nitro Type! It was fun as we learned how to add each other as friends and race against one another. Of course, they all wanted to race me and see if they could beat the teacher! They learned quickly that they need to practice some more, but will definitely be challenging me in the future. It was definitely a great way to spend our Friday as teaching and learning is absolutely draining on everyone right now - teachers and students!
Today we dove into Digital Citizenship fins first! Yesterday, everything was so new new and different to the students that I was so glad I decided to do the STEAM activity first before the lesson. Today we read the story Misunderstood Shark and all of the students loved it! I love it anytime I can include a book as part of a lesson. It gives everyone a common experience/storyline to build from.
Our first lesson in our Digital Citizenship unit was about Identity and Use. We talked about how it is important to be a good person online and offline and how our actions can influence those of others and even hurt someone else's digital footprint. Much of the information I gathered was from Common Sense Media's Digital Citizenship Curriculum and I put a shark spin on it. I have to say, although I have been told that Digital Citizenship and sharks seems like an odd combination, it is working so far. Kids are actually engaged in the activities and it gives me a purpose in teaching them how to do things in Google Slides.
For the student activity today, I created digital LEGO pieces and students had to drag them into the workspace to "build" with them. I tasked them with designing a shark with the LEGO pieces, inserting a callout bubble, and then providing a piece of advice for being a good digital citizen in the callout bubble (they accessed this through Google Classroom so each student had a template to work from). There were so many new things that they had to do in this activity and everyone stepped up to the task! In 3rd grade we built our sharks out of physical LEGO pieces and then brainstormed pieces of advice and wrote them on the board because we were getting a little short on time. It worked out perfectly as a physical or digital activity!
This week we started back in person with students, so I thought I would start with something I feel is important for all students - Digital Citizenship! I feel that this is more important than ever as we are spending a large part of our day on the computer (even if we are in-person) and it is super important for students to recognize inappropriate online behavior and how to work towards addressing it.
As important as this topic is, I completely understand that it is not the most exciting topic for students. You can picture it now, in fact, almost HEAR it, "I know, I know," "This is so boring!" and the list could go on and on. Soooo, I knew I had to "fun it up" a bit in order for it to really hit home and leave an impact. I took a suggestion from the student evaluation from Camp Legend this summer chose a theme of sharks. I figured it would be a perfect topic to weave digital citizenship in, a variety of STEAM activities, and even some Science. STEAM Activity
As Specials at my school started the same day as in-person learning, I didn't want to jump full into full-blown content first thing in the morning. I figured it was not in the best interest of anyone! ;) So instead, I chose to lead into our Shark Digital Citizenship unit with a STEAM activity that I knew would spark their interest as well as give me an opportunity to get to know students a bit better.
I created a choice board based on the book, Smart About Sharks. There were so many great facts and images in this book, that I knew it would be a perfect anchor text for our Choice Board. I was gifted this book by an amazing person in my PLN from my Shark Week Digital Citizenship Amazon Wish List and am so grateful that it made this learning activity come to life! Students were given the Choice Board and could choose any item as their starting point. I had brief descriptions and visuals on the front and more details on the back if anyone wanted more information. The students seemed to enjoy the activity and actually worked through the items pretty quickly. It is amazing the difference in their work when they are not in groups and constantly talking and sharing while they are building. It was one of the things I was hoping to observe as far as their natural collaboration and communication and what would happen when they were not in groups and the natural sharing and conversation was not one of the main parts of their learning. I learned many things today!
As we have several classes that are full remote for the year, I have also been working to not only have the materials our in-person students will need, but also those that can be used by our virtual students. I created a digital version of the print choice board and provided students with some digital LEGO pieces to build and design. I hope that my virtual students have just as much fun as the in-person students with being able to create and learn about sharks!
Well, we made it through week one. I am not sure what place I expected us to be at the end of the week, but here we are. I worked with my daughter to come up with a schedule on Sunday evening (my son "didn't care" what we did). We talked about how this wasn't a snow day like they were used to, but we were still going to do some school work. My children are creatures of habit, so I knew it was important to keep some sort of schedule that was similar to that of their normal school schedule. I kept track throughout the week of what we did, so we could spread out activities through the week. We made sure to build in brain breaks, STEAM, and "recess" so that they weren't doing everything on a computer all day. We re-evaluated from day to do, but the schedule we came up with and there was no fighting me for more time outside, doing activities, or general fighting with each other (!). I tried to take pictures throughout the week so that we have them to look back on years from now. The pictures are not anything amazing, but captured moments of our learning at home during this unprecedented time. We tried to get outside whenever weather allowed in the morning and had creative time in the afternoon (their choice of STEAM activity). Then they had the rest of the day to themselves (which thankfully they chose outside everyday!).
This week with my littles, we read the story Bunny Slopes. This book has been a favorite of my own kiddos for a long time, so I knew I would have to incorporate it during this winter season. I had seen several people share on Instagram about making a hill out of poster board and students designing something (I told my kiddos I didn't want to label it as a sled or something because I didn't want to limit their imaginations) to slide down the hill. I knew this would be perfect for my groups! I fancied up two pieces of poster board that I taped together with some trees, a mug, and snowflakes I cut out on my Cricut. I added a little "finish line" at the end (the colors coincidentally matched the blankets in the book!). Students designed some sort of transportation that would go down the hill as well as keep their little bunny mini eraser safe inside. We had many trial and error attempts where either the bunny fell out or the mode of transportation fell apart (or both). I was so impressed how the students did not get frustrated when things came apart, but rather picked up their pieces, went back to their table, and started fixing or redesigning. We found that larger, sturdier modes of transportation kept the bunny safe and didn't fall apart opposed to the smaller structures. Engineering for the win! Thanksgiving Maker MatToday in 4th grade it was Thanksgiving Maker Mat day! I think the kids know when one is coming now (before holidays or breaks), but they are great for keeping students on task during days that are filled with this, that, and the other thing. I focused on Creativity with their building, and even let them build alone to see what they could do by themselves. It always amazes me that how many groups ask if they could build together instead of working by themselves. There are also students who thrive when they work by themselves, so I try to change up the structure of how we work together. Before they began working today, I went through their exit slip that I had posted on the board. Each student had a small post-it note with their name on it and they had to place their sticky note in the appropriate column for how they feel they exercised their creativity today. As this was a Thanksgiving Maker Mat, I also worked in thanking those who served as inspiration as part of their self-reflection. I told them that no level was a "bad" level and it only shows them areas that they might need to work on to grow as a learner. The Night Before ThanksgivingIn Y5, we read the story, "The Night Before Thanksgiving." I had pre-select six different items from the book and put them on a Maker Mat. This was their first experience with me and using a Maker Mat, so I wasn't sure how it was going to go. Usually I have students work on building collaboratively, but for introducing Maker Mats, I wanted to see what they could create individually. I gave each student their own Maker Mat and they showed me their item they created before moving on to the next one. I feel like I can't say it enough. I love Maker Mats! They are easy to create, allow for student voice and choice, provide direction to students to create under a theme, and allow for students to have room for creativity. To fit this Maker Mat with our Toy Story STEAM Mania theme, I picked just a couple of items from Toy Story and then let then the students start creating! When using Maker Mats, I have students work in pairs or as a group of four and then they have to select one item on the mat to build together. After they are done building, they have to show me what they made, and then I check it off on their mat before they can move on. This adds a bit of accountability with what they are building and sometimes I have to send them back with direction to add a little more (because I know they can!). They usually respond really well and come back with something even better. I have to say that I was really impressed with the claw machines that the students built - many of them built some functional claw machines and spent a lot of time adding little details to their machines. I know pictures don't do it justice, but they were pretty awesome! |
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