Wow, I haven't blogged since August - sorry about that! As usual, the year has been busy! I've been meaning to blog, and I gotta admit, I post some great imaginary posts! I'm still waiting for someone to invent something that can record your thoughts and ideas in the car and shower!
Well, what I wanted to blog about today is an activity I'll be doing with my students on Monday. Yep, we have 2 more days of school til break. Jealous, right? When we come back in January, it's for another 2 day week. So, I wanted a lesson I can teach this week and then do when we come back!
Well, we just read Laura Murray's Gingerbread Man Loose at Christmas. We've previously read Gingerbread Man Loose on the Fire Truck as well in October. So, with the popularity of those two, we're going to read The Gingerbread Man Loose at the Zoo! Because this is such a crazy time of year - especially with behavior - I wanted something that they would be interested in listening to as well as an activity that will steer their energy in a positive direction!
We love doing STREAM in our Library. So it was only natural for me to create an activity where students would build something - this time, a zoo! It's something I feel is totally flexible - the animals, the materials, the groups, the time period....so I definitely wanted to share it!
I'm lucky that I have my now 10 year old daughter's Lego Duplo Zoo animals. So, my students will be using Legos to build the enclosures. That will give students an idea of size to build their enclosures. I'll also be providing books with pictures for each group so they can see the type of habitat they need to build for their animals.
While I'm using this with my K and first graders, it's a project I really could use with any grade. I've also thought of the possibilities of taking it farther. Especially with Legos, we tend to break down after we build, so that the next group can use them. Taking pictures of each group's project, I can save them and use it in a multimedia presentation. Recently with our Kinders, we did a project where they built either a house for the 3 little pigs or a chair for Goldilocks. We took pictures and then using the app, Chatterpix, students talked about what they built and why they built it the way they did. I then imported the Chatterpix into iMovie and created a movie for each K class for them to watch in the classroom. Talk about stinkin' cute! The kids LOVED watching their pictures "talk" with their voices.
With older grades, you could do the same as with the above project, but each group could add a fact about their animal and/or its habitat to the picture using Chatterpix. Hmm, even sense a research project in there somewhere as well!
So, even though it's not a winter or holiday theme, I'm excited to do this with my students on Monday. I think they'll enjoy it, it'll channel their energy in a positive direction (Friday nearly took me under!), and it's something I can definitely take to greater (or lesser) levels!
If you're interested in learning more, I've uploaded it to TPT and TN. Click on the name you like to shop on for the link! (By the way, it's my 300th product on TPT!!!!).
Showing posts with label STREAM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label STREAM. Show all posts
Saturday, December 17, 2016
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Club STREAM
Our Resource team is trying something new this year. Since we have 4 resources (Art, Music, Library, P.E.), in the past our Fridays have been a class we saw earlier in the week, and trying to come up with a different activity for students to do. This year, we are trying "Club Fridays." Each nine weeks, students get to choose what club they'd like to join. We gave a little presentation back on August 19 and had students choose: Art/Gardening, Music & Movement, 100 Mile Club, or my club. Unfortunately, my club has been called Makerspace, STEM, building club, and I had to stop the Art teacher from calling it Lego club at one point! This past Friday was our first club day!
We have our small but growing Makerspace in our library, which the kids love, so it made since for my club to have something to do with it! I thought about it this summer and finally came up with some cute ideas, thanks to Pinterest inspiration (pinspiration?). I also decided to make it easy on myself: group lessons by K/1, 2/3, and 4/5. Well, for K/1 and 2/3, I'm focusing on stories and projects. This past Friday, we read Mark Teague's version of the 3 Little Pigs, and students got to become pigs and build houses from each of the materials, then become the wolf and try to blow them down! I differentiated between the two levels. K/1 got all 3 materials and built in groups: "sticks" (unsharpened pencils), "straw" (drinking straws), and "bricks" (connecting cubes).
2/3 had the same story, but different approach. They had to choose a card from a bag to determine what type of house they would build - sticks (popsicle sticks), straw (drinking straws), or bricks (Legos). I laid the materials out for students, as well as tape and string, and they had a certain amount of time to build. Then, they too became wolves and got to blow their creations down!
I was a little nervous, thinking students might not want to hear a story and then do the activity, but they loved it! Next Friday, we're doing Jack and the Beanstalk. On a side note, when I asked students who had heard the story of the 3 little pigs, not everyone raised their hand! Interesting.
For my 4/5 group, I was so excited to finally be using our Makedo tools we earned from Donors Choose last school year! We are working together as a group to build a giant windball, so we can become familiar with the tools and working together. This will last several Fridays. In fact, we are still working on cutting out the cardboard squares! Then, after that project is finished and we've played with it, we'll take it apart, and I'll show students the story of Cain's Arcade. We'll then build our own arcade machines from recycled cardboard and other materials.
I'm really excited on how our clubs turned out this past week. Each nine weeks, I plan on offering something a little different. I just hope it's not one of those things that we do for one year, and it gets dropped! The kids have really enjoyed having a choice and being able to mingle with other kids in their grade not in their class this year! I've included some pics below on what we're doing, as well as a video of my 4th graders hard at work (and a preview of what our ball will hopefully look like!). I can't seem to get the video to orient, so hopefully your neck doesn't get too stiff!
We have our small but growing Makerspace in our library, which the kids love, so it made since for my club to have something to do with it! I thought about it this summer and finally came up with some cute ideas, thanks to Pinterest inspiration (pinspiration?). I also decided to make it easy on myself: group lessons by K/1, 2/3, and 4/5. Well, for K/1 and 2/3, I'm focusing on stories and projects. This past Friday, we read Mark Teague's version of the 3 Little Pigs, and students got to become pigs and build houses from each of the materials, then become the wolf and try to blow them down! I differentiated between the two levels. K/1 got all 3 materials and built in groups: "sticks" (unsharpened pencils), "straw" (drinking straws), and "bricks" (connecting cubes).
2/3 had the same story, but different approach. They had to choose a card from a bag to determine what type of house they would build - sticks (popsicle sticks), straw (drinking straws), or bricks (Legos). I laid the materials out for students, as well as tape and string, and they had a certain amount of time to build. Then, they too became wolves and got to blow their creations down!
I was a little nervous, thinking students might not want to hear a story and then do the activity, but they loved it! Next Friday, we're doing Jack and the Beanstalk. On a side note, when I asked students who had heard the story of the 3 little pigs, not everyone raised their hand! Interesting.
For my 4/5 group, I was so excited to finally be using our Makedo tools we earned from Donors Choose last school year! We are working together as a group to build a giant windball, so we can become familiar with the tools and working together. This will last several Fridays. In fact, we are still working on cutting out the cardboard squares! Then, after that project is finished and we've played with it, we'll take it apart, and I'll show students the story of Cain's Arcade. We'll then build our own arcade machines from recycled cardboard and other materials.
I'm really excited on how our clubs turned out this past week. Each nine weeks, I plan on offering something a little different. I just hope it's not one of those things that we do for one year, and it gets dropped! The kids have really enjoyed having a choice and being able to mingle with other kids in their grade not in their class this year! I've included some pics below on what we're doing, as well as a video of my 4th graders hard at work (and a preview of what our ball will hopefully look like!). I can't seem to get the video to orient, so hopefully your neck doesn't get too stiff!
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