Do you have trouble teaching characterization? Use fun collaborative posters to teach how to use textual evidence to discover characterization!

A highlight in my math class during this past month was teaching area and circumference of a circle. I'm excited to share with you a twist on the traditional teaching of this topic that made

This resource contains 2 Age of Exploration | Early Explorers resources! PBL and STEM Activities! _____________________________________________________ Age of Exploration PBL (Project Based Learning) Activities | Early European Explorers Cross-curricular challenge for students who are studying US History and the Age of Exploration Welcome to the Age of Discovery! You have traveled back in time to the 15th and 17th centuries, during a time of exploration and discovery. Explorers traveled from their home countries to new corners of the world. Students will create their very own PBL booklet. PBL activities utilize creative learning and real-world problem-solving strategies! Students use mapping skills as well as knowledge of simple machines to build tools! Sample pages (answer key) included in the file. ______________________________________________________ Age of Exploration STEM Age of Exploration STEM Challenge | Early Explorers Cross-curricular challenge for students who are studying US History and the Age of Exploration! This resource has science, technology, engineering, and ,math activities to do with your upper elementary kids that will really enhance their learning! The STEM Challenge in this resource has detailed directions, photo examples, a list of materials needed, prediction section, brainstorming section, trials 1, 2, & 3, final results section with drawings, and a reflection section. The STEM Challenge: Using a list of supplies, STEM groups (of 4) must design a sailing ship. The goal of this challenge is to create the fastest sailing ship. This will be measured by one member of the STEM group powering the ship by blowing through a straw. The STEM teams will line up their ships to compete. The fastest ship wins the challenge! (more instructions included in the resource)

Whew! It’s been a busy week, I just *HAVE* to share all the measurement fun we’ve had these past few weeks! Last week, I shared how we worked through understanding capacity like scientists. Then, we were ready to move on to mass! Measuring Mass: Building Background To start, we discussed the units of measurement scientists […]

This week, we're all about pumpkins. We're going to explore all the parts of the pumpkin with a pumpkin discovery STEM center and talk about how to teach your preschool students about the life cycle of a pumpkin!

This has been such a glorious first month where we have developed new skills and shared many special moments together! We have learned to: Play, think, wonder, and learn Interact safely within our classroom and with our classmates (share, cooperate, solve social conflicts, etc.) Clean up after ourselves Listen attentively to the person who is speaking Follow simple instructions Load and unload our backpacks (take out our agendas and library books) Line up to visit the library, gym, or music room Listen to a new story read to us and respond with our thoughts about it Dress for the outdoors (zipping our coats, putting on our shoes) Explore our Natural Learning Environment Eat our snack and our lunch Complete our daily writing during "Thinking and Learning Time" Walk with a partner on the sidewalk toward our nature trail Our photos showcase the special moments that we have shared: Please note, we now have permission from some families to show their child's face on the blog. Celebrating our blog's second birthday! Drawing and writing while engaged in play-based learning. Finding our photo on the "Daily Writing Wall." Hanging up our daily writing during Thinking and Learning Time. Feeling proud of showing our personal best writing each day! Adding numbers to our dramatic play learning area. Building with a variety of open-ended materials, including big blocks, rocks, tin cans, and pine cones. Wondering about the leaves that we collected on the light table. Painting with water colour paints. Exploring with our magnetic tiles on the overhead projector. Creating with magnets. Learning our success criteria. Noticing our Documentation Portfolios. Reading books in our book nook. Adding wonders to our Wonder Wall. Reflecting on previous learning. Sketching with charcoal and sketch pencils at our drawing table. Working together to achieve a common goal! Using our senses to help us learn. Making masterpieces in the sand. Writing with the support of our sentence starters. Improving our fine motor skills by picking up marbles with spoons and putting them into a tin can. While all of this wonderful learning was unfolding, Mrs. Ham and Ms. Babalis were trying to get to know each of the students better by finding out about their interests, literacy skills, and mathematics knowledge. All of the students participated in these interviews, so that the educators could get a sense of their strengths, needs, and next steps. This important information will help them to plan differentiated mini lessons and intreguing inquiries. Mrs. Ham completes a fine motor cutting interview. Ms. Babalis completes a math interview. Stay tuned for more about our outdoor learning! Parents and blog followers, we invite you to post your comments, connections, or questions below.

The school year has officially begun and the crafts will follow! Allow students to creatively express themselves in their art projects and in class. Check out some class activities for the new school year.

Do you have trouble teaching characterization? Use fun collaborative posters to teach how to use textual evidence to discover characterization!

Engage students with 5E inquiry model lesson plans! Perfect for teaching any subject and encouraging active participation & critical thinking.

We are exploring magnets here in kindergarten! We sorted objects between magnetic and not magnetic. I wanted the kids to be able to glue down their sort to display in the hallway. You could use tape or regular glue, but in the interest of time I opted for a glue gun. This SUPER cool temp glue gun (you have to buy special glue sticks but they are not expensive) eliminates the worry over burns! But like I said, tape works too. We have some magnet sorting in our science station

This STEM activity requires no prep and kids will love creating and building. STEM activities are a great hands-on learning activity!

Sarama and Clements stress that “the importance of well-planned, free-choice play, appropriate to the ages of the children, should not be un...

It is important to inspire and nurture your child's creativity through exploration and discovery. Here are 5 ways to foster creativity in your kids..

I am linking up again with Teaching With Nancy's weekly linky - TGIF - Thank Goodness It's Free! Be sure to head over to her blog to pick up some more free stuff! We are finishing up our unit on plants and here are the greenhouses that we made. I have seen similar designs on Pinterest and decided to create one that we could use. Let me pause here to say - SEEDS ARE AMAZING! I forgot to buy bean seeds and remembered that I had pinto beans in my sensory bins! So I just grabbed some from the bins!!! And they grew!!! AMAZING! And did you know that you can use dry bean soup mix from the store to sprout? Here are the seeds on Day 1. And on Day 11. I love planting in plastic bags, because we are able to see all the plant parts! You can grab the Greenhouse pattern and directions below! Just click on the cover thumbnail! ***If you are having trouble accessing the file, please try using a non-work, non-school related account.***

Lean how to spark curiosity in kids with easy to set up preschool science centers and science tables. Kids learn to think like scientists!

Pinay Homeschooler is a blog that shares homeschool and afterschool activity of kids from babies to elementary level.

The preschool years are a time of exploration and discovery. They are also filled with learning a lot about what makes us unique individuals. Recently, I started working with my toddler on identifying and naming body parts and reading various All About Me Books. Today we’re sharing a fun all about me preschool science activity...Read More

Mixing colors and exploring color theory is a learning activity is simple enough for preschoolers and exciting enough for older kids.

Create textured ramps for kids to experiment and explore for a fun science and STEM activity; for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten.

Read the step by step guide for using discovery labs to help students gain a deeper understanding of systems of equations.

Sarama and Clements stress that “the importance of well-planned, free-choice play, appropriate to the ages of the children, should not be un...

As the weather gets nicer outside and summer approaches, as teachers we have to keep our students engaged and excited about their learning. We all know that our students love hands on-activities and these geoboard activities are perfect for a math or literacy center to provide your students with meaningful and exciting activities. If you don't have geoboards for your classroom yet, you can find the set that I used here: Geoboards (affiliate link) These geoboard activities are simple, yet challenge your students by allowing them to construct pictures out of shapes and identify the shapes they find. They are perfect for tactile learners and will challenge students to extend their thinking. We have been having so much fun working with spring geoboard pictures (these are all free at the end of the post) . Your students will love creating these spring themed pictures on geoboards. Included are two different levels of pictures, an easier and a more difficult, a great way to differentiate for students. Once they create the picture, on their recording sheet they can then label the picture (a great way to tie in literacy) and identify the shapes they found in their picture. This is a great way to extend their thinking about shapes. Included are 10 different pictures for students to create, each with 2 different levels of difficulty. If your students enjoy these, I also have geoboard sets available for all holidays and all seasons as a bundle that you can grab at discount price. Your students will love the hands on aspect of them and great to rotate themes throughout the year as a math or literacy center.Each set contains both small cards and large cards with 10 different pictures and 2 different levels for each picture. You can grab the spring pictures as a freebie here. I hope that you and your students enjoy this freebie and you have a great end of your school year!

Explore different materials and their properties with this engaging unit. Activities and printables for the Foundation and Prep Year chemistry strand.

A blog about Montessori, homeschooling, Preschool, Elementray, Party, and learning.

Grow a rainbow as a fun science experiment or STEM project and use the product as a fun decoration for springtime.

Grab this set of engaging activities that help students discover high school geometry topics for themselves! These inquiry activities get students exploring, thinking, and figuring out math topics without you having to tell them all the steps. Included are 11 activities you can sprinkle throughout your year! Create engaging and memorable lessons. Here's what is included: Angle Relationships Discovery Booklet Arc Lengths Discovery Cards Sector Area Discovery Cards Midpoint Guided Discovery Notes Parallel & Perpendicular Lines Discovery Activity Writing Equations for Parallel & Perpendicular Lines Discovery Cards Inscribed Angles Discovery Activity Arcs & Angles Relationships Stations Reflection and Rotational Symmetry Hands-on Activity Intro to Trig Guided Discovery Notes Population Density Exploration Inquiry learning is shown to help build students' confidence and understanding. When they figure out the math for themselves, that make sense of it and remember it! All of these resources are included in my huge Geometry bundle, which includes lessons, hands-on activities, assessments, engaging practice, and more!

Kids learn about the fine art of printmaking using flat pieces of styrofoam, tempera paint, and rollers to make prints.

Do you notice math in the natural world? Do your kids? Learn about and explore the beauty of math in nature and then get outside to see it for yourself.

A kids art idea that up-cycles your junk in to a glorious touchy feely sensory texture picture.

These scarecrow crafts and scarecrow activities will keep preschool and kindergarten kids engaged as they're playing and learning this fall.

Can you notice at least five shapes or patterns in your immediate surroundings? We believe you can, and that too, very easily. After all, we are surrounded by various shapes and patterns that form the basis of our surroundings. From the device you are reading this article to the

March 6, 2024: Article Published for The Reinvention Series —Written by Our Editorial Director, Casey J. Balon

So, I've been busy getting my beginning of the year science units together. I start the year off in science the same way I start everything else off--by teaching routines and expectations! We start science on the very first day of school! Day 1: What is Science? I ask the kids what they think "science" is and I record their answers on a chart paper. Be prepared for some pretty funny answers! Then I read What is Science by Rebecca Kai Dotlich. I love this book--it is colorful and fun and really gets kids thinking about science and the world in general! Then, with their minds buzzing with possiblities, we add more ideas to our list. Then I introduce our science notebooks. I tell the kids that these are very special notebooks that will help us ask questions about science; make predictions; record observations and data about investigations; and explain their thinking about what they have learned. I hand out the Science Notebook Expectations and we go over them one by one. Then I show the kids how to glue the expectations in their notebooks--focusing on how to turn one page at a time and how to use glue appropriately...

Outdoor Discovery STEM Bins® and STEAM Bins® are natural engineering centers that are ideal for outdoor classrooms, outdoor learning centers, or occasional outdoor excursions. They are also a creative and developmentally appropriate form of simple engineering for elementary students. Listed materials for each Outdoor Discovery STEM Bin are found in nature or at craft stores such as Michael's, Walmart, Amazon, or Hobby Lobby. Many flooring stores or rock and stone stores will also donate material scraps for your children to build with. Children can gather items from nature on their own at home or on the school grounds, and you may choose which materials that you feel are best for your outdoor learning environment. Additional STEM materials and photos can be added to the EDITABLE STEM Bin Covers in the separate file. To assemble your Outdoor Discovery STEM Bins, You will need waterproof plastic containers to hold the materials and task cards. Sandwich storage boxes work great. My pictured containers are from the food storage section at Dollar Tree. Laminate the STEM Bin covers and adhere to the front of the containers using Velcro dots or Scotch tape. Although free-choice, creative engineering is highly encouraged with Outdoor Discovery STEM Bins, task cards with real world structures are also provided to inspire students. Task cards should be laminated and attached to metal rings in several sets so that students can create multiple structures using one material. This allows them more flexibility because certain materials lend themselves more easily to certain types of structures. This also allows them to persevere, explore, and test with one material for a more extended period of time. The management of your Outdoor Discovery STEM Bins is completely up to you, as they can be used during multiple times of your day. Students can take bins outside during brain breaks or a scheduled outdoor discovery time. “Challenge Yourself” cards are provided to take structures to the next level, allowing students to improve and enhance their structures. Teacher Questions and Prompts and writing extensions are also provided. Includes the following: Page 3: What Are My Students Learning? Page 4: How to Use Page 5: Teacher Questions and Prompts Page 6: Parent Letter Pages 7-8: Nature Hunt Pages 9-12: STEM Bin Covers with Labels & Photos Pages 13-14: Basic Engineering Skills posters Pages 15-17: STEM Bin Task Cards Pages 18-19: Character and Prop Cards Page 20: “Challenge Yourself” extensions Page 21: My Outdoor Creations (Foldable Booklet) Page 22: My Outdoor Creations (Pictures/iPad Template for Pic Collage app) Pages 23-26: Writing Prompts and templates Page 27: Credits ***Separate File: EDITABLE Outdoor Discovery STEM Bin Cover to add your own photos and materials and EDITABLE task cards*** ***Separate File: STEAM Version of all materials