STEM-Tastic Ideas For Kinders

Teaching kindergartners STEM can be so much fun!  There are so many great picture books out there and simple STEM activities that can facilitate learning...why not give it a try! Here are some easy steps to follow:

1.Use a great picture book! I use Myon which our district has purchased a license for so that I can project my books and talk and walk. The students were learning their alphabets and they were on the letter Z. Why not read a book about the zoo and have them build a special place for an animal. Set up constraints. For example you can only use blocks, cardboard, tubes, and popsicle sticks. The enclosure must be like their natural habitat and fit on the piece of cardboard that you have each been given.

2. Use simple materials that are easy to gather and lay out! I use Jenga, popsicle sticks, cardboard, and wooden blocks a lot! There are easy to lay out and the kids find so many different ways to use them! The materials are endless. However, I like to see what I can recycle or reuse from our student breakfast program, or school recycling such as toilet paper rolls and milk cartons! The Dollar Store is great for inexpensive items as well!

Here the students are using blocks, cardboard and tubes! Easy...Peazy...Lemon Squeezy!

3. Ask a simple inquiry based question for them to solve!  Here are a few questions to consider...What do you think zoo keepers must think about when keeping an animal at the zoo? What is a habitat that a monkey might live in? How can a zoo create that environment for each animal? It is your job to create the perfect environment for a/n_____________. Before you start draw where this animal would live. Next to it, draw how you can create that habitat using just...

All it takes is a great book...simple materials...and great inquiry based questions. Leaving it up to the students to create...explore...and learn!

STEM-tastic learning by kindergartners when you give them a little time to be creative!

STEM Summer Fun!

Summer is a time for slowing down, relaxing, and STEM! I was challenged by a dear science friend who is teaching summer school this year to find something for her kiddos to do when she needs a little pick me up or has a little time to fill during her summer school day!

Something that could take 10 minutes...could take 30 minutes...but as a science teacher during the school year she wanted to find something that could get her students excited about science during the summer time! I was up for the challenge!

I needed to make these activities affordable as well as the materials needed to be easily set up for her to use when the time came for her to fill it with STEM Summer Fun!

For each pack...I made a booklet that she can print back to back, a center card, and writing connections! I can't wait to see if the kiddos like them! Check them out at Science School Yard TPT Store under STEM Summer Fun!

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!

Dandy...Lions and Fun in the Sun!

It is hot here in Wisconsin...our students have shut down....what do we do? We find a great way to take them outside and use the environment around them to get them excited to learn! The dandelions are out and the kids are checked out...until we found the dandelions that weren't cut in the field!  Here is a simple science lesson for you...

Plan:
1. What can dandelions have? What are dandelions? What do dandelions have?
2. I share my dandelion poster showing them along with a picked dandelion (root and all) the stem, root, leaves, bud, flower, clock, and seeds.
3. We then read our dandelion story

4. Go outside with your station cards and sheets (found in my Dandelion Stations Pack at TPT)
5. Let them work on the activities...I do Adaptations, How Tall, Can, Have, Are...and Tap Roots.
6. I give them a set time to explore and do one sheet...then we meet up and share.

7. I send them back out with rulers...partners...sheets, clipboard...and a tray for a chair. They come back with the joy of learning! From one seed they grow!

Check out this fun end of the year...summer fun pack!

Dandelion Fun TPT link

Science Sounds Good!

We are in our FOSS Sound Unit right now. This is probably one of my favorites because it is more hands on fun for my students! We use this kit in 3rd grade. Not sure if you use FOSS as well, but there are some great additional activities that I add to make it even more spectacular!

FOSS fun with additional ohhhh...yea!

1. sound discrimination...learn about sign language and Morse code.

2. sound discrimination...make fun sound containers for your students to try to match up to see how good they are at discriminating sound

3. telephone...you are grounded and need to talk to your best friend who is your neighbor. There is a window directly across from you. How can you communicate without getting caught? What could you create or build...STEM!

Here is the typical telephone that is made, however....

Here a group thinks outside the box and makes a conveyor belt system to pass notes along!

4. Xylophone, kalimba, and water bottles...make your own instrument for our rock band! Ask your music teacher to share fun instruments that integrate little=high pitch...big=low pitch. We use boomwhackers and xylophones as well as guitars!

Here is a great link that has a huge amount of sound activities for kids...called Chrome Music Lab. It is a great station activity to extend your sound unit!

Here is a great video to show musical instruments and Rube Goldberg fun, too!

And a great book tie with tons of facts...

Here is a freebie for you! Time to Form a Rock Band! Next week, that is what we will be doing! Can't wait to rock on!

Hope this sounds like fun!

Assembly Line Science and Giveaway!

OK...so do you ever have one of those days where your lesson goes just amazing! I wanted to do something with my second graders this week to celebrate the teachers at my school...so I created this Assembly Line Plant Pack to find a fun way to add to our plant unit! Check this fun out!

We started with an anchor chart to find out what positive qualities that they had and could use to do a great job. We compared those ideas with what teachers do each and every day! They are a perfect match...hard worker, positive, team player...the list goes on!

Children and Adults should have these attributes!

Then, they got to apply for jobs...work at "The Plant" and make an adorable plant bag filled with everything a teacher needs (you could do this for Father's Day or Mother's Day...Summer classes...you name it!)

Coloring crew...

A work in progress at "The Plant"!

Soil specialists...no dirt bags here!

Hard at work to make beautiful Teacher Appreciation gifts!

Seed packs ready to go...

Time for delivery!

I was so amazed as to how well the students worked together to show all of the best qualities of a hard worker! Assembly Line Science is a great way to add reading, writing, science to your end of the year/summer fun!

There is still time to sign up for tomorrow's $10 gift card giveaway! Leave your email and I will contact the winner by noon tomorrow! Congrats, Tess for being today's winner!

Teacher Appreciation Giveaway!

I am so appreciative of all the teachers out there that have made my job easier through guidance and support. I am so appreciative of all that you do to make learning fun for kiddos all over the world! I am so appreciative off all the teachers and visitors that come to visit me here in the Science School Yard...I sometimes wonder if there is anyone out there...TPT is celebrating you and so am I.

Please help me celebrate! The rules are simple! Leave a comment below this post with your email, and I will randomly choose 2 winners for a $10 TPT Gift Card. One gift card per day for Tuesday and Wednesday's Sale. Easy! Winners will be chosen by noon 5/4. Shop at the Science School Yard TPT Store for great science lap books, FOSS extensions, STEM activities,  and more. K-5 Science is what I do best each and every day!

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget that everything in my store is 20% off May 3rd and May 4th! With an extra special TPT code CELEBRATE that will give you additional savings at the check out!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

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!

STEM and Simple Machines

For several years, I have been using a Cardboard Arcade Pack that I simply love because it helps fill the weeks in with great activities that help students understand the FOSS Levers and Pulleys Unit better. This year, our fifth graders are a little more squirrely so I wanted to give them opportunities to build and create by adding some STEM lessons to the pack. The 5th graders have absolutely loved being able to build and create and then apply it to what we are learning in our FOSS pack about levers and pulley...but so much more we build on what we have already done. Our variables lessons at the end the year go perfectly with building a vehicle using wheels and axles and testing the variable of height to see how far the vehicle will travel!

Learning the six simple machines and combining it with STEM opportunities is also helpful. I presented the students with a challenge to help them better understand how a simple machine will help make their job easier.

Last week, I wrote about creating pulleys, now we are adding inclined planes and wheel and axle to our learning. Again, we use the scientific process to build.

Testing our wheel and axles on an inclined plane!

1. I first pose the question, "What simple machine can you build that will help a Beanie Baby get down an inclined hill?" "Will you push or pull it?" "How can we test how different heights of an inclined plane change how far the vehicle will go?"

2. I allow for them to predict and plan what they would build on their own. Then, I let each person share out.

3. Each team picks an idea to use and they create a materials list. Once that list is made, one person gets all of the supplies.

4. They get time to build their vehicle. If time remains, they can soup it up.

5. The next time we meet, (I only get an hour with them each week) I present the experiment using the variable of height. This is our first FOSS unit of the year, so we are revisiting what we already learned about controls and variables! I show them how to set up the experiment and then we go outside to set it up as a team.

Proud of their finished product and the fun they had!

6. They observe and record and then share out as a whole group. We finish up by making a graph to record the class results and understand that the higher the inclined plane the farther the vehicle will go. We also share other ways that this is true. Skiing, sledding, driving in a car...

Once again, finding ways to make your science classroom more hands on and exciting will help your students weather the storm of the end of the year wiggles. STEM is one way to do that!

Let's Get Growing

It's my favorite time of year, planting season. Time to get our kinder-gardeners learning how to plant seeds so that when they are BIG first graders they can see their pumpkin patch. Sometimes it takes a long time to grow BIG.

Starting from seed and watching them grow so that we can replant them in our school garden is very exciting!

Our first graders are able to learn about insects and plant flowers so that the bees come to pollinate the vegetable flowers so that we can eat beans, cucumbers, kale, broccoli, and squash to name a few.

Here is our new improved School Garden! New benches, new  beds, new pumpkin patch!

Indoor planting and observations in our Green House!

2nd graders, with the help of their FOSS kit grow everything from beans to tomatoes, zucchini, and kohlrabi as they learn about what a plant needs, to the parts of the plant. My favorite activities include planting potatoes that they will pick as third graders "gold rush style" as well as the mystery seed for Mother's Day as they wait to see how parents pass on traits to their children...marigolds just blooming look like the adult marigold from the nursery!

3rd graders are learning about sound, but it is equally as important to get them growing, too! Next week, during Earth Week we will be learning about planting container gardens as we focus a week on living sustainably! We will also do a quick lesson on how eating vegetables "sounds" good to me when they plant their cabbage plants that are donated to our school each year. I hate to say that most of them died. They cam this year three weeks early, before spring break, and after it snowed 11 days in a row. Our grow lights didn't do them justice!

4th graders will soon plant the three sisters as they are learning about Wisconsin Native American tribes. Beans, Squash, and corn will be their specialty!

After 3 years of waiting...edible stems! Asparagus!

5th graders will get first hand lessons in World War II as I share my father-in-law's WWII memorabilia and we plant a victory garden of tomatoes, broccoli, and lettuce. We might even throw in some radish and spinach to boot!

This year, we are also lucky enough to get honey sticks for our students so that I can teach a pollination lesson to our kindergarten through fifth grade students. We will focus on pollinators for April's Harvest of the Month!

Here is our garden tip of the week...

As you teach students how to plant seeds, use these six simple words:

1. Scoop...

2. Pat...

3. Poke...

4. Drop

5. Cover....and then Water!

As the students get older I add more and more concepts to those 6 simple steps. K-2 just those words work, however as they get older we focus on how far down the seed should be placed in the soil and learning to read a seed packet!

So there is a run down of our School Garden progress! Whether you are growing in a baggie, or in a milk carton...in a container garden or a large school garden...I will always say that planting a seed is magic! It allows children to see where their food comes from and it allows them to get their hands dirty as they learn!

Here is a FREEBIE to get you growing!