I am always interested in finding new items and ideas for my classroom space!  Working in a large, urban district means we have little funding for our classrooms and have to provide most of it ourselves, which is one of the BIG reasons I began creating lessons for TPT.

Click here for a link to my Amazon storefront.

If you have ANY items you absolutely LOVE, please share!  I am always looking for good ideas!

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Smart Chick

This year I am focusing on one STEM area each month!  September is going to be all about TOWERS!

While I wish we could do STEM every single day, there are other things I need to teach in my 5th grade classroom.  This is the schedule I am going to try my best to keep for the month of September.  We may work on some of the topics for more than one day throughout the week.  Figure out what will work for your classroom!

I am going to dedicate a bulletin board in my classroom to my STEM theme each month.  This bulletin board will have the vocabulary words, informational pages, and hopefully pictures of the challenges we do throughout the month.  I also plan on hanging this calendar up to hold myself accountable for doing these different activities and challenges!

I use my Towers pack for the bulletin board.  Click here to see it in my tpt store.  These theme packs can be found in either my tpt store or my blog store if you are interested.

I bundled all of the TOWER resources I am planning on using during the month of September at a reduced cost.  There are 10 tower resources included in this bundle!  Grab the September calendar for free in the PREVIEW file for this bundle!  Click here to check out the bundle for September!

Why not try a STEM focus area each month this year?

We studied sharks at the end of this school year.  The kids did reports, question slides, STEM challenges, and a dissection!

One of their favorite activities so far has been designing a shark cage!

There were some rules they had to follow.  The cage had to be three dimensional and there had to be some type of way for someone inside the cage to see things outside the cage.  There also had to be a way to open and close the top of the cage!

We used a variety of supplies for this challenge, this included cardboard, straws, craft sticks, model magic, and masking tape.  The kids came up with a lot of different ideas for this one!

This STEM challenge was a lot of fun for everyone!  Click here if you want to check out a 5 pack of shark related STEM challenges!

Why not try some shark STEM challenges?

National Paperclip Day is celebrated on May 29th!  Why not do a paperclip STEM challenge on this day?

A paperclip is a small, bent piece of wire used to hold papers together.  Even though it is simple, it became one of the most useful office supplies ever invented.  Paperclips were invented during the 1800s.  The most useful paperclip shape is the Gem Paperclip.  No one knows who invented the first paperclip because many people designed many different versions.

Paperclips are cheap and easy to find.  This STEM challenge is a fun one!  Teams have to figure out ways to float the MOST paperclips at a time.

All you need are some paperclips for each team and a container of water.  

Paperclips can be floated individually or hooked together to form a paperclip raft!

There are lots of ways to do this one!

You can find this pack by clicking here!  There is a calendar collection of May STEM Challenges based on different holidays that can be found here!

What can you do with paperclips?

Looking for a way to being some excitement to your spring science lessons?  You may want to try adding some jumping beans.

I buy a jumping bean for each student in my classroom.  I grab mine from Amazon, but you can sometimes see them at gas stations or grocery stores.  Jumping beans are seeds that move because a tiny larva is living inside them.  They JUMP randomly throughout the day, and the kids get so excited.  Over time a tiny moth will emerge from the seed.  The adult moth doesn't eat and will only live for 3-4 days.

We read this picture book while we are learning about jumping beans.  Click here to see the book on Amazon.

We use this Jumping Bean pack to learn more about these interesting insects.  Click here to check it out in my tpt store!  This pack includes lab sheets, vocabulary words, and more!

This pack can be so motivating to keeps kids focused in the classroom!  They really want to take care of their little jumping bean.  

We usually do these labs at the end of the year, after our state testing.

Are you having a hard time finding the TIME for STEM in your classroom?  These one minute challenges may work for you!

This is a fun and engaging activity either before or after the Easter holiday!  We usually do it after the holiday in my classroom.  I grab plastic eggs as well as the other supplies at my local Dollar Tree store.  Many of the materials can be used year after year!  Click here to check it out!

There are 8 quick STEM challenges included in this pack!

They can be done all in the same day or over a few days.

We do them over a week in our classroom and the kids get so excited!

They compete with other teams to see who can get the best scores.

We keep a score sheet for each team and they record their scores!  

I project the challenge sheet and the kids complete it in a minute.  For some of these, we practice first!

There are several other packs just like this one with other materials like balloons, play dough, pipe cleaners, craft sticks, etc.  You can even buy a bundle of 8 different packs!

Don't have a lot of time, all you need is a MINUTE!

National OREO Day is celebrated on March 6th, the date when this delicious cookie was first sold in stores back in 1912!  It is a great day to do some STEM challenges and other activities with this cookie!

Kids LOVE Oreo cookies, so this is a great way to have a little fun!  We do a weekly reading 

challenge all about Oreos for the week!

These are great to use as a way to teach reading strategies and comprehension!

Click here to check out this item in my tpt store!

There are lots of STEM challenges and math activities you can do with Oreo cookies!

Building an OREO Tower is a real challenge, especially if you build it as a single stack of Oreos. 

This can be done with regular or mini-sized Oreo cookies!  Click here to see this pack!

You can also do a Math Mat using Oreo cookies!  Click here to check it out!

Here are some other ideas:

You can also make estimates about how many cookies are in a container or package of Oreos.

Kids can make their own Oreo sculptures using model magic air dry clay.

You can review the phases of the moon using Oreo cookies!  

Kids can write the BEST way to eat an Oreo cookie.

What ideas do you have for National Oreo Day?