We created this STEAM Innovation Choice Board that is aligned to 5th 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!
This choice board was designed because we know students gravitate towards certain innovation activities over others, especially in the remote learning setting. These can easily done as an independent learning station in the ELA classroom. The activity options include the following:
We believe these options will supplement and extend their learning in ELA. Please feel free to modify the lesson and directions for your own students. Let us know how it goes, we are constantly modifying & innovating for our teachers and students! Stay tuned for lots more! ~ Christine and Marla (co-creators of Innovation & STEAM activities for San Marcos Unified School District) Preview Your Copy
0 Comments
We created this STEAM Innovation Choice Board that is aligned to 4th 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! This choice board was designed because we know students gravitate towards certain innovation activities over others, especially in the remote learning setting. These can easily done as an independent learning station in the ELA classroom. The activity options include the following:
We believe these options will supplement and extend their learning in ELA. Please feel free to modify the lesson and directions for your own students. Let us know how it goes, we are constantly modifying & innovating for our teachers and students! Stay tuned for lots more! ~ Christine and Marla (co-creators of Innovation & STEAM activities for San Marcos Unified School District) Preview Your Copy Innovation Option #2 This Renewable Energy Slide Deck (preview | copy) is another innovation option for 4th grade teachers aligned to BM Unit 5. We created it for Unit 3 5th grade but we can see how much it relates to your essential question for this unit. Please check it out and see if it's helpful for supplement and/or extension to your teaching. As always, please feel free to use as is or modify for your own class' needs. We believe both these options will supplement and extend their learning in ELA. Please feel free to modify the lesson and directions for your own students.
Let us know how it goes, we are constantly modifying & innovating for our teachers and students! Stay tuned for lots more! ~ Christine and Marla (co-creators of Innovation & STEAM activities for San Marcos Unified School District) 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) Each week Marla Rosenthal and I are making these fun STEAM Challenges for our students to keep creating at home during distance learning. I put the challenge on Google Classroom along with a Flipgrid post. I love hearing about their engineering design process and seeing them proud of their creations. I encourage them to take their Flipgrid selfie only with their creation and their smile (no Flipgrid emojis, etc) so I can download their pictures to share with our DPS community. They can even earn a badge for their digital sticker books! So much fun!
Here are the STEAM Challenges (linked on pictures below) you can copy for your own students. I'll keep adding them here so check back often if interested. Happy Making! 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 We created this STEAM Innovation Choice Board that is aligned to Kinder/1st 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! This choice board was designed because we know students gravitate towards certain innovation activities over others, especially in the remote learning setting. The activity options include the following:
~ Christine and Marla (co-creators of Innovation & STEAM activities for San Marcos Unified School District)
Here is the Life Sciences Virtual Makerspace and Innovation lessons I co-created with Marla Rosenthal for the 4th and 5th 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 lessons are linked on the TV in the makerspace as well as below. The 4th grade focus is on our National Parks and the 5th is on renewable energy. Both lessons have students learn about the content then have them "show what they know" by creating an infographic or video commercial (PSA). 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 lessons
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 Lesson
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
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!
This is one of the last Makerspace Design Challenges we did before leaving due to COVID19 and I am cherishing the memories of the collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, perseverance and major content knowledge involved in this one robust lesson! I first taught this lesson to 3rd grade due to their area and perimeter content standards but after "skimming the surface" I KNEW I had to bring it to our upper grades math students to truly prove how much content+innovation is critical! Read below. LISTEN to the creative chaos of the Makerspace and learning, and click on the link below to access the lesson to use for your own students. Let me know how it goes!
Managing a school-wide Makerspace is a huge job! It definitely "takes a village" to keep it running smoothly in regards to organization as well as procedures and the success of the lessons. Here is my latest iteration on what works well for us so far. There is a student contract and also a Makerspace Tour Video that may help. âFeel free to modify for your own STEAM Lab, Makerspace, or even classroom. Happy Making!
Click here to visit Presentations & Conferences page to access!
This was such an exciting activity in our Makerspace stepping up the building of prototypes with littleBits AND tying in to 4th graders learning in their English Language Arts Unit. Read more about it below. Click on the links for the lesson and student Design Journal and feel free to modify for your own classroom!
|
Archives
January 2022
Categories
All
|