STEM Ice House Challenge

My second product is here!  This is my first STEM challenge that I am so excited to introduce.  STEM is integrating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in daily instruction.  I did this activity with my kinders last year and it was so exciting to see the learning happen naturally.  Students build an ice house that will prevent an ice cube from melting.  We complete the experiment together as a class.  Check out this blog post from last January!

Ice House STEM Challenge 2013

Now that I am beginning to make my own products on Teachers Pay Teachers, I spent my winter break creating this and I can't wait to use it with my kinders this month.  It includes a parent letter to send home, a writing page for students to write about their ice house, and a class graph to keep track of the BIG class experiment!  Check this out on Teachers Pay Teachers!

Ice House STEM Challenge 2014

I hope you like it and please let me know your thoughts and suggestions because I am learning every day.

Super Structures

I can't believe how quickly today went by!  I am one of those people that hates to loose an hour of sleep.  It's hard enough getting up early, working out, and then getting 4 boys ready for school, then myself...I love my sleep so a day like today I feel cheated.  Tomorrow morning, bright and early I will wake at 5am, yes I said 5am!  In my eyes it's really 4am!  Ugh...it drives me crazy.  My other problem is that I love to stay up late blogging and watching my favorite shows.

 Parenthood

Grey's Anatomy

So here's the problem, with 4 boys keeping me busy all day long, I LOVE my peaceful nighttimes.  It's so hard to get myself in bed because the peace and quiet is PRICELESS.  So I stay up way too late, get little sleep, and then days like today with one less hour just DRIVE ME CRAZY!

OK enough complaining...Let's talk about Super Structures.  I love teaching STEM lessons and this particular unit is on 3 dimensional figures.  If you are unfamiliar with what STEM is, it is integrating Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics into one unit of study to prepare students for the 21st Century workplace.  STEM instruction also incorporates STEM Standards of learning which are collaboration, inquiry, logical reasoning, and creativity.  I try to do my STEM centers 3-4 times a week.  Take a look at my kiddos working on 3 dimensional figures and 2 dimensional figures.

We began our unit of study by taking a structure walk around the school.  Learning needs to be REAL so I gave my kiddos blank paper and clip boards and we went around school and studied the buildings.  What shapes do you see?  What materials were used to build this building.  This activated our schemas and open the doors to new learning.

Here my kiddos are using their creativity making pictures using pattern block construction paper shapes.  They had so much fun creating all sorts of things!

The boys are using logical reasoning to solve mathematical questions about shapes like how many triangles fit into one hexagon?  How many blocks did you use to fill one hexagon?

My kiddos love this STEM center.  Here they are using cookie sheets and magnetic pattern block shapes to make designs.  We used our IPADS to take pictures of their creations and then I laminated the pictures for the class to try to recreate the design.  So fun! 

 We used recycable materials(tons!) to make our Super Structures.  This little kiddo had leprechauns on his mind and he made a trap to catch our Lucky the Leprechaun.

 Remember to have tons of tape available because they go CRAZY with it!

The engineering piece of STEM instruction is the fascinating part.  Now my kiddos take everything they learned about 3 dimensional shapes and apply it to real life.  Here we used marshmallows and toothpicks to make 3 dimensional shapes like cubes, pyramids, and rectangular prisms.  

Simple block building is now turned into an engineering masterpiece!  We talked about buildings and bridges and what shapes you see everyday.  Then my kiddos use that knowledge to build their own building or bridge.

Another favorite was making our Shape Monsters from Smeldley's Smorgasbord of Kindergarten, Shape Monsters activity!  Awesome and my kiddos went crazy with this.  They worked on their monsters for an entire hour.  The math activity included counting and graphing.  I LOVED how my kiddos took ownership of their monsters.

Now you can't learn about buildings and not read the story The Three Little Pigs, right?  It's perfect to teach structures and the my kiddos love hearing all the different versions that are out there.  We talked about story elements and we wrote about our own house and what we would build it out of.  

We had so much fun with this unit.
How do you teach shapes?

Building Igloos

Well the month of January is officially over and what a busy month we had in Room 8.  In honor of the season winter, we spent the entire month learning about the arctic.  Sharing, exploring, and discovering together made our classroom a wonderful place to visit each day.  Today we predicted which type of igloo would be the strongest.  My kiddos had three choices to choose from.

Marshmallows with toothpicks

Sugar cubes with magic glue(shaving cream and white glue mixed together)

or

Cotton balls with a Styrofoam cup

What would you choose?  It was pretty much even in our class with one little one deciding on her own to use the cotton balls.  Now lets take a look at what happen...

What is a blueprint?

My kiddos were excited to be little engineers and plan out what their igloo was going to look like.  They sat there for a whole 25 minutes drawing their blueprints.  I gave them special black colored pencils to make it official! When it came time to start building the igloos, my kiddos put their blueprint right in front of them as they built their igloo.

We did have some tears through the process.  Some of my kiddos were frustrated when their igloo was not as strong as they thought it would be.  Some were  angry that it was difficult to make the roof for the igloo.  So this was a perfect opportunity to teach life skills such as patience and perseverance.  A great activity and I will definitely do it again!

Snowflake Measuring

Snowflakes, snowmen, and ice houses, oh my!  We came back after the winter break to a winter wonderland in kindergarten.  Throughout the month  we've been studying the arctic.  Today my kiddos did some measuring with snowflakes.  Each student had a partner to measure.  After measuring, my kiddos completed a page for our class book.  I can't remember where I found this fabulous lesson, so please let me know if it's yours :)!

What is insulation?  My little scientists built ice houses.  We started bright and early by placing an ice cube inside each house, and we kept track by watching the clock to see how long it took for the ice to melt.  Some ice cubes lasted all the way until 3:00pm!  My kiddos loved this experiment!
Tomorrow we are building igloos!

A Touch Of Nature!

At our school we are so fortunate to have a wonderful outdoor classroom where the children can explore and play.  

This lesson was given to me by one of my colleagues.  

Each student gets a framed rectangle to bring outside.

Their job is to find something from nature to study.  It can be an insect, worm, rock, whatever you find in the outdoor classroom.

Once my students find their object to explore they put the frame down and they are not allowed to move it.  The frame needs to stay there for 5 whole minutes!

During these 5 minutes my students need to use their senses to explore their object.  

After 5 minutes, we return back to the classroom and write in our science journals about our outdoor wonder.

Just love this!