STEM Resources for Little Builders

Are you trying to integrate more STEM into your classroom?  

Me, too!

I've gathered a collection of STEM resources for littles builders.  These are some of my favorite items for the classroom.

TECHNOLOGY FOR LITTLE BUILDERS 

Our students are digital natives. We know that they are using technology in and out of the home. Why not give them the best technology has to offer! These tools will challenge your students in new ways. 

Bloxels allows you to create your own video game by creating your own character using the Bloxel blocks and the Bloxel Builder app. This game combines both physical building and interactive online play. 

I am excited to use Learning Resources Code & Go Robot during Hour of the Code.  This little bot is a perfect way to introduce coding to my students.  

PlayOsmo has been a classroom staple for a few years. The games allow for collaboration and increases in difficulty. Tangrams and Words are classroom favorites.

ENGINEERING FOR LITTLE BUILDERS

STEM is all about constructing and creating. That is what I love about it.  These engineering tools have endless possibilities and uses.

Snap Circuits are an oldie but goodie. It is great for someone who likes to discover how things work. 

If you are working on force and motion, a Marble Run is a must have tool.  

Brain Flakes, Squigz, ETI Construction Toys, and MagnaFormers are perfect for open ended building. These toys are fantastic for the engineers in our classroom. 

Lastly, don't forget everyday items like cardboard boxes, paper, and other recyclable household materials. They are great for many STEM related projects that your students might work on throughout the school year.  

What I love the most about all of these STEM resources for little builders is that they help students become creators and thinkers.  We all know that this is what our students need the most; opportunities to shine.

Please note: This post contains affiliate links.  

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May the Force Be With You: Teaching Force and Motion

Happy May the Fourth Be With You Day!

I just wanted to quickly share how I used this Star Wars based day to teach force and motion to my class.  

We dedicated the entire morning to exploring force and it how it works via hands-on centers.

First, we talked about our science vocabulary:

force motion push pull

The objective at each center was to discover if and how you used force. They also explored what was the reaction based upon the force used. 

Our centers:

1. Launch Star Wars Angry Birds using various catapults
2. Build a domino maze and knock it down
3. Give stuffed animals a ride on a train
4. Bowling
5. Car races using different ramps and types of cars
6. Use Playdoh shapes to push and pull

We also went outside and pushed each other on the swings and tried to do a pull up on the monkey bars.  Had time permitted, we would have pretended to ride on a roller coaster using the fun GoNoodle video.

It was a great day of learning.  How do you teach force and motion to your kindergarten students?

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My Many Colored Days Emotions Writing

Learning to express one's emotions is difficult. My class has worked for weeks talking about what actions make us feel different emotions. I have tried to model and be clear of expressing how I feel when a child disappoints me or makes me feel proud.  

Why?

Well, because I have many students who are unable to express their feelings. And, at times, resort to hitting or yelling to express their needs. I knew that I needed to support them but also to give them the words to share appropriately about their emotions.  

This week, we are working on including emotions as writers. I decided to incorporate My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss into our learning for Read Across America.  This book seamlessly weaves color and emotions.  

I created these sentence starters for my class and used this template to create a Many Colored Person. The students simply placed tissue paper onto the template and I laminated it.  This could also been completed by using contact paper.

Here are the finished mobiles.  I love how it brightens our room.

This was a perfect way to talk about our many colored days.  

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Google Classroom Tips for Young Learners

In a previous post, I shared about using Google Classroom in my kindergarteners. Today, I am going to share a few classroom tips for using Google classroom with our youngest learners.

Tip #1

I can't say how important it is to model.  In the beginning, I would model and my students would do the same step right after me.  As they became more proficient, I could show several steps.

For example, I would show them how to find the Google Classroom tab to open up the app. Then, they would do the exact same step and wait.  

As students became more comfortable, I was able to give a mini lesson and then, let them get to work.  The first few minutes of them getting started was always filled with high energy.  Once, they settled in, they became much more settled in their work. 

As with all good teaching, modeling is important.  

Tip #2

I would suggest that you begin Google Classroom after you have taught routines and procedures.  I always tell my students, "Slow and steady wins the race." I think it is true in this case.  Google Classroom is a tool that can enhance learning.  

I did not launch Google Classroom until the second half of the year.  This was well after my students had some basic computer skills such as the ability to log onto their Chromebook, click and were very familiar with using other sites for learning. More importantly, young learners need to have at least some alphabetic knowledge and writing skills.    

This year, I hope to launch Google Classroom earlier in the school year.  This is only because I feel more comfortable with using it. It took me some time to get familiar with the platform and to be willing to try it out.

Tip #3 

In order for this to be successful, you will have to make time.  I purposely planned at least an hour at week when first starting. The time actually increased as we began to create larger projects and work collaboratively.  

We did all our work in class rather than asynchronously.  This meant that I had to embed technology into my teaching and into my students learning. I had to think "outside the box" and somewhat outside of my comfort zone.  For example, when learning about 2 dimensional shapes instead of make an art collage with paper, we used Google Drawing to create our art.  This was all new.  

I hope that these tips encourage you to give Google Classroom a try with your students.  If you have any questions or comments, I'd love to hear from you.

Happy Teaching!

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Beginning Reader Nonfiction Books

I am so excited to be joining Mrs. Jump's Class book link party. I love books and am always on the look out for new ones.

Since the Common Core has a heavy focus on informational text, I thought I would share with you my favorite nonfiction books; Pebble Books or Pebble Plus Books.  Our school library has many of these beginning reader nonfiction books but recently I have begun purchasing more for my classroom library.

Although there are many nonfiction series, I like this one the best.  The text is easy to read for end of the year kindergarteners and first grade students.  I love that my students can not only enjoy the photographs but feel proud of themselves for being able to read the text.

Currently, Scholastic has some of these books for sale.  Just type on their search engine to see their selection.  I have purchase most via Amazon.  I assure you, once you start purchasing this series and see your kids reading them, I am sure you'll want more.


Happy Reading!

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Simple Mother's Day Gift

My students made these beautiful flower pens for their Mother's Day gifts.  To make, I cut the tip of each pen in order to hot glue the flower on top. (This was probably the most time consuming step. Prep this ahead of time.)  Then, each student wrapped floral tape around the pen.  The vases are jars which they painted the inside of.  I loved how they turned out and the kids were very proud to give these to their moms.

Happy Teaching and Learning!

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