STEM investigation booklet freebie

Hi all,

As I mentioned in the last post, our school is having a STEM day as part of STEM Discovery Week (22nd to 29th April).

Here is the booklet I've made to go with our challenge (to build a base for a stilt house). You can download it for free by clicking here.

STEM Challenges

Do you do STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) challenges in your school? STEM activities provide a transdisciplinary approach to problem-solving. It's all about hands on learning through inquiry. STEM Discovery week is taking place from 22nd - 29th April so we're going to have a STEM day in our school during that week. To find out more about it visit the STEM Alliance site.

Here are some great free resources for STEM challenges. It could be great to have a STEM area in the classroom with weekly/daily challenge cards for early finishers or indoor playtime. These 4 challenges from Frugal Fun for Boys show just how simple it could be to set up. 

And you don't have to spend a fortune on resources. So many STEM projects can be done using resources that you'll find in your recycling bin. Of course, you can ask the children to bring in resources from home too. Here's a handy list of potential supplies from The Owl Teach.

Share the process. Here are some gorgeous free posters showing the design process made by Teachers Are Terrific. 

There are lots of free templates out there for the children to record the process. I particularly like this one from Create Teach Share.

As for the challenges themselves, the Practical Action site has great ideas that link nicely with geography topics. There is a PowerPoint with each idea to present the challenge and lots of other resources like student sheets, picture cards and certificates.

Here are some more from Dr. Wesley Fryer (all using resources I imagine you already have in your classroom or that can be easily bought).

Just give a quick Pinterest search for STEM challenges and you'll be full of inspiration! 

Do you Kahoot?

Hi there,

Do any of you out there use Kahoot? It's a great FREE site for creating multiple choice quizzes, polls and discussions. One of my friends, a secondary school language teacher, finds it very useful in her classroom for reinforcing new vocabulary.

Your students can then access your quiz using a computer/mobile device (no sign in required - they just create a temporary username and put in a code that you generate just before playing). You can then display the questions on your interactive whiteboard/smart TV and the children respond on their device. The teacher's (and shared) display shows (anonymously) how many people got it right. Afterwards, a teacher can download the results and have a record of this assessment, be it formative or summative.

You can access the (millions) of readily created Kahoot!s or you can invent your own. A great assessment tool could be to ask your students to create their own Kahoot!s.

Here are some examples of ready-made Kahoot!s:
Gaeilge (Torthaí)
Multiplication facts (x9s)
Brian teasers
Famous landmarks
Food groups

IB PYP Posters in Chinese

For the attention of any teachers working in an IB school where Chinese is taught: 

I have just added a Chinese version of my bumper poster kit to my TPT store. It costs $10 and includes 5 different sets:

• Learner Profile posters in Chinese
• PYP attitudes posters in Chinese
• IB key concepts posters in Chinese
• Transdisciplinary skills posters in Chinese
• Transdisciplinary themes posters in Chinese

All of the sets are available individually but, if you want all of them, it's cheaper to purchase the bumper kit.

Click on any of the images below to view them in the Chinese section of my TPT store.