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Back to School is a special time for both kids and teachers. But no matter how long you have been teaching, it's still a lot of work: from classroom setup to figuring out your systems and routines and all of the back to school meetings. In addition, you must figure out lesson planning specifically for those first few weeks somewhere in the mix and still make it meaningful. With that in mind, in today's episode, I will share five STEM activities you can use in your K through Five STEM classrooms. 

01:02

With any Back to School activity, you want to ensure that it has a low entry point where students can be successful no matter how they participate. These activities are still academic, but the goal is to help students warm up to the space, you, and their classmates. In turn, many of these activities I will be sharing with you have an element of collaboration to help build classroom community, which is important in any classroom setting. Now, let's jump into those five STEM activities to try. 

01:33

This first one is great, especially if you teach all the kids in the school as I do. This activity is a way to make introducing the rules in your classroom more hands-on and engaging. So instead of you just standing up there and presenting the classroom rules, this will be a fun one for your kids. 

01:56

So first, quickly introduce what your classroom rules are. You're not going to explain all of them in detail. Just read through the rules and show them to your students. When sharing your classroom rules, a great tip is to have pictures and words. Again, just like when you label all of your Makerspace supplies that we talked about in past episodes, you want to have your classroom rules labeled with words and pictures. 

02:19

Once you have this present, either up on your projector TV or printed out, you will have smaller sets of the same rules printed out and cut into puzzle pieces. I made about seven different sets of the same rules. I found a puzzle template online where I layered my rules on top. This was done on the computer. Then I cut out those puzzle pieces beforehand. I printed the seven sets out in different colors, so each table group had a different color. 

02:53

This makes this challenging because all of the rules are cut up and mixed up. The goal is that when students work in teams, either teams they choose themselves or ones that you pick, they will have to put the rules back together. Now, try not to make too many rules. But if you have quite a few rules, maybe about six, cut out about four. That also adds another challenge because if you don't tell them which rules are cut up in their little bags, that will make it even harder. 

03:25

This is a great way for kids to keep focusing on what the classroom rules are. I keep the full images up so they can refer to the image as they are putting together their puzzle. They're always talking about those rules together. So if the rule is tools or materials, not toys, they keep saying that repeatedly. So there is that repetition of my classroom rules. Also, they're learning from the other kids in their groups, discussing it, and figuring out a system that works best for them. 

03:51

I make sure to have a little prize at the end. Something simple like a pencil, a STEM sticker, or something not that cool, but they think it's pretty cool.  After that, whether all the groups have finished or a few have finished depending on how it's going in the class, I will review the classroom rules. Then we'll jump into our lesson for the day. This doesn't take the whole class time, but this is a great icebreaker. The kids are talking and collaborating, learning your classroom rules, and figuring you out as you go. 

04:24

Now you can do the first activity and then do this second activity within the same day. All you need are just a basic bucket of mixed LEGO bricks and the all about me LEGO build. This is a fun one. It's a cool way to get a get to know you to be hands-on, and all students can participate. For this activity, think of questions you can ask kids that are pretty general, and all kids can participate. Some examples of questions are: Do you have a pet too? Did you read a book this summer? I recommend staying away from questions such as, where did you go this summer?

04:59

Questions like that might be a little hard for kids if they can't afford to go on trips. So think of things that most kids might be able to do. Did you play in the water? Did you watch a movie? It could be a movie at home or in the theater. Think of questions that most kids can participate in. So think about those main questions and for each question, add in how many LEGO bricks and what color they need to collect. 

04:59

So, for example, if the question is, do you have any pets, grab three LEGO bricks. Make sure to pause as kids are digging in the buckets. I would spread them out around the room. While they're digging in the buckets and finding green LEGO pieces, you could talk about different shades of green.  This one's great, too, because as they search, you can talk to them about their pet or the answer to the question you asked. Kids who might not be able to say yes to that question if it's not true about them can build with the pieces they have on hand. So having a great variety of questions will allow everyone to grab some LEGO pieces and participate. 

06:21

This third activity goes along with one of our favorite questionnaires Rosie Revere Engineer. Now, as a STEM teacher, you probably have a big love for these sweet little characters. You have Rosie Revere Engineer, Ada Twist Scientist, who now has her show on Netflix, which I highly recommend. It's so much fun. Iggy Peck architect and there are some other friends that are in the collection. 

06:36

So after you read this story with your class, you can have a class discussion about things that fly. Rosie Revere is trying to build a flying machine for her great Aunt Rose. She keeps trying and failing. Finally, she figures out an invention. So, as a class, you can talk about different things that fly in the sky after reading the story. It could be animals, machines, or made up things. Talk about those things that fly, and then students can plan and brainstorm their type of flying machine. It could be real or imaginary. 

06:36

From there, you can provide them with different Makerspace materials. It could be limited supplies that they could build with, such as popsicle sticks, tape, small cups, or whatever you have on hand. They can use cardboard or LEGO bricks. If you don't have many Makerspace materials, you could use those non-consumable items, and students can build their flying machines. 

06:36

If you want to get even more creative, you could print a little picture of Rosie and her Great Aunt Rose to add to their creation. You can think of ways that students can modify and make their designs even better. This activity can be stretched out for many days. You could have each part of the engineering design process while you read the story and research those flying things. Or, if you want to make it quick, you can skip to that building part. 

06:36

Depending on how long you have had your students and their age, this can be a great activity to jump right into and tie in that STEM and stories connection. Another fun STEM and stories activity you can do with your kids goes along with the book. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books. You could do this for any version of the book, but the one about the books is a good back to school one. 

06:36

So after reading this story with your class, you can have images of all the things she swallows. It is crazy, and some younger classes might even start laughing and think it's weird. I did have a Kindergarten class say that this is a weird book.  You can do a lot of different things. 

06:36

The students can build the different things that the old lady ate, make an old lady's mouth, and feed her everything she ate in order of the story. They can get creative with how they build those items using whatever types of materials you want them to use. You can even print out those pictures. You can add robots during your first month with kids if you're brave enough. I'm not brave enough, but maybe you are! 

06:36

You can have those pictures, and kids can code to the different images of the things she ate in the story's order or in whatever order they choose. They can also build the items using pixel blocks. I like to use Bloxels. Now, Bloxels are a little bit expensive. There is a separate subscription that you can purchase where kids can create their video games using the box. I love the blocks because they come on a big grid with tiny cubes. The kids can build pixel art with it. So you can have the images up, and students can build the different things in the story. This could be an opportunity for the kids to have station rotations your first couple weeks with you. So this is a cool and engaging way to take the story further and add many hands-on elements. 

06:36

This last STEM back to school activity for you to try is a digital option that I recommend for second grade and up. It is called apps about me. You can create a slide deck for students that have different phone outlines. On each outline, there's a different app, a fake app. We're not coding on this one, but a fake app that students can create and get to know more about each other. Again, this can be something you can do in one day or have a different slide each day. You could print this out if you don't want to go digital. The reason why I would keep it digital is so that you're not printing a million things. Depending on the platform you're sharing it with, whether it's seesaw, Google classrooms, or Schoology, you're allowing students to practice logging into the platform that you will be using in class, navigating that platform, and using the tools within it. Once they log in, it's pretty self-explanatory what they need to work on. 

12:28

It's not a super high overarching hard task. It's fun because they get to share about themselves differently. Once they're logged in, include a slide where they have the front pages and pictures that go along with their favorite things like favorite animals and color. There can be another slide showing the map app, and they must create a map of their favorite space school, restaurant, or bedroom. You can think of five different things that relate to real life apps. It's a way for students to share about themselves. 

13:01

Now you can have them share creatively, whether it is in seesaw and creating a voice-over about it, or they can work in small groups and share their favorite slide. You can work on this fun activity all week or as a fast finisher. If you're doing a separate project like I do STEM survival camp, which I discuss in episode four, I assign this apps about me activity, so if they finish the part for the day, they have something else to work on. Again, I've had the kids for a few years, so they're used to what platforms I use already and are a little more independent. This is a fun digital option that you can have kids design digitally. 

13:42

As a recap, here are the five back to school STEM activities we discussed in today's episode. First is the classroom rules puzzles. Second, the all about me brick build. Third, the STEM and stories activity with Rosie Revere Engineer. Fourth, the STEM and stories activity with There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books. Fifth, the digital apps about me activity. I have all of these linked in my show notes for today, Naomi meredith.com/episode7, where you can see pictures of these activities in action and grab all the links to save time with your back to school planning. Thank you so much again for joining me on today's episode, and I will chat with you soon.