STEM Nursery Rhyme Time!

I use to have this nursery rhyme record when I was little that I had at my grandma's house. I LOVED that record and I knew every nursery rhyme by heart. Our littles now really do not know them very well. Some do...some don't. Last year, I tried to find a way for my kinders to engineer. So, I started taking simple books to get them excited. We made puppets of the three billy goats...which I am working on now and we made bridges to learn over...under...all that good stuff! They LOVED it.

Throughout the year, I kept trying new stories and rhymes to find ways to use simple supplies to have my littles engineer! They have built stamina and used creativity to make some great zip lines...egg protectors...and learned how to use pulleys!

This summer, I have been working on packs that incorporated all of the ideas that I did this last school year!

STEM Nursery Rhyme Time In Action!

Hey, Diddle, Diddle link...catapults, fiddle engineering, and more!

Humpty Dumpty Link...Egg Protectors, Walls, and more!

Jack and Jill link...Pulleys, Handle Helpers, and more...

Miss Muffet Link...Zip Lines and Tuffets and more!

We've been busy this summer engineering! With simple supplies...and simple steps...your students can be building stamina...creativity...and problem solving skills while connecting with reading, writing, and math! Just in time for back to school! NGSS science standards are linked to each lesson as well!

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Fourth of July Freebie!

Today, is my first official day on vacation! I have already put new tires on my car today, unloaded my car of all of my supplies from the two weeks of summer engineering camp, changed the sheets, made muffins, and even some homemade strawberry jam! Now, we are headed up north to go fishing! Sitting on a boat, watching my two boys relaxing and hanging out is priceless! This weekend, however,  I got to go to a baseball tournament and enjoy some down time to create some fun units and relax in the sun at the same time!!!! Here are  my Monday Made Its..with.4th Grade Frolics!

Monday. made it #1...I made it to vacation!!!!!

WooHoo! Time to finally relax!

 
Monday Made it #2...I made my annual strawberry jam...a bit early because of all the rain...

Monday Made It! I made jam again this year for my college kiddos!  

Monday Made it #3...Guess what I made????

So is a summer fun freebie! Our favorite holiday is 4th of July! You can get together as a family in summer and just have fun...no need for gifts...major dinners....all that is for other holidays! This week, all of my kiddos are together and we are excited to make our annual 4th of July T-shirts! To celebrate my vacation...our favorite holiday...and just sharing some fun ideas that I have done with my kids when they were little...Here is the TPT link to the 4th of July FREEBIE!!

Enjoy your 4th of July weekend!

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Science Makes Me Hoppy!

I am on VACATION! But before we finished up science last week...we worked on a few science stations that made the kiddos pretty HOPPY! We made Easter eggs with coffee filters...

The kiddos made designs on coffee filters...

They got to spray them...then we made sayings on notecards how Our Teachers Are EGG-cellent. I love that teachers are egg-cellent because they are pretty! Those cuties. It takes about an hour to dry...but they are cute in a little nest. I will share next week when I get back! I was out of there quick on Friday...break started!

Now...onto our Egg-stra fun sound discrimination station! I made nests out of crumpled paper...put the matching eggs in a nest and the littles loved trying to find the pairs...open them up...and check their answers. Even the kinders could write down the matches...I was so proud.

Look at them working together and having fun learning!

Just a closer look at the sheet and a little checking to see if they were right! They loved it!

Onto the activity that was a blast...but whoa...a bit messy.We learned to do this one outside in our school garden...We made bird nests out of natural products in the garden...and realized that birds are AMAZING animals. We looked at real nests and the ones in our garden. We tried to build them to hold 2-3 Cadbury Eggs. We set our nests in the trees for the birds to use if they wanted. The kiddos were proud of their creations...as the kids got older though they were harder on themselves for not building a "solid" nest. We connected engineering with what other animals can do that people have tried to copy...planes... gecko feet...shark skin...Biomimicry is a great connection for this lesson to show how we can learn from animals!  Here is the link I used and some fine looking bird nests...

Biomimicry Connections

Look at our indoor nests...do this activity outside:)

Might not actually works for real bird eggs, but they were proud of how they turned out...

After really looking closely at real bird nests...we realized how much we can learn from nature!

The final nests were placed in trees in our garden...we shall see if any bird uses their nests!

The great thing about these activities is that they allow for great thematic science connections...these activities and more can all be found in my Easter Science Pack...Hop on over to ...Easter Science Stations on TPT

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Garden Nests: Engineering for Easter

I just can't wait anymore to use our school garden. Even if you don't have a school garden, you can gather some great items outside for your students to do this engineering project. I have two classes the day before spring break...I was wondering about what I could do with both kindergarten and 1st graders from my Easter pack...I added three new activities today! I am really excited about using it! Take a look...

I added chromatography eggs, an engineering next building activity, and a writing activity! Here are my littles in action!

Easter Egg Sound Discrimination Activity...

Teachers are Egg-cellent art project...

Building a nest for our Cadbury Eggs...great for outside connections! We started inside...made a mess...took it outside...and

A nest fit for a Cadbury Egg! Bird nests are hard to build, but the kiddos loved getting outside and using natural garden goodies!

Happy Easter!

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Candy Science!

Ok...so I have seen some sites that show how to use candy to teach science concepts, so I thought I would use the FOSS concepts to see how I could teach some of the kit ideas as a refresher or introduction. We had a special celebration today on our half day...Halloween. We had our and littles sign up for stations...they got to do 2.

I did...CANDY SCIENCE! We did the acidity test (great for a whole class demo or even small groups and to review the Calcite test and mixtures and solutions), floating M's from M&M's (the kids love this when they can get the M to stick to their finger),  Earth materials candy properties (review of property words, mass, perimeter, area, and the beginning of density), sink and float with an introduction to density, candy chromatography (didn't love this when the kids did it, so I would do this as a station demo), reflection and refraction candy suckers.

Not sure how to help kids with their large amount of Halloween candy? Have them bring in one piece to share. Check out the stations...in action...and set up!

Refraction and reflection

M&M fun and floatable...

Sink and Float...and the beginning of density!

Mass, area, perimeter, properties...

Great for demo of citric acid reactions...fizzy fun!

Candy Chromatography...FYI the kids need patience and directions

Refraction in action!

 I put these stations into a pack! Check candy science at Candy TPT Link.

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