STEM? STEAM? STEAML?

Dear Parents, 

STEM usually stands for Science Technology Engineering and Math, and STEAM is also becoming a popular buzzword in education. The extra A is for Art, but I'd also like to have Language in there too, because you get such great authentic writing when you give students a purpose to write about. 

It's been a fun week in the classroom. Yesterday, I challenged students to create a shoe out of paper. They got to work in teams and were allowed to use any of our scrap paper plus glue, tape or staples to fasten it together. The shoes had to fit on one student's foot and protect it from the environment. They were very focused for the entire work period and some stayed in for recess, on purpose, to finish decorating their shoes (I see I missed taking photos of these later creations, but will add them in when I show the writing). 

Putting final touches on it

Cutting out a sole

Using different pieces to create a shape

Measuring your foot

Shaping it with tape

Cutting out parts of the template

One group's final masterpiece

Today students worked in partners in math. First, we practiced sorting shapes by different properties (Number of corners, Number of sides, Lines of symmetry). Students have these math concepts, but often revert to more basic concepts when asked to sort (e.g.: Big vs. Little or by colour)

The shapes on the left all have 4 corners

Afterwards, students used the shapes to make some fun pictures.

For both activities, part of the goal is to get kids engaged in directed play. They're learning when they are experimenting and testing and taking risks. But these are also language activities, because they ask students to use specialized vocabulary for specific purposes: to label their pictures and to explain their thinking. 

Today was the due date for our birdhouse project. This process writing was practice for some of the writing we'll be doing about that. I hope to hang our birdhouses in the parenting centre yard tomorrow in advance of the long weekend and spend some time exploring out there as well.

Sincerely, 

Ms Goegan