Here's an Innovation Unit aligned to 3rd grade's ELA Benchmark Unit 5: Technology but feel free to use it with your students even if you don't use that ELA curriculum or grade level!
Students will learn about various innovators who have made a difference in our world. They will then choose one innovator to dive in deeper into researching. Some teachers may choose for them to write, create speeches, or presentations in class. Some may assign for asynchronous work to supplement Unit 5 learning. Make sure to check out the exciting innovation creation choices! As always, please feel free to make a copy (your copy here) and modify for your own students and instruction needs. We believe these options will supplement and extend their learning in ELA and be a fun innovative approach to learning about innovation...past, present & future! Let us know what you think, ~ Christine and Marla (co-creators of Innovation & STEAM activities for San Marcos Unified School District) A HUGE thank you to the Double Peak School 3rd Grade Team for sharing their work with us for a launching point under the Discover and Research phases! We appreciate your willingness to share your work with San Marcos Unified and educators beyond! CSEdWeek is an annual program to inspire K-12 students to take interest in computer science. Code.org organizes CSEdWeek as an "Hour of Code" campaign to encourage every student to code for at least one hour (but I say they can code for MORE!) Every year I host a school-wide Hour of Code celebration complete with tracking cards, raffle tickets, prizes and more! This year Hour of Code/CSEdWeek is December 6th-12th and I highly encourage you to join the movement (sign up here). Marla Rosenthal and I designed this Computer Science Choice Board to make it easy for teachers and fun for students to learn about computer science while exploring the many coding platforms. Click here to watch a tutorial on the many ways you can use this choice board with your students. I plan on launching this for CSEdWeek then students can use all year long! Check it out and feel free to make a copy and modify for your own computer scientists. Let me know how it goes! Happy Coding! ~Christine TK-8 Version (entire choice board) TK-2 Version (modified from choice board for our youngest coders) We designed this Fairy Tale Choice Board to align with ELA Benchmark Unit 6 (Learning from Characters who Solve Problems) but it can work for any integrated STEAM & Language Arts focus. My friend & colleague, Marla Rosenthal, and I created these choices because we know students gravitate towards certain innovation activities over others. The activity options include the following:
Better Together, ~Christine
Here is the Animals: Habitats & Adaptations Virtual Makerspace and Innovation lesson I co-created with Marla Rosenthal for the 2nd and 3rd grade teachers in our district. This ties in with our ELA Benchmark Unit 3, however, can be used in any grade level or curriculum.
The virtual makerspace is full of read alouds, videos, games, coding and innovation links with the focus on nature and our natural resources. The STEAM and Innovation lesson is linked on the TV in the makerspace as well as below. This lesson has students learn about the content then have them "show what they know" by creating a Google Slides presentation. However, teachers can modify this for whichever edtech tool they want. I plan on having my own students code their understanding using Google CS First and Scratch coding. We have three more units we are sharing:
We are sharing all of these because we are passionate about spreading innovation and sharing with teachers. I hope it brings some sort of relief to you in your planning...our work as teachers is hard enough right now. ~Better Together, Christine Virtual MakerspaceSTEAM/Innovation LessonUnit 2 Characters: Virtual MakerspacesPart 1: Virtual Makerspaces- Literature Themed These innovation virtual spaces are full of clickable links to videos, read alouds, online games, coding, edtech activities and more! There are 3 makerspace versions (K/1, 2/3 and 4/5) all with a Literature and innovation theme. These makerspaces were created to tie into the ELA Benchmark Unit 2 Characters theme, however, they can be used even if that is not your curriculum. (See here for Unit 1 Government themed Makerspaces) Teachers: The following linked in the Makerspace need you to create a FREE class account so students have logins. If you do not set up, please delete from Makerspace
Unit 2 Characters : design thinking challengesThis Design Thinking engineering challenge has been designed with the goal students can learn asynchronously, however, it would be beneficial for teachers to guide students along the process for accountability. The pacing and how you use this lesson is completely up to your discretion. Part 2: Design Thinking Asynchronous Challenges: Teachers can assign through Google Classroom and encourage students to learn and play with the many innovation activities throughout Unit 2. Kinder/1st Grades 2nd/3rd Grades 4th/5th Grade We hope these help teachers and encourage spreading innovation during distance learning. Please feel free to make a copy and modify for your own student innovators.
Stay tuned for more coming soon! Happy Innovating, Christine and Marla San Marcos Unified- TOSAs Are you looking to include some Innovation & edtech into your Benchmark plans with your students??
My friend and colleague, Marla Rosentha and I have you covered! We are creating Virtual Makerspaces and Innovation Lessons that tie into ELA Benchmark unit themes. You can used these with your students even if you don't use this ELA curriculum. This first unit is on Government and Citizenship. We are both Innovation TOSAs who work with teachers and students on all things technology, coding, robotics, engineering, design thinking and more! We want to help all teachers interested in continuing innovation for students even during distance learning! For each Benchmark theme, we will create a Virtual Makerspace full of clickable activities as well as a robust Innovation Lesson students can learn asynchronously. Below links are a one-stop shop for all grades. Notice the 1st link is the PREVIEW so you can check it out, the 2nd link is your very own copy. Please feel free to modify for your own students and instruction. Let me know how it goes and stay tuned for more coming soon! Happy Innovating, ~Christine Preview Copy (all grades linked) Your Copy (all grade level Virtual Makerspace and Innovation Lessons are linked in Speaker Notes):
As we quickly and without warning pivoted to Distance Learning on March 13, 2020, it weighed heavily on my heart that all my plans for innovation TK-8 would halt abruptly. I knew that no matter what distance learning looked like we MUST keep innovation going for our students. Therefore, my counterpart and friend, Marla Rosenthal and I dove into creating these Thematic At-Home STEAM Distance Learning Resources we could share not only with our schools, but our districts and beyond. We are very happy to share these freely because we want to spread innovation and we know as educators, we are absolutely Better Together! Click on the links below for the lessons, feel free to modify for your own classrooms, schools and districts, and keep innovation happening in every students' education!
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