Elementary School Design Packet

I'm still working out the details of how to measure STEM success for a kindergartener.  Mostly, I think it's about how well they worked together and how well they focused on the goal or solving the problem.  Even if the build is a fail, I consider it success if they listened to one another ideas and actually worked toward the goal (kindergartners love to explore bunny trails).  The problem is that a lot of great ideas come from exploring those trails that don't necessarily go along with the goal at hand.  I think I'll just encourage them to write down (or draw, or let me write) ideas in their writing journals (maybe we should keep engineering journals, hmmm...) to save those ideas for later exploration.

Here is a design packet I found at NASA Talk. I copied it a put in in teachers' mailboxes at my school.  I thought it would help other teachers with the same issue- which is why I'm posting it here for you.  There are a lot of great questions to inform your STEM teaching facilitating.  Plus, a pretty great graphic with an explanation of the design process geared toward elementary students.

I'll leave you with these questions I found on Mind/Shift to help inform your instruction and know if what you are teaching is really STEM:

– Does it engage students in the engineering design process?
– Do students address a real-world problem?
– Do they work in teams to solve this problem?
– Are there multiple possible solutions?
– Do students get to explore and come up with ideas on their own, without being spoon-fed?

The part about not spoon feeding students is my personal goal.  They're kindergarteners, not infants, right?

Can Kindergartners Brainstorm?

This week my school has finalized plans for our school-wide engineering day. When choosing projects we had some specific things to keep in mind: make sure it aligns with the standards you are teaching, learning is done is teams, the process should be student led, and students should be solving a real life problem.  Fourth and Fifth grades are going to design more Eco-friendly packaging, third grade is tackling soil erosion, second grade is talking about sound and how to create a school alarm system that isn't terrifying (fire alarms are super loud and scary, right?), first graders are building containers that sustain plant life, and kindergarten... well... we are talking about movement. 

It's been tough to come up with a real life problem students can use engineering to solve when our biggest problem is five year olds are not that great at working together and following a plan.  I truly have been agonizing about this for weeks.  I know they're only five, but I want them to do something amazing! Finally, somewhere in the middle of talking with another teacher I found peace with the fact that before students can cure cancer, they need to learn to simply follow the design process. 

So no, my kindergarteners will not be building a flashlight that is powered by the heat of their hands.  But they will be learning how to work together, how to talk about their ideas, listen to others ideas and respond appropriately.  They will be learning that they need to make a plan, follow that plan (or have valid reasons why they didn't), and most importantly- they will learn that is it OK to fail.  Failure is an important part of the process and I will try my best to get them to embrace it.  I'll let you know how it goes. 

Until then, here is a fun poster with the design process.  There are lots online but I wanted something that would look good in my classroom.  Feel free to take it if it would look good in yours :)

Engineering Recording Sheet

I kept thinking about it and decided that my students really need a consistent way to plan and reflect on their engineering designs.  In my last post I had talked about creating a recording sheet that  would work for our gravity project- but that would just be a one time deal, right?  I need a sheet that goes along with the design process that I can use again and again.  So I made one!  I'm posting this today right after creating it- so I haven't tested it myself.  We do our STEM time on Friday afternoons and we all students have a half day this Friday so I won't get a chance to try it out until next Friday.  If you download and try it, let me know how it works!  Like the design process, I'm always willing to make improvements :) It's free in my TPT store for now.  Someday I'll make a few additions and you'll have to buy it- so get it while you can!

Engineering Recording Sheet

STEM in kindergarten

I work for a small K-5 charter school and we have decided to really embrace the STEM initiative in a way that you can't really do in most traditional public elementary schools.  Don't get me wrong- we still feel the pressure to get students reading as early as possible.  We all know the statistics about kids who don't read by third grade.  And just like every other public school we are teaching common core and struggling to make sure students pass required testing that seems to go hand in hand with education these days.  In fact, charter schools have to pass these tests at a higher level and feel the pressure just a bit more since our doors are so easily closed.

However, even with the giant weight we carry label EOG's there are still teachers that want to make sure our students are prepared for more than taking a test.  At our school we want problem solvers and critical thinkers.  We want our students to succeed in more than school- we want them to succeed in life.  And what better time to teach these necessary skills than K-2 when the tests are just looming- not really suffocating.

I know that as a teacher in NC right now I will be responsible for a percentage of the scores every one of my students will take in the future.  But I don't have the pressure to get them ready for the dreaded test right this minute.  So I can experiment a bit: enter STEM.  I love science, technology, engineering, and math.  My students are passionate about these topics, get truly excited when it's time to learn about these things.  Right not they are curious and creative in a way they may never be again and I want to take advantage of this time.  My biggest hurdle is the lack of resources available to such a young audience.

Every once in a while I come across a real goldmine and this week it came from none other than Sesame Street!  A NC essential science standard has me teaching students about movement- straight lines, curves, zig zag, etc.  In the past, I've taught this by playing follow the leader. Even when I did it that way I felt like there must be more out there.  Follow the leader might be helping them understand the terminology, but not the how and why of movement. So this year I went with a more engineering based approach.

I got the idea from the Force and Motion educator handout I found.  I used the main idea, with a few modifications.  Here's what we did:

1. We got together with another kindergarten class and watched the Brainpop Jr. video on gravity.  I really emphasized the idea that what goes up must come down.  If you don't have a subscription to BrainPop you could use the Sesame Street video.  I didn't use it because I really like BrainPop and I wanted them to learn about gravity- the how and why behind movement.  I also wanted the students to be creative thinkers and solve the problem on their own- rather than just give them the idea of a ramp.
2. We reviewed the Engineering Design Process.  This is something I have talked about before and I will continue to reinforce all year.
3. I gave them their task: Using the supplies I give them they must work with a partner to make an empty paper towel roll move without pushing or touching it.
4. We went to the gym and the other teacher and I partnered them up with a student from the other class.  Our idea was to give them a situation where they had to learn to work with someone they aren't that familiar with and brainstorm.  Teaching kindergartners to brainstorm is hard- really hard.  They are developmentally still self-centered.  But I feel like this is important for them to learn now.  The workforce they will someday enter is team-focused (maybe if members of congress had to work together in kindergarten our government wouldn't but shut down right now).
5. There were given a minute or two to plan.  Several of them came up with the idea that they would just blow on the tube to make it move without touching it- I thought that was pretty smart.
6. We handed out supplies: 1 clipboard, 3-4 large blocks, 1 empty paper towel tube.  Then we stood back to see what they did.  I have to admit that I might have coached them just a bit.  When I reminded them that what goes up must come down a made a ramp of sorts out of my arm, and then later when I reinforced the idea I held up a ramp-shaped block.  I didn't necessarily spell it out for them- but this was their first challenge and I wanted them to succeed.
7. In no time at all the whole gym was full of ramps! Some groups got it on their own, others just saw and copied, but every single team got it without adult help. They were so excited!  After that the other teacher and I went around and showed them how to measure how far the paper towel rolled using their feet.  Then we asked them to make some kind of change and see if they could get it to roll further (how many feet did you get it to roll that time?).  We even let them get a couple more blocks if they asked.
8. We cleaned up, sat down as a group and reflected.  I asked them what they learned, what supplies did they think would work even better, how could they change the design to get the tube to roll further.  They were really smart.  Several students wished they had a longer ramp and some even suggested modifying the paper towel roll (they couldn't tell me exactly how, but when the other teacher suggested adding weight they were enthusiastic about that idea).

And there it is, my first real engineering challenge in kindergarten.  The kids had a great time and they were really challenged to work together and think critically.  They got some math lessons with the introduction to measurement and comparing numbers.  Plus it was hands on a required them to be creative.

Next time I might give them some type of recording sheet for their results, or to record their planning.  Maybe we'll even do the same challenge again but I'll ask them to figure out a way to add weight to the paper towel roll. Really, the extension possibilities are endless. 

Happy Engineering!

Sight Word Games

Sight word games are tough for me in the classroom.  This is my first year as a teacher and my first year doing Daily 5.  There is a lot going on during our reading time.  I'm working with students on their reading and my assistant is helping with writing (we run the Daily 5 writing time like Writer's Workshop).  Between the two of us we still can't seem to make sure our kiddo's are actually reading and learning the sight words in the activities I give them. 

After Christmas I completely revamped my Word Work section and put a bunch of games from Tara West in her Word Work Super Pack.  I bought pack one and two.  These have been awesome, but far and away the favorite game is baseball.  However, I still have the same problem: are the kids actually reading, understanding, and learning the words? 

My management of this time goes something like this:

I look up from the student I'm working with and scan the room.  I'll sometimes arbitrarily pick a student who is working on words and yell across the room ask, "What word is that?"  To which they mostly answer with a shrug.  Then I tell them the word, make them repeat it to me and go back to the poor student at my table that was getting ignored.

Here is my current solution: make a game similar to Tars West's baseball game, but use the actual words I am teaching in the classroom AND introduce the games in the order that I introduce the words (we work on a different group of words every month or so.  That means a new game every month).  At least with this method I know they have been exposed to the words in the game again and again and I'm hoping this exposure will make all the difference.

Enter my game: Sight Word STRIKE.  I made six different games (one for each word group we study) and the first one is FREE in my TPT store.

Check it out here!

Does this seem like common sense to all of you old pros?  Yeah, I thought so.  What can I say?  I learn a little more every day.

Wall of Fame

I love my students.  One of the most rewarding aspects of  teaching is the relationship I get to build with these kids- loving them and knowing they love me, too.  I know they love me because they tell me, they hug me, and... they bring me presents.  Most of these presents are coloring pages or drawing done at home.  Last week I got a feather.  The little boy who gave it to me told me he saw it on the side of the road and made his dad pull over so he could pick it up. This story is probably partially made up, but either way, I have a feather from the side of the road- gross, right?
The pictures (and feathers) pile up throughout the school year.  These things- even if they are sometimes gross- are special because they show that the students don't forget me when they leave class for the day.  When they see or make something special they often think of me- and I love that (it's only fair since I obsessively think about the class). However, I don't love trying to figure out what to do with this pile of what is essentially very special trash.  Hence, the Wall of Fame.
This is a tiny corner of my room behind my table where I display all the special things students bring to me.  It's just a small area so papers get layered: by the end of the year this will be thicker than the layers of wallpaper in my grandma's house.  But each student gets their things displayed and when they ask me what I did with their special gift I can find it somewhere is the layers.  It lets the students know that I appreciate their gifts, and more importantly, I love them as much as they love me.
At the end of the year these things get rolled up and thrown out- though I always feel sad and sentimental about it.  But like a lot of us, I'm trying to embrace the clutter free classroom.  And there's not a lot of room for sentiment in my tiny classroom.

Rest time

Ahh, resting time.  The only 15 minutes in my day where I can sit at my table and not feel guilty about writing.  Right now in my class I have 17 wiggley wonders and two lunch helpers who are wiping down the chair legs- anything to get out of resting.  Later in the semester I'll use this time to work with students who need extra help.  By next semester rest time will be a fond memory.

Resting time makes me feel a little guilty, it almost seems like wasted minutes in a day where I don't ever have a minute to spare.  So to ease the guilt I let my students have their book boxes with them- but no reading out loud.  Most students get their books and then abandon them before resting time is half over, opting instead to lay quietly on their blanket.  When I see this it reminds me that only a few short  months ago many of these children were in pre-school or day care where they had a minimum of one hour to rest.  At this point in the year they aren't that far from those daycare days- they still need some time to just be quiet and rest.  This isn't wasted time- it's an important 15 minutes to recharge.