In the mornings we have academic time with brain breaks and "recess." I am allowing my kids to play outside with the neighbors, but no playing inside at each others' houses. It was a balmy 34 degrees yesterday (thank goodness for sunshine!), so I decided to read a book to the neighborhood kiddos and do a STEAM activity outside. We read the book, The Gingerbread Man and the Leprechaun Loose at School. After some fo-fiddley-fee reading fun, we designed some leprechaun traps with what we could find in nature. Kiddos ranged in ages from 2-11, so some worked together and others on their own. It was a fun activity for St. Patrick's Day and I wish I had stayed awake long enough to mess with their traps, but, you know, 7:30 hit and I was D.O.N.E. :)
Well, we are at home and Mom School is in full effect. I have a 5th grader and 2nd grader of my own and now I running school activities at home for them as well as trying to stay on top of my own school things. It is only Day 3 and I am exhausted. I am grateful my daughter's teacher sent things home, but she does need extra supports at school, so working with her at home is extra important, but draining for me. My son has done well with activities I have given him and hasn't fought me on it, so there is a blessing there. I know we will find our new normal soon, but until then, you can find me in bed by 7:30. Ha ha! But for real though... In the mornings we have academic time with brain breaks and "recess." I am allowing my kids to play outside with the neighbors, but no playing inside at each others' houses. It was a balmy 34 degrees yesterday (thank goodness for sunshine!), so I decided to read a book to the neighborhood kiddos and do a STEAM activity outside. We read the book, The Gingerbread Man and the Leprechaun Loose at School. After some fo-fiddley-fee reading fun, we designed some leprechaun traps with what we could find in nature. Kiddos ranged in ages from 2-11, so some worked together and others on their own. It was a fun activity for St. Patrick's Day and I wish I had stayed awake long enough to mess with their traps, but, you know, 7:30 hit and I was D.O.N.E. :)
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This week our Toy Story STEAM Mania in Y5 and T1 brought us...outside! We read the Toy Story 4 book and talked about the lost friends in the story. I shared with the students that I had some lost friends of my own (in a bag next to me where they couldn't see what was inside). They were quite excited to see who my friends were, but I explained to them that we needed to take care of the friends and build them a house so they wouldn't be lost anymore. So, we gathered ourselves and the bag of lost friends and then headed outside. At this point, they still hadn't seen who my "lost friends" were...and I didn't show them until they had collected some materials they had found in the outdoor learning area to build a house. Then I selected a lost friend for them so they could begin building their houses. This started off with a challenge for the students to build a house for their lost friend, but honestly, I left it pretty open to see what they would come up with and how their play would steer their building. For some activities, I have structure and expectations that I would like to see with outcomes, but other times, I like to give a loose challenge and see where the students take it (especially with the younger students). Some of the students took right away to collecting and building a house, some wanted to explore the outdoor learning area, and some were a bit hesitant on where to begin. It was a great opportunity for the students to learn to work with one another to build something, share resources, and be creative. Plus, we had some beautiful weather, so it was the perfect time to get outside, get a little dirty, and do some serious learning! Play is work for children. In order to learn how to work, they need to play.The weather where I am at has been so up and down lately - it could be BLAZING HOT AND HUMID, POURING RAIN, or COMFORTABLY COOL. After starting the week with two days of blazing heat, we finally got a break and had a comfortably cool day. So, you know I would totally try to take advantage of the weather to do a STEAM activity outside (well, in this case, partially outside). I had seen these UV beads before and wondered about how I might want to use them with students beyond just building some amazing pipe cleaner jewelry. I did some Pinterest-surfing and found this activity from Buggy and Buddy and knew it was perfect for my 4th grade friends! All I needed was the beads and Amazon Prime provided quickly for that. Materials Needed:
We started out our activity in the classroom (to contain the potential mess). This took longer than I anticipated (a bit more than a half hour), but the kids were totally into making their animals. All I told them to do was make a small animal out of pipe cleaners and the beads. I showed them an example I made (surprisingly, a sloth) for a size reference. When I showed the beads, I told them they were all the same color, so it didn't matter what other groups had in their containers. After we called time on building the animals, I broke the news to them that I actually lied about all the beads being the same color. The shock on their faces was pretty epic (not sure if it was confusion because they "knew" the beads were the same color or because I admittedly told them I lied to them). Then I explained the magic of the beads in that they were actually UV beads and when they went outside, they would actually change color if exposed to the sun's UV rays. The shock quickly turned to excitement with this! We then explained the second part of the activity - they would have build shade shelters with the nature around them to protect the animals they just created from the sun's UV rays. I wish we had more time than we did for this part because the kiddos just going going with building their shelters and there was some AMAZING conversation! They were talking about how to construct their shelters, what materials to use, how to reinforce to hold it, how to maximize the leaves for shade coverage - the list could go on and on! The students struck the jackpot as earlier our grounds people had trimmed down many overgrown branches. No sooner than we turned around to make sure kids were doing what they needed to be doing, we saw multiple kids with huge smiles on their faces with HUGE tree branches. Well, we didn't anticipate that one! What they came up with though was great and they were so bummed when we had to break them down as recess was starting for other students. As I was watching students work on their shelters, I noticed my sloth was changing colors and the excitement from the kids would tell you that their animals were changing as well. On the website, they showed the picture below on the left for how the beads reacted in different lighting. On the right are my pictures in the same lighting. Not too bad! The glow in the dark wasn't as dark and the sunny days wasn't as bright, but definitely different enough!
Wow. That is all I have to say for this activity. When I was thinking of what to do with my 4th grade friends, somehow I came about the idea of using chopsticks for something. That sort of snowballed into having them use chopsticks to move something from one location to another and then building something with the items they collected. I put materials together (just chopsticks, pattern blocks, and task cards) and was ready to go. Then as I was about to meet with the class I had this sudden feeling of, oh no, what am I doing to these poor kiddos! I don't want to give them something totally frustrating and impossible for them to complete. I assumed many of them would not be able to use chopsticks the "proper" way (I am not even entirely sure I use them the proper way!), but was surprised that about half of the class had used chopsticks before - sweet! This might work after all! The directions I gave the students were simple:
There were so many amazing things that came out of this activity that I did not anticipate - one of the many things that I love about working with students!
2. Some groups rocked out communicating and collaborating with one another. A group or two needed some adult guidance in how to work through working with a team, but everyone ended up working together! 3. As I walked around, I could hear group members yelling out what was needed and encouraging those who were moving the blocks. 4. It might have looked like total chaos from a distance, but there were so many great things going on at one time. I am so proud of each of these kiddos for their hard work with this activity! What truly was amazing to see was how the students stepped up to help each other and encourage each other without being prompted. They noticed when their group members were struggling and they offered advice constructively and truly build a team that was working together! I know I didn't get pictures of each creation every group created, but I tried to get as many as possible! The teacher and I asked that students show us their creation before they moved on to the next card. This gave us an opportunity to check in with them, see how they were working together, and encourage them as they moved forward to the next task card. Some of the creations the students came up with are shown below. RabbitTurtleFlowerAlligatorAppleSnakeFishI would TOTALLY recommend this activity if you want to put your students in a situation where they must work together to succeed. Each group member plays a critical part in the success of building and creating and the sense of team adds another level of engagement. What I thought might be a total flop of an activity ended up being one of the best I have done in a while!
My first STEAM activity of the 2018-2019 school year! I wasn't sure what to expect, but as usual, the 4th grade class I worked with totally amazed me! The 4th grade teacher I worked with a lot last year and I are continuing to do weekly STEAM time. Before I arrived, she spoke to them about what STEM and STEAM are and how we often use these skills in our daily lives. The materials they needed for this activity were pretty simple:
After they planned out their boat designs, we headed outside (yay for nice weather!) and began constructing their boats. After they had built their boats and were ready to test, we gave them a handful of mini-erasers to start loading up their boats. Each group had unique designs and ideas and a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D, Plan E...but they never gave up! We had several cup-shaped boats, big boats, small boats, a pouch boat, and many other iterations! And our boat (pictured above in the pink tub - actually storage bins from the Target Dollar Spot) held a whopping 135 mini-erasers! Let me tell you, that group was very proud of their work! After we were done with the activity, we did a debrief with the kiddos asking them about what they liked about the activity, what was difficult, what they would select if they could choose 1 additional material to use in construction, as well as bringing things full circle with how they used the elements of STEAM in this activity. This was a great activity for students who haven't had exposure to STEAM activities - everyone had success in different ways. One of the things that really hit me at the end were how many students were talking about how they could do this home and they were going to show their siblings or parents what they did at school because it was an activity that could easily be replicated at home. That is a sign of an activity that tells the story beyond the school walls! |
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