STEAM – travelteachlove

Earth Day STEM Challenge

April 25, 2018 No Comments

We may have been finishing up April Vacation on the actual Earth Day, but when we returned to school I took the opportunity to celebrate this important day with my students. Students watched a few short video clips about Earth Day, did quick writes and completed a mystery picture math page, but the big Earth Day project was a STEM lesson in the STEM Lab. With Antoni Gaudi as my inspiration, I tied in recycling old things to make something new in a way that connected to students. After learning a bit about Gaudi and his artwork, which recycled many […]

Classroom Connection, STEAM

End of the Year STEM

April 13, 2018 No Comments

I have been working like crazy putting together new STEM lessons to do with my students as we wind down the school year. With a few holidays coming up I knew there would be opportunities to tie in STEM activities to reinforce student learning. First up, it’s finally Spring! (sort of) While the weather may beg to differ, it is indeed officially spring. With the start of a new season I thought, what better way to celebrate than with a Spring themed STEM lesson making windmills. Students had a blast constructing and testing out their windmill designs! It was a […]

Science, Social Studies, STEAM, Travel

STEM Fun: Building A Home For Pecky the Puffin

January 29, 2018 No Comments

I was thrilled when our science curriculum changed to include information about animals around the world and their habitats. Not only does this dovetail with our social studies curriculum perfectly (the seven continents), but it inspired me to write new STEM lessons to do with my students. As an avid traveler, as many of you know, I have had the pleasure to see animals around the world in their natural habitats. I have amassed a rather large photo collection of these animals that I am anxious to share with students in a meaningful way. After much thought of how to […]

Classroom Connection, Social Studies, STEAM, Travel

STEM Challenge: Landmarks From Around the World

May 22, 2017 No Comments

It was another busy week as we wind down to the end of the school year. One of my favorite activities this week was a global STEM Challenge. I mean come on, what’s not to love combining travel with STEM? I found a couple great resources to do this activity. First I bought STEM building cards on TpT from one of my favorite sellers, Brooke Brown of Teach Outside the Box. It was a bundle set, so we will have other STEM goodies to use, but for Friday’s lesson the landmarks were our focus. After looking around on TpT more […]

Classroom Connection, Science, Social Studies, STEAM, Travel

Finland STEM Boating Challenge

April 30, 2017 No Comments

What a week back from spring break! It was go, go, go from the moment we returned. We received our eggs to hatch, students wrote a class book of poems to send off to Student Treasures to be published, we started a new unit in math on money, Thursday was poem in your pocket day, and we had boat building and a big boat race on Friday for STEM. There was a lot to be excited about but the STEM lessons were some of my favorites. We kicked off the STEM lesson with a social studies connection. I wrote a small […]

Classroom Connection, Social Studies, STEAM, Travel

Simple Machine STEAM/STEM Lesson Brings Amsterdam to Massachusetts

April 21, 2017 No Comments

With a loud and clear love for travel, it was probably no surprise to my students that I would find a clear connection between travel to another area of study, STEAM. It all started with our study of Europe. After talking about places around Europe, I gave students a small book I wrote about Amsterdam (which you can grab for free on my TpT store). The book gives general information about this major city in Europe based on my travels there. One particular section of the book, about gables on homes and buildings in Amsterdam was the link to STEAM. I still remember […]

Science, STEAM, Travel

Engineering Smarts Amsterdam Style

October 18, 2016 No Comments

A shift when teaching science this year is to incorporate more engineering based lesson. As part of the new science standards, engineering plays a larger role in the way science is taught in the classroom. With each topic in science, there is an engineering component that accompanies it. One thing that I love about incorporating engineering is how it goes hand in hand with inquiry based learning. Inquiry based learning puts students in the drivers seat. Students use information taught in lessons to create solutions to a problem posed to them. Travel has been a huge inspiration as I plan […]

STEAM

Windmill STEAM Take 2

September 7, 2016 No Comments

After visiting Spain last spring, I was hoping to have my students complete a STEAM project connected to the windmills of La Mancha. Unfortunately, with the craziness of testing time, then the end of the year, the project never got off the ground. While we did many other great Spain activities and talked about the windmills made famous by the book Don Quixote, I couldn’t stop thinking about the STEAM project that wasn’t. Over the summer while in Amsterdam my obsession with a windmill STEAM project returned. My sister and I took a day trip outside the city to Zaanse […]

Classroom Connection

Sagrada Familía- Classroom Connection

March 10, 2016 2 Comments

Happy Friday! Before we jump into another weekend I thought I’d share a fun travel teachable moment from this week in my classroom. I could not have asked for a better connection to my recent trip to Spain. This past weekend in the Sunday Boston Globe, there was an article in the travel section about La Sagrada Familía. Thanks to my mum and dad (who still reads a print paper these days?!) I was made aware of this perfect connection to my recent trip to Spain. Thanks mum! Big color pictures of the famous basilica and a short article filled an […]

Classroom Connection

STEAM: Designing Sledding Ramps

January 31, 2016 No Comments

As a way to try out a STEAM project before diving into making windmills when I get back from Spain; my buddy 1st grade teacher and I decided to take on a smaller STEAM project with our classes, designing ramps for model sleds (bottle caps). Teaming up together to collaborate on this project could not have been better! The first grade teacher, Jess, and I worked together to find a easy first STEAM lesson we could do with our two classes. Jess found the perfect lesson that only required a few materials, and included a great graphic organizer for collecting data and […]