Breaking the Silence? An Any Time of Year STEM Idea

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!!!!).

The Gingerbread Man Loose in the Library!

Every year in the second semester, I start teaching the parts, or different sections, of the library to my first graders.  I wanted a fun way to review these different parts, but not be too overwhelming, while my older students reviewed Dewey. 

I love funny books, and so do the kids!  I thought of the story, The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School, and had a fun idea where students could use clues to find different areas of the library.  Once they found that area, they would then find a missing piece of the Gingerbread Man.  Once all 6 clues were solved, they would then put together their gingerbread to form a whole "man"!

So, then I had to think - what areas did I really want them to recognize, but not repeat the activity from the week before, our Library Survivor.  There, I emphasized books like graphic novels, that the students started getting into at the end of last year.  I decided with the Gingerbread Man to stick with more general areas - nonfiction, fairy tales, fiction, circulation desk, fiction ("chapter books"), and computers where we look up books (although they won't be learning about Destiny, our online catalog, until the following week!).

So, I'm excited about what I came up with AND the fact that I was thinking ahead and decided to color-coordinate!  Each group will have a color to look for (to avoid chaos) that matches their clue cards.  So red clue cards = red team = red gingerbread parts!  You know sometimes those thoughts don't come until after the activity! :)

Here's what I came up with!  If you're interested in seeing more, I listed it on TPT and Teacher's Notebook.  I also included blank cards since every library is different, so you could program your own!