Simple STEM Stories will help you merge literacy and STEM with fun and engaging, hands-on STEM challenges based on a children's book.
There is nothing quite like kicking off Makerspace time or a STEM challenge with a captivating read aloud to encourage our students to make meaningful connections with text and inspire them to play, explore, invent, and create. I'm always on the lookout for new titles to add to our Makerspace library! Here are the common themes and characteristics to watch for as you're browsing Online or your local bookstore
Fixed schedule in your elementary library? You can still offer makerspace learning activities with makerspace centers as part of a library centers program.
What is the difference between a makerspace and a meaningful makerspace? A makerspace is a place in a classroom, school, or library where students are encouraged to create, tinker, and explore. Nevertheless, a meaningful makerspace goes beyond giving students Legos and telling them to build. Rath
Interested in learning how to start, schedule, and manage an elementary Makerspace?! Check out these supply suggestions, organization tips, and more.
Ozobots can be so much fun, but sometimes give you multiple problems. Here are some of the troubleshooting tricks I have discovered along the years of using Ozobots. I first purchased Ozobots for my classroom in 2015!! What really drew me in, was that that they do not need a computer or iPad to be ... Read more
STEM Bins® are an ideal hands-on solution for early finishers, morning work, centers, fine motor practice, indoor recess, Makerspaces, or positive reinforcement of behavior. They also provide an open-ended and developmentally appropriate foundation of engineering for elementary students.
Academic Ways to Use the MaKey-MaKey in the Elementary Classroom: Fun ways to advance coding in the classroom!
Library centers have been in full swing for more than 1 1/2 years at DC Elementary, and with the new semester just a few days away, it's tim...
Find fantastic resources for teaching inferences (with free mini lesson). The resources are ideal for 4th graders but also features ideas for grades 1-3.
Here are five things every teacher should do for a successful back to school year. In this post, I'll share the top five necessities.
Here is a great low-cost station to add to your elementary makerspace lab! When you do - this set of 22 task cards is a must have! They will get your students' creative juices flowing and allow them to express themselves through design. Just post a few new challenge task cards each time your students visit the lab and enjoy the amazing creations your students come up with. Brain Flakes® is a registered trademark of Viahart, LLC, and can be purchased at: Brain Flakes® You might also like: Makerspace: Creation Station Makerspace: Make & Take with Duct Tape Makerspace Mosaic Challenge Makerspace: Origami Challenge Makerspace: Pattern Block Challenge Makerspace: Strawbees Challenge Makerspace Lego Challenge Makerspace: Magnetic Block Challenge Makerspace: K'nex Challenge Makerspace: Drawing Challenge Makerspace: KEVA Plank Challenge Makerspace: Cubelets Just starting your Makerspace? - check out my comprehesive Makerspace Bundle: Makerspace Made Easy Comprehensive Bundle Thanks for visiting my store! Copyright Info: Please remember - this license is for one individual teacher's use only. Please do not share this resource with other teachers. Additional licenses are available for a discounted price.
Start your year off right by decorating your STEM classroom to inspire your students to have fun, take risks, and have a growth mindset.
As adults, we often walk into a bookstore with a certain genre we are ready to peruse the aisles for in order to find our next read. Would your students be able to do the
If you need STEM projects ideas, this is THE place to go! This is a collection of over 200 STEM projects and activities that kids love!
Ready to build your STEM library with the best picture books? Start Here! Check out my Top 10 all time favorite read alouds for elementary STEM
Recently I read an article discussing how libraries are converting to makerspaces. I found this wording dangerous because I love libraries and my library is not just a makerspace. My library is sti…
Every once in a while, I create a product for my classroom or my TPT store that I get just giddily excited about. Products that are unique and that I know kids and teachers will both love. I felt this way when I released my escape rooms for early childhood, and I'm feeling it again with my latest project: STEM Safari! I've been working on it for weeks, and I am thrilled that it is finally live! STEM Safari is an organized approach to implementing STEM in your classroom, and so much fun! Each STEM session, a student picks a challenge card to complete. There are 5 different types of cards: 1. Elephant Engineering (engineering challenges) 2. Cheetah Challenge (challenges with specific parameters in place) 3. Rhino Riddles ("How can you...?" challenges) 4. Warthog Wonderings (reflection questions and challenges) 5. Buffalo Building (free choice building). I wanted to prevent students from always picking the same type of card, such as the free choice building, which is, of course, valuable, but doesn't do as well with developing problem-solving skills. To do this, and to encourage my students to try new things, they each have an Animal Checklist. Every time they complete a specific type of challenge, they check it off. When they have completed all 5 of the different challenge types, they color in one country in their STEM Safari Africa map. Then they "journey" to a new country and start again with a new animal checklist! This way, the fun just keeps going, but they have a way to track how many challenges they have completed. There is also a STEM Safari Journal included, which helps build their reflection skills. Any of the Warthog Wondering cards that say "write about it" can be completed in their STEM Safari Journals. There are also a few "design" challenges in the Elephant Engineering cards that can be completed in their journals. As they continue their STEM Safari journey, the reflections they have completed in the journal will help them polish their problem-solving and engineering skills. I love doing STEM projects with my students! It is amazing to see what they can accomplish with a few basic supplies and some open-ended directives. However, storing all of these supplies can be a challenge. Included in the STEM Safari kit are tons of supply labels with photographs, to help keep everything neat. Here's a close-up example of a supply label. I even included some editable labels so that you can customize them for any supplies you have on hand! I really hope that your students enjoy STEM Safari as much as mine do! Click here to purchase in my shop, or here to purchase in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. There's just something about open-ended, hands-on learning that gets kiddos excited. I would love to hear how you use STEM in your classroom; drop me a comment below! Happy teaching!
Are you looking for something that will have ALL of your elementary students engaged from young kids to older? Do you hate planning out stem projects that use hard-to-find equipment and are exhausting to prepare? Have you tried easy STEM activities yet in your classroom? Easy stem challenges are a great way to have students […]
The versatile spaghetti tower STEM Challenge! This resource offers endless creativity & problem-solving opportunities for students using only a few materials.
Looking for a cool magnet activity for kids? Try these magnetic marble mazes. This printable marble game uses magnets to make it educational and fun!
tw When it comes to math, geometry seems to be in a whole different league. Some kids fall in love with it instantly, while it seems challenging for other kids. One of the great things about geometry is that there are so many hands-on activities we can provide for our students, which makes it lots of fun! Here are some of my favorite geometry activities: 1. Start With Shapes I like to have students start with shapes they've known since they were tiny, like triangles, squares, and circles. We draw these on whiteboards as a whole class. Next we draw the more advanced shapes like pentagons, hexagons, octagons, trapezoids, and even the rhombus! This brings us to a discussion of polygons and we can classify shapes that way. Besides whiteboards, there are lots of ways for kids to work with shapes, like Popsicle sticks (which are also great to use to illustrate lines like parallel, intersecting, and perpendicular), LEGOS, Geoboards, and even clothespins which can be clipped together. 2. Marshmallow Geometry I like this activity because any time you add food, kids are all in! Using marshmallows and toothpicks, kids can make simple 2-D shapes, and also 3-D shapes. Plus, this activity is the perfect place to emphasize vertices since each time you add a marshmallow, you place it at a corner. If you have food allergies or school regulations which prohibit food, you can substitute the marshmallows for Play-Doh. 3. Use an Anchor Chart Once students have had lots of exploration time with shapes, it's time to discuss their attributes. I like to actually make this anchor chart with the kids' help. I explain how it will be organized, from the smallest number of sides to the greatest. We also notice patterns of sides and vertices as we create it. I do ask kids for examples of shapes, and sometimes they get really creative with this! 4. Go on a Shape Scavenger Hunt This is an activity that is great to do with some parent helpers if you have any. I like to send iPad cameras with each group, clipboards and pencils, and a record sheet. Kids record the shape that was found, the type of object it was, and where it was found. It's really fun to see what shapes they're able to find while walking around the school campus! 5. Incorporate Some Art I am a huge art proponent so I add art wherever it fits in. Geometry is a great time to do either geometric animals, robots, or people. I usually choose one of those categories but really you could make it a wide open project too! I shared another fun geometric art activity on a blog post I wrote called Incorporating Art in the Classroom. This one is from Literacy Loves Company. As a follow up to geometric lessons on lines and angles, I cut polygons from white construction paper for each child. I have kids use rulers and sharpies and follow my step by step directions of drawing lines and then finding obtuse angles, right angles, perpendicular lines, and so on. After the lesson is done, kids add color to these, making it a really fun art piece. 6. Add Some Kinesthetic Learning Kids need movement and it's easy to add some movement with this unit. For this activity, students will be on the floor working with a partner to make different kinds of lines (parallel, intersecting, and perpendicular), shapes, and angles (right, acute, and obtuse) using their bodies. An alternative is to have kids stand up and use their arms to illustrate these geometric concepts. Another kinesthetic activity is to gather Chinese jump ropes or packages of sewing elastic. If you use elastic, one package is enough for one small group of 5 - 6 kids. The idea is to have students use the elastic as a group to make the shapes you call out (types of triangles are especially good) or types of angles. Different kinds of lines can also be made if two groups work together. 7. Add Some Task Cards and Games Task cards are one of my go-to tools! Kids love the game-like format and I know that they're getting really focused learning on whatever math concept we're working on. I have used them as centers/stations, for whole class math time, for one on one, and as exit slips. If you'd like some pre-made math task cards specifically for geometry, click here; 3rd Grade Geometry Bundle 4th Grade Geometry Bundle 5th Grade Geometry Bundle 8. Read Mentor Text I love it when I can tie reading into math too! The books above are some of my favorite mentor texts for geometry. I love all of the visual examples included. 9. Use Music I just found these songs by Numberock on YouTube and they are perfect for this unit! Really great pictures and catchy tunes: Parallel, Perpendicular and Intersecting Lines Angles Types of Triangles 10. Practice Angles Seriously, next to long division, measuring angles is probably the most difficult math skill students will face in the elementary years! It doesn't help too that it is introduced in fourth grade in common core and then not even mentioned in 5th grade standards. Oh well! One activity that helps is to have kids use graph paper and write their first name in all capital block letters. Students can measure any angles created by the intersection of the letter's lines. Another favorite activity for practicing angles is to take tape and make different lines, which create angles on a desk, table, or even on sheets of butcher paper. Kids use protractors to measure angles and then write with expos (or markers on the butcher paper) right on the desks/tables! Great way to add some fun to this difficult concept! Hope you've found at least a few ideas you can use for your geometry unit! I did want to let you know that I have Math Task Card Bundles for every grade from 3rd - 5th. Each bundle has 30 sets of 32 task cards that cover ALL STANDARDS (CCSS) for those grades. I love prepping them at the beginning of the year and then grabbing whatever concept we're working on for some added practice. If you'd like to take a look: 3rd Grade Math Task Cards Bundle 4th Grade Math Task Cards Bundle 5th Grade Math Task Cards Bundle Thanks so much for stopping by! If you like this post, I would love it if you would pin it or share it with a teacher friend! For more ideas and strategies focused on Upper elementary, be sure to sign up for The Teacher Next Door's free email newsletter right HERE. I'd love to connect with you! Facebook Pinterest Instagram TpT Store
STEM Bins for Elementary Students “I’m finished! What do I do now?” How many times during our teaching day do we hear these words from our students? Oftentimes, it is much too often, and students are provided a handful of the same options to keep them busy until our next transition. Sometimes students are instructed...
Here are some of my favorites STEM books for kids that you can add to your collection today! Before starting a STEM or building challenge, I always read a book with my class. I love connecting literacy, sitting together on the carpet, and engaging my students in discussions. There are so many amazing books that ... Read more
How We Use Our Makerspace: 'Iolani Lower School
Looking for fun and engaging science activities to teach force and motion? These three activities will get your students excited to learn!
As a teacher, I am sure you have been overwhelmed! The last week of school, the first week of school, right before report cards go out, parent conference week, during an observation, and so many more occasions are when we all get that feeling that it's just too much. That is the exact situation I
This poster pack includes 35 STEM careers from A to Z! These make perfect community helpers bulletin board displays or counseling office decor to spark conversation with students about future career goals. Use them for your career education classroom guidance lessons or as visual aids during counseling lessons. You might be interested in my other career education resources! Terms Copyright © Counselor Keri, Keri Powers Pye. All rights reserved by author. This product is to be used by the original downloader only. Copying for more than one teacher, classroom, department, school, or school system is prohibited. This product may not be distributed or displayed digitally for public view. Failure to comply is a copyright infringement and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Clipart and elements found in this PDF are copyrighted and cannot be extracted and used outside of this file without permission or license. Intended for classroom and personal use ONLY. See product file for clip-art and font credits.
How (and how NOT to) plan Genius Hour in an elementary classroom. Genius Hour ideas for second, third and fourth grade. Projects, organization, classroom management, and planning for passion projects.
Interested in learning how to start, schedule, and manage an elementary Makerspace?! Check out these supply suggestions, organization tips, and more.
MAKERSPACES … I tried to ignore them! I tried to deny their growing momentum. I skipped over articles and blogposts where makerspaces were the headline. I averted my eyes when newsletters about them crossed my mailbox. Not that I didn’t find value in them! I ABSOLUTELY did. Honestly, I was just so overwhelmed with the […]
Learn how to make your own morse code machine in this STEM activity for kids plus print our free printable Morse Code language cheat sheet!
Get teaching with these force and motion experiments, activities and videos to use in the elementary classroom. This collection of force and motion activities and resources should help you cover the topics like texture, gravity, incline and simple machines. If you’re looking for helpful ideas and lesson plans – then this is the place to start! Do you need a refresher … 24 Elementary Force and Motion Experiments & Activities Read More »
Long time readers know I love free homeschool curriculum. I maintain a list of free resources and websites called The Free List on this blog of things I come
This is a digital product. You will receive a pdf document via email to print on completion of your order. Get creative at home with this fun flextangle printable template. Create your own cool pattern designs, assemble and play. This is such a fun DIY fidget toy. Suitable for all ages.
