Teaching in the virtual world is very different than teaching in the regular classroom environment.  I am going to do STEM @ Home challenges once a week for my classroom.  I plan on giving students the challenge on Fridays and then asking for it to be completed by the following Friday.  This way students have all week to get the challenge done.  

I encourage students to do the challenge with at least one other member of their families.  Often the students are really good at "thinking outside the box" while their parents are not!  The students love coming up with ideas that surprise their family members.

This straw challenge was done at school, but it could easily be done at home!  Kids need a package of straws (you can find these for $1 or less) and some tape.  Students need to build the tallest free standing straw tower.

This is another classroom STEM challenge that can be done at home!  Students need a bag of balloons.  These can be purchased at your local dollar store.  You can even mail a certain number of balloons to kids for the challenge.  Kids LOVE getting mail!

You can use STEM @ Home challenges OR send home a regular STEM challenge with easy to find and cheap materials!

STEM is such an important part of our classroom and now that we are teaching through distance learning I want to keep doing STEM challenges with my kids!  While I cannot do all of my many STEM challenges, I can do a lot of them, especially those using FOUND materials.

Why should we keep doing STEM during distance, or virtual, learning?

1. STEM challenges are a great way to keep kids engaged and interested.

These computer programs are fine, but kids need to get those hands and brains working in order to keep and stay engaged.  STEM challenges are the perfect way to keep that engagement level UP and the kids excited!

2. STEM challenges can be done with minimal materials.

Believe it or not, lots of STEM challenges can be done with only a few items and some with just a sheet of paper!  For the picture below students just used a sheet of copy paper.  They had to build a chair for a stuffed animal.  While we did this at school, it could easily be done at home with ANY type of paper and ANY type of stuffed animal.

3. STEM challenges are an easy way to get families involved.

Families can help students complete their STEM challenges at home!  It is a fantastic way to get families spending time together communicating and collaborating to solve a problem.  Kids really love having "required" time with their families to complete different challenges.  Sometimes the parents and kids even do their own solution to the problem.

4. Sharing solutions can be a lot of fun!

Kids and parents can share their solutions with the whole class using the flipgrid site!  They create a video to show their solution and talk about how they completed the challenge.

Try to get some STEM going at home, whether you are doing virtual instruction, hybrid instruction, or kids are back full-time!

You can buy this STEM @ Home pack here for just $2!  OR just come up with your own!

Congratulations to my good friend Erica Colón on her new upcoming book, Ocean Animals and Their Ecosystems!  The ocean covers 71% of the Earth's surface and it is full of interesting plants and animals that depend on one another for survival.  This guide is desgined with kids in mind, it is colorful and full of facts.  It is easy to navigate and kids can read for just a few minutes and learn lots of information.



I am constantly looking for new books for my classroom library and this one is AMAZING!  This book covers so much of what we learn about in our elementary classroom and it is full of gorgeous pictures.  The book will be officially released in August and I am ordering a few copies for my own classroom library.  I know it is a book that a lot of my students will want to read!  As a teacher I can use the book as I teach lessons about food chains and webs, comparing different types of animals, and animal interactions.

You can check out the book here. https://bit.ly/OceanAnimalsandTheirEcosystems

To celebrate this amazing book, I am going to share a copy with one of you!  Write a comment below about how you would use this non-fiction book about the oceans and its ecosystems in your classroom and you will be placed into a drawing to win a free copy of the book! 

Write your comment below by August 10th in order to be included in the drawing for the book!

We are currently studying worms in science.  The kids are so fascinated by them!  We got to actually touch and observe LIVE WORMS in class.  I cannot tell you how crazy excited my kids were to do this lab!  Materials are easy to find and cheap.  I got the live earthworms from Pet Smart.  We also used paper plates, wet paper towels, hand lenses, pipettes, straws, and cups of water.

I have a quick live worm lab in my WORMS unit and a much longer one that is sold separately.  We will do the longer one next week now that the students feel more comfortable with the worms.  Click here to purchase the Worms Unit!

My kids love to do our different coding unplugged lessons!  This is one they really LOVE!  They have to make their name in Morse Code.

 

 

We used tube beads and pony beads for the dashes and dots!  Click here to buy this fun pack!





Can you write your name in Morse Code?

We focused on Mary Anning on a STEM Scientist challenge.  Did you know she found an alomst complete fossil of a ichthyosaur at age 12?  She was really amazing!  In this challenge, the kids are given a set of bones and they have to try to put them together.  They have to do what paleontologists do - use their own background knowledge and research to make their best guess!

This challenge was a tough one!  They came up with some great ideas and had fun defending their choices!  Click here to buy this pack!




This challenge is a really easy set-up!

I love introducing my students to scientists in class.  Many students think all scientists wear white coats, have crazy hair, and play with colored liquids.  This challenge focuses on the scientist, Barnum Brown, who was an interesting paleontologist.

Did you know Barnum Brown often wore a full length fur coat as he worked?  This STEM challenge asks students to create an actual size Tyrannosaurus Rex using sidewalk chalk on the blacktop.  The kids have to measure, figure out how to make it work, and collaborate.  It really was a challenge!

We joined up with another classroom and the kids worked with people from our class and the other class.  It was a lot of fun!

The pack contains all the information you need to do this challenge!  Click here to check it out!