The 1st week of year 29

29 years of 1st days WOW 29 years has passed so quickly and they told me it would. I just didn't believe them. I am excited about the upcoming school year and it will be year 6 teaching STEM. 

I try to change things up each year. I am so thankful for all the blogs, tweets and FB groups that inspire me. Here is a quick tour of our room. 

First week was filled with rules and procedures and our 1st BUILD! Third through fifth grade completed the Name Tag Challenge and the kinders through second grade got to build with a variety of materials. More on those adventures tomorrow. I have to get up early to workout. Happy Sunday.

The Napping House

PRE-COVID

Teach Outside the Box has done it again! We read The Napping House and the kinders had a grand time with helping me retell the end of the story.

They are the cutest right? We then watched some QR codes on balance. Little did they know learning about balance was going to help them with the final challenge. 

First came the 1st build. They had to build a bed from thick popsicle sticks and clothespins. It was quite entertaining to teach them to use clothespins, safely.  It was tough for them to set up the headboard and footboard of the bed. There was a little bit of balance work here with the popsicle sticks on top of the clothespin sections. After all that the students had to work together to retell the order of characters. When they had the order they had to balance the cups of characters. Teamwork, communication and a few laughs later most partners completed the challenge.

Taking a leap

 Teach with Tech Conference has inspired me to test my boundaries when it comes to tech integration. I made this newsletter in hopes it would reach my families and create a path for us to communicate. My bigger hope is for families to see the magic I see in my classroom and have a point of conversation with their child about what they are learning day to day. Fingers crossed it works.

October Happenings

 Hard to believe the month has gone by so fast. It has been a busy month with kindergarteners learning about bats, spiders, pumpkins and monsters. We made monsters after reading I Need My Monster! We made spiders and even built gates for our little pumpkin. 

After reading Go Away, Big Green Monster Mrs. Novak's class used Duck Duck Moose's app Draw & Tell to make these monsters. Kinders never cease to amaze me with their talent. 

The Pigeon Has to Go to School

 Who doesn't love the Pigeon from Mo Willems? He is one of my favorites and everyone knows. Beginning the year for 1st graders is fun when you tie the Pigeon, an iPad and levers. I love getting to read to firsties and think it is great to tie a literature connection to a STEM activity. After reading we watch 

I give them a marker, a plastic soon, and a cutout of the Pigeon. They test where to place the marker and/or spoon while practicing how hard or soft to strike the spoon to launch the Pigeon. It is quite fun to watch as they learn from one another what works, what doesn't, what will get your Pigeon higher and watching with amazement as they launch all over the classroom.

 Then we work on aim and strength of the strike to get the Pigeon closest to the school. After we work through this we work on back to school puzzles and even learning how to draw the Pigeon and send him on our own adventures.

Ping Pong Ball in a Cup Using Teamwork

 Starting out the year I try to use Teamwork activities to get the kids to think and talk to one another. Communication is very important and teamwork can accomplish tasks beyond their wildest dreams. We meet Molly the inventor in this amazing GE commercial.

After seeing this we talk about team work being important. I give them sheets of paper, a cup and a ping pong ball. They have to figure out a way to get the ping pong ball into the cup from a distance of 4 feet or six feet and even 8 feet away. It is funny to see them using trial and error to accomplish the mission. 

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work... #ottersmatter

Special Area Teacher Assistants

 Our CCE PTA has a BIG event each Spring as a school-wide initiative fund raiser and the highlight is the silent auction. Each teacher and class put together a basket for the silent auction. there are cooking baskets, spa baskets, and even LOTTO baskets to name a few. What is something your school can do that doesn't cost any money but brings in money for the school? Raffle off front seats tot he 5th grade graduation or winter/end of year concert or special area teaching assistants for the day! Each special area is given a teaching assistant for the day and we make it a BIG deal! We have shirts I print up with their names on them. We make name tags and lanyards to look official and we have lunch with all the special area teachers and assistants during lunch. It is such a fun event and the money goes to our PTA to help fund the yearly goals. The students love having the ability to shadow a teacher and lead for the day. Making memories for sure...

Making Heart Sculptures

 February is more than heart month. It is a month for friendship and love. Our 4th graders used teamwork and their taping skills to create heart sculptures out of stickers (tape) and construction paper. There was laughter and smiles throughout the room.  Each class took on a different perspective when it came to creating a heart sculpture as you can see by watching this video.

Where the Wild Things Are...

Everyone knows the classic Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Kindergarteners love it when I read to them and a building challenge to follow. While reading sometimes I like to make it a bit interactive. Watch this...

It was interesting to watch them learn new vocabulary like gnash their terrible teeth and rolling their terrible eyes. 

After reading the book and talking about the beginning, middle, and end I presented the challenge of building a boat out of toothpicks and cut-up pool noodles.  We talked about safety of toothpicks and I made them promise with their right hand up they would stick themselves or their friends. You can never be too careful. We then talked about how could you build with these materials and I take ideas until someone says you can stick the toothpicks in the pool noodles to connect pieces. I then demonstrate how to take the boat over to the water, test the boat, and how to not get water all over the place. Their faces when they find out they get to test it out in water are priceless!

The kinders had fun with this one and it was a great introduction to STEM challenges with a literacy start. Thank you Teach Outside the Box for the lesson.

2019 Annual Fishing Tournament

We are spoiled by our Coaches! Each year our school meets under the Dunlawton Bridge for some fishing, hot dog lunch and some fellowship outside school.  The Coaches use funds to purchase raffle prizes to include trophies, sporting equipment and hot dogs for everyone! The kids look forward to it every year and we grow numbers depending on the local sporting events.  Moms, dads, and even grandparents are baiting hooks and chatting away with one another along the dock. It is a fun time for everyone and the smiles are the best part.  The fish are caught and released right back into the river so no harm came to the fish caught.   Check out the smiles in this video of students, teacher and parents.

CTE-PLC

What is CTE? Career and Technical Education is a broad branch to cover all the technology courses and certifications in a district. Students in elementary are exposed to an introduction of technology to include basic operation functions, Microsoft Suite-in our district, and fundamentals of web browsers. I was blessed to find our elementary CTE-PLC group my second year into teaching STEM as a special area. What an amazing group of educators! I live for the meetings where we share curriculum ideas, websites, and ideas to implement to further our students in technology. Not every school has an introduction to technology course so we are a group of about 15 that regularly meet or even chat in Teams troubleshooting and sharing. Our leader is the famous Debra Dumas and she is a gem! We try to meet in one of our classrooms and that is amazing for photos and ideas. Yet with drive time we are sometimes on a short schedule so she found a neutral spot for us to meet-Dave & Buster's!!

YES you read that correctly. Did you know they have wifi and a small conference room where we are able to have a webinar with Animation-ish from Fable Vision? It was a perfect setting for a technology group.

The sound was great, food was available, and we were from all over the district in one room. If you need to have technology PD why not at Dave & Buster's.

Debra even had door prizes for us after our meeting.

Penny STEM

Reading Molly Lou Melon is one of my favorite books to share at the beginning of school. She is spunky, loves her grandma, and uses her strength to her advantage. How many drops of water can you drip drop on the top of a penny? How high can you stack pennies? Have you ever made a penny spinner? All in learning our STEM room procedures for following directions, clean up, and even assigning jobs. It is a great get to know you activity and class building exercise.

2nd graders Lego Simple Machine kits

Our otters really enjoy Legos, from free builds to themes to working together with Lego Education kits. Thank you to FUTURES Foundation for helping fund the kits to supplement our learning of simple machines. I had 6 kits so most classes had 4 to a group. With kit building I found it was important to assign jobs for each student and then rotate those jobs so everyone was able to build, direct the group, find the pieces, and then check the build.

Let me share what I learned to work for our students during introduction of the kits to our 2nd graders. According to birth month each child was a 1-2-3-4. For the first session 1-was in charge of directions, getting the kit and returning the kit. 2-was the piece finder and placed the pieces on the lid for the builder. 3 was the builder and everyone groaned that was not a 3. It happens and that is why we rotate jobs. 4 was the checker and the first to try out the build. Procedures helped us to maximize our 45 minutes. Believe me 45 minutes is not long enough when you have a cart of Legos the kids want to get in to and build. The teamwork, kindness, patience, and support of one another was a beautiful thing to see. When we cleaned up we would talk about what went right and what we could improve upon. Of course everyone wanted to be the builder but then there were kids that liked finding the pieces and ones that really liked the group they worked with, and even one that said it was so fun they couldn't wait to come back to build again. Of course everyone then agreed with that student. These are skills adults use daily and I am so proud of our second graders for finding the positive with their roles and creating.

1st grade LEGO top building

Thanks to FUTURES Foundation, teachers can ask for grants to supplement programs within their classrooms.  Our second graders used the early learners Simple Machine kits so towards the end of the school year I thought maybe the first graders would enjoy learning. They had a blast! Students of today don't play with tops but ask any of them about Bayblades and they can launch into a discussion on their design, colors, and all about the launcher. We followed directions, used teamwork, and they had to figure out how to fit the gear's teeth into one another to make the top spin. It was so exciting to see it when they finally got it.

We talked about what worked, what didn't, how could you make it move faster, and then the aha moment came...can we battle one another? You mean like Bayblades do? So engaging and exciting!

I am sure these firsties won't soon forget how much fun they had in STEM class learning.

Mystery Science Pollinate the Flowers

Mystery Science is amazing! They have a lesson, "Why do Plants Grow Flowers?" and the students loved it! Every lesson starts with background and introduction to vocabulary. They pose a question and then there is a hands-on activity for the students to bring the learning to life.  The students created flowers and we used coffee grounds and cinnamon to use as seeds.  Students then created bees from pipe cleaners and pollinated flowers while buzzing around the room.

After the buzzing around we sat down to make some observations. The students observed coffee grounds and cinnamon on their bees. When asked about that they started with one in their flower and quickly saw that the other brushed when they buzzed other flowers.  Then they looked at the center of their flowers and the sticky stigma-they were amazed at what they saw. It was such a  great aha moment to be a part of with the kids. Great job Mystery Science!

Are you better at follow directions or giving directions?

Along the same lines of using tangrams I tried an unplugged activity with our 2nd through 5th grades. While visiting the LEGO store at Disney Springs I was able to buy a container of  selected LEGOS. I bought pieces in sets of 15 so I could make at least 15 bags and maybe even a few in case they were lost. I would put the same pieces in each bag and have 1 master model.  Partners were then asked if they were better builders or programmers? See programming is a set of directions or steps to follow.  After rock, paper, scissors one partner got to pick builder or programmer.


I held the master copy and the programmer was allowed to look and touch the master model as many times as they needed while they told the builder what and how to build, BUT could not touch any of the pieces. Probably the toughest part for the students. The builders were to follow the programmer's directions and when they thought it was done they could check it against the master.

 With the second grades I used fewer pieces which made for a less complicated master model.

Here are some 5th grader programmers and builders.

Everyone was engaged and when we were done we took them apart and I had a different model while they switched roles. We had a breakout session at the end of pros and cons.  It was interesting listening to them give their perspective. Oh and for the 2nd one they had to give directions without using color words. Yes it was a bit tougher. Great learning experience to see how detailed directions needed to be and patience for the builder. It was interesting to see which programmers needed more time with the master model. Some didn't tough it at all where other students literally had to walk over step by step to give building instructions.

Thank you Mystery Science...

A friend years back bragged about Mystery Science website. I checked it out and if you have heard the voice-"Hi, it's Doug." You know we are in for an adventure. Since I work with all students kindergarten to fifth grade I get a bit excited when it comes to hands on and standards related. EVERY single unit I have used has been informative and fun for the students.

Traditionally our 4th graders struggle with rocks, weathering and erosion. Mystery Science has a unit entitled the Birth of Rocks for 4th grade.  It starts with the question Could a volcano pop up in your backyard? Doug weaves a story to provide photos and an interactive activity of plotting volcanos in regions around the world. As the maps come together...well you will need to do it to find out.

We go on to discover various volcanos and their differences.

Who says science isn't fun?

These students are interacting with one another and having a blast learning about thin vs. thick lava.

The next lesson had us all shaking...

If you haven't tried Mystery Science you need to. I subscribe each year and it is well worth the $. I will write more on some of the other lessons that ended up being our favorites over the years. They are constantly adding and improving so sign up today.

Tangrams in STEM?

I used tangrams in the classroom along side Grandfather Tang's Story. I loved watching the students make the animal shapes. I told them the legend of tangrams and how on the way to meet the Emperor the tile fell and broke into 7 pieces. 

I did all that for years and then I learned about the importance of spacial awareness while attending Thinking Math training.  Our trainer gave us the pieces and asked can you take 2 smaller triangles and make a larger triangle? Can you take 2 triangles and make a square? Can you take 2 triangles to make a rhombus? The 2 large triangles make half of a square. Use the other 5 pieces to make a perfect square. 

The value of all this? Using shapes in this manner at early grades contributes to the development of perseverance, perception and visualization. picturing things in space helps handwriting and distinguishing between letters such as "b" and "d." Upper grades may use the square to have students help figure out what fractional part of the square each tangram piece is.

CCE students are in the video making shapes using tangrams. It is not easy for all students but to see them try to reason and manipulate them is telling. It was really eye opening to see the 4-5th graders make the square. One interesting thing I saw was a student place the pieces on top of the 2 large triangles that made half the square. The student moved them around until they fit on top and then flipped them over to make the other half of the square.