Welcome to the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. I’m your host, Naomi Meredith, a former classroom teacher turned K-5 STEM teacher and coach. With over a decade of experience teaching and a master’s degree in STEM leadership, I’m here to coach you throughout the year to help you gain back more time to create innovative experiences for your students

In today’s episode, we’re going to be answering that question I know you are thinking about right now. What should I be teaching the week before Thanksgiving? And when I was in my K-5 STEM classroom and also when I was long-term subbing in K-5 STEM, I still had to teach the few days before Thanksgiving. And you might be in that same spot too.

 

So the kids are getting excited, you’re exhausted. What are some fun STEM activities that you can do during this time frame? So I have five things that I have taught during this time. Also some things I’m currently teaching right now to help give you some ideas and not have to stress about it.

 

The first lesson that you can teach is my Thanksgiving all about me brick build. And if you haven’t done this activity before, I highly recommend it. It’s a great whole group activity, but it’s also super low prep because all you need are the slides and the questions that I put together for you and mixed buckets of Lego bricks.

 

And that’s it. How it works is you’ll have the questions, the slides up on the board so all the kids can see. And the question will say something like, grab three Lego bricks if you like mashed potatoes.

 

So you have those mixed Lego bricks around the room. I recommend having one bucket per table and the kids will grab any greens, any shape, any size, if that answer is true for them. If it’s not true for them, they’re just going to sit and wait for the next question.

 

You can have the kids just sit there with a pile of Lego bricks and build at the end or just have them build as they go. But it’s a great opportunity for kids to get that excitement out, but also be productive about it. So it’s a really, really good one.

 

I’ve done this K through five and it is perfect for this time of year. The next activity that you can try is have the kids create some pixel art. And it’s probably something we’ve actually seen before, but maybe you’ve never done it in the classroom.

 

So I talked to the kids about what a pixel is and how it makes up the screens that we use. And the more pixels per square inch, the higher the resolution or how clear it might be. But when screens and all of that was getting started, things were more pixelated.

 

And maybe they’ve heard that word before. And so kids are actually going to create a zoomed in pixel image of something of their choice. You could be more specific for Thanksgiving.

 

I don’t really care for this because it takes a while and I want the kids to be creating. So I let them create whatever is school appropriate. And what they’re doing is using those little melting beads, those perler beads on little boards.

 

So I’m going to link again, everything in the show notes for you. So if you’re unsure where to get everything, what I use, I found a good class set of boards that can be used for these perler beads that comes in all shapes and sizes, because some kids actually want to create bigger projects, but others are okay with the smaller ones. So I liked this set.

 

It took me a while. I was researching for a bit and it’s been working really, really well. And I’ve used it with multiple classes.

 

Another little tip for management is my perler beads came in these big buckets. And so I have tiny little cups that the kids can scoop up the colors. It just has all the regular colors that come in a crayon box.

 

I got the ones at Ikea actually, and I set those all out. So I, I scooped them first. I had the kids come grab them, but I let them know that while they’re working, if they need more colors, they can dump the colors back in the beads back in and grab a new scoop.

 

I also like to use these little art trays that I have for multiple projects. I use these way more than I thought I was going to, which I love them. And they’re these smaller little art trays where they can dump out the beads.

 

I have them actually put their boards on these trays and they’re really helpful for storing the projects. If they don’t finish, since I’ve done this quite a few times already, it’s taken the kids about two class sessions to finish. Some might finish early.

 

So actually go ahead and iron their projects. If I have some time, I don’t let the kids iron the melting beads. I just handle that.

 

It doesn’t take very long, but if we are going to finish another time, then I write their name on masking tape, put it on the tray, and then I’m able to stack the trays in a spot where nothing’s going to touch it. Nothing’s shaking because if you shake the boards, the beads will fall off. It’s actually really sad.

 

So having these trays is really helpful. You could stack them in a place where they’re safe, and then you can grab them the next day. This is a really calm and focused activity because if they’re not focusing, then they’re not going to get their project done and there’s nothing for them to keep.

 

So the kids were very into this hands-on project. I did not give them tweezers, which some of them asked, can I have tweezers to put the little beads in? I said, no, you got to use your fingers. When I was a kid, I had to use my fingers and I get little tweezers to put the beads in and they just laugh at me.

 

So it’s really good. It’s a calm, focused activity. You can play some calm music and they’re creating something really cool.

 

The next idea that you can teach during this week is to create some pumpkin stem stations that the kids can rotate through. I have talked about stem stations in the past, but what I like to do when I do stem stations is have four that the kids will rotate to. They do two sessions a day.

 

So if you have about 40 minutes, they do two the first day, two the next day. And if I tell them, if you don’t get to do it today, you get to do it tomorrow. And if they’re like, I’m not going to be here.

 

I’m like, Oh, sorry, the show must go on. And some ideas that you can do for some stem stations, which I have all of these in my pumpkin stem resource, where there’s a whole collection of things for grades K through five, but you could have them rotate through creating a bridge for the pumpkins to sit on. They can create a maze for a pumpkin pom-pom to roll through.

 

So you just need paper plates, construction paper, pom-poms. Next is they can code a simple robot to collect all the pieces of the life cycle of a pumpkin. And the last one is that they can use a Play-Doh or something similar to build the parts of a pumpkin.

 

So this can help split up the kids. If they’re in stations, they’re doing something active with their hands and it’s less pressure on you where you’re not having to entertain them, so to speak. And they are doing something where everything’s themed and learning about pumpkins.

 

This next one can also be a stem station, or if you just need a fast finisher or something for them to work on during a class time. But I have different engineer inspiration boards for all the holidays, all the times of the year. And this is a Thanksgiving one.

 

So it gives you different options of things that are related to Thanksgiving. I also have a one. And using whatever materials you have on hand, it could be Lego bricks, it could be blocks, it could be recycled materials.

 

They can build the things that are on the board in their own way. You could actually use these boards for the pixel art. So if you just want something, it’s a one page, you can project it, it’s ready to go.

 

This could be a good option for you too. The last idea that you can do during this week before Thanksgiving is you can read the story The Great Turkey Race. And you can have kids build a fence for the turkeys to jump over, which actually happens in the story.

 

So if you haven’t read it before, but they can launch the turkeys creating a catapult. So they can create the catapult or you can create catapults beforehand, depending on the age of your students, and then have the kids build a fence for their turkeys to hop over. So this is a great way to integrate that turkey learning.

 

I don’t do a ton of stuff with turkeys, as you can tell, maybe in the future, I’ll add more. It’s just not my favorite Thanksgiving. So you can tell when I talk about Halloween, I’m way more into that.

 

This is a fun story that you can read as a class and have a hands on activity after. I hope all of these ideas help you when you’re getting through these crazy weeks. And the days are getting colder, you need something to do and hands on.

 

But if you try any of these, feel free to let me know, tag me on Instagram or TikTok at Naomi Meredith underscore, I love seeing what you do in your classrooms. It’s really cool knowing it works with my students, but seeing it with your students just makes me so excited. And I love chatting with you on all the platforms.

 

Thanks so much. Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of the elementary STEM coach podcast.

 

I would love to connect with you over on Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore, or send me an email to elementary STEM coach podcast at gmail.com. Also make sure to check out my website Naomi Meredith.com to see all the show notes from today’s episode and shop my K through five STEM resources. Any questions you have needs for resources or ideas for episodes, get in touch. I’ll talk to you soon.