De"STEM"ber part 1

 Students in our district returned to school in person on Tuesday, December 1st.  The debate and controversy and uncertainty was heavy in the air, but I wanted to make the activities special for the students.  I found the idea to do De"STEM"ber this month so that is what we did!  

Week 1 of De"STEM"ber:

Grade 3 and 4 did a tessellation tree the first week and reviewed how to find information on TEAMS.  The outcome was pretty cool.  I kept each class separate so that it would be easier to return later.    Here is the link to the printable.  Tessellation printable   

Here are the six tessellation trees...the other classes missed because of a snow day and no school on Nov. 30th.  

Here is our link to learn more about tessellations as well!

Grade Kindergarten through 2nd grade made upcycled or recycled trees using "dust jackets".  Students then practiced taking a picture on SeeSaw for future remote learning.  The challenge was teaching how to create a star at the top.  Overall, this went well.  I also created this video incase that we had to do it remote - Loom video link  

Here are a few creations:

                                                         

                                                     

Week 2 of De"STEM"ber brought new fun activities:

K - 1 created a reindeer face like a puzzle using a sheet with pieces to cut out and assemble.  Then they were put on a "letter" to families on how to turn the reindeer into a marble run!  
Here is a link to the pieces - Savvy Teaching blog link

      

So one side is the directions to make a reindeer marble run with cardboard tubes and the other side is the cute kid created reindeer.  I will try to add some pictures here soon!

Plus we had fun watching the "Reindeer Cam" most days as well as we worked - Reindeer Cam

2nd grade worked on learning to make paper beads.  Wow - this was a challenge.  I would only repeat with older students or pre-printed triangles.  I used this video to show how to do it then we attempted to upcycle old magazines.  They could make an ornament or a necklace.  Some loved it...some tried and struggled.  

Grade 3 and 4 worked on a book mark that could be turned into a Christmas tree and 4 out of 5 days included GLITTER.  I never use glitter and it was messy fun.  No regrets since next week will be remote!  Here is the video I created for directions - Bookmark tree video

Next week is back to remote learning and new lessons for De"STEM"ber!  

Look for part 2 around 12/23 when we are done with the next two weeks of home learning!