Stories and STEAM

Past Announcements

1/28/2021-Almost everyone had such a great time sewing today (there were a few grumpies)! We had to work on making our yarn go over and under the punched holes. A few expert sewers worked "sew" quickly they were able to finish up stitching all the way around their clouds. These are truly going to look beautiful when they are completed! We talked about what princesses might do while sewing including listening to music, singing, listening to someone read the Bible or storybooks, or just simply talk with others. This was great for fine motor practice, which many students need! You can have your cutie practice at home by punching holes in a paper in a design and having them stitch with yarn.

1/21/2021-This week, we kept working on our "Princess Project" of sewing and painting by painting our giant cloud! We used shaving cream and paint and some students were able to see the marbling effect. We have a couple of more weeks to work on this project (there are lots of layers to it, but it will be BEAUTIFUL when it is finished!).

1/14/2021- Welcome back and welcome to the new friends joining us! If you'll recall, all our themes for this year have been Medieval in nature. We've discussed and experimented with castles and dragons so far this year. Now, we'll be learning about real princesses and knights!
We started learning about princesses today by reading The Paper Bag Princess and making a sewing project, since princesses were known to sew much of the time. Today, we worked on the fine motor skills we will need to sew by tracing and cutting. This was very hard for many of the kiddos! If you can practice fine motor skills, these will help students with tying shoes, opening small latches and locks, and WRITING! Please practice these at home for those of you who need a little more practice. You can lace beads, cut lines, or trace lines, swirls, circles, etc.

Announcements: Welcome to Class! I'm so glad you are here! Please have your own individual supplies (pencil, paper, glue sticks, scissors, crayons or markers). We've been much more successful staying in our classroom, so we'll continue to do that. It can get a bit chilly in there, so you may want to send a jacket!

12/10-Those of you who brought Santa Traps diagrams in did a great job of showing how you might trap Santa! Yesterday in class we talked about molecules and density. We learned that if an object has tightly packed molecules, it is more dense than water and will sink. If an object has loosely packed molecules, it is less dense than water and will float. Then we tested our predictions about floating and sinking Christmas items! We tried evergreen, ribbon, cookie cutter, jingle bells, cranberries, and a candy cane! We were surprised by some of the results!

DECEMBER 3rd-VIRTUAL CLASS-This will be an asynchronous class, meaning you can do these activities any time before we meet again (which will hopefully be 12/10)! Please watch the video of The Great Santa Stakeout (this was the book we were going to read in class today). After you have watched a few times, grab a piece of paper, crayons, pencils, and any other drawing tools you might need and design a Santa Trap! You will need to think of some "bait" to lure Santa into your trap. You will also need to include a way to "catch" Santa and keep him in your trap. Label all the parts of your Santa Trap and bring this design to class next week (hopefully)! If you are very ambitious, you can build your Santa trap from things you have around your house!

11/19-I am so, so proud of this class! We have done science experiments for two weeks in a row and everyone has done a great job of following directions! Yesterday, we made Dragon Eggs! Actually we started growing borax crystals on eggshells, but they look like a cool egg from which a dragon might hatch! We made a supersaturated solution of borax and very hot water and we learned that when the water starts to evaporate, it will leave behind the borax crystals! I can't wait to see how everyone's eggs turn out! I would love to see photos of your cuties with their eggs! You can email me or post on Instagram @drrowereads. Most of us also finished up our dragon egg art project!

11/12-Well, we didn't quite finish our dragon egg art project, but we were able to complete a very successful (and messy) science experiment! We made foaming dragons yesterday! It was great fun and we learned that when the base of baking soda combines with the acid of vinegar, a gas is formed. We knew it was a gas because we observed bubbles!! The students did an AMAZING job of following directions and listening, so I see more science experiments in our future!

11/5 Today, we started working on a dragon art project. We discussed animals that were hatched and animals that had scales. Hopefully, these will come home next week!

10/29-We read Me and My Dragon Scared of Halloween. To practice our math skills, we made pattern dragons, using fractions of circles. We were able to talk about how fractions are parts and we cut our circles into fourths. Then we made a colorful pattern and made our dragon as symmetrical as possible. There was much math discussion!

10/22-Today we read Have You Seen My Dragon? by Steve Light. This was the first in a series of dragon books and activities we'll be doing from now until Thanksgiving. After that, some students finished working on their stained glass and others learned a new game called Triangles into Squares, which promoted spatial reasoning and critical thinking! We had a great time!

10/8-Hopefully, everyone took his/her castle home! They did an amazing job with that construction! We started working on a faux stained glass project that will be absolutely gorgeous when completed. When we return from Fall Break, we'll begin our unit on DRAGONS!!!

10/1-Most students finished up the last round of castle construction. The goal is to have four towers and four walls with a functional drawbridge. One of the things that is critical in STEAM classes is the element of problem solving. We discovered MANY problems with our drawbridge plan, but we spent some time and problem solved. Most students were able to come up with several solutions for solving the problem--some of them were ideas that I hadn't even considered! I was so proud of them! We will finish up our castles next week and they will come home! Once we return from Fall Break, we will shift to working on our study of dragons!

Recap: 9/24: Yesterday, some students still worked on the first round of castle engineering. Other students moved on to adding the turrets to their castles. The last stage is to make a functional drawbridge. This has been an ambitious project and you should be proud of your engineers! Hopefully, castles will come home before fall break!

Recap 9/17: Today was castle building day! The students were very, very excited.....until it got hard! A lot of friends got frustrated and wanted to quit, but we had a talk about how challenging STEAM can be and how challenges are good! We even talked about how grown-up scientists and engineers get frustrated and sometimes their buildings don't stay together either. After that, everyone was encourage (but still frustrated). They pushed through the frustration and continued to build! We're only done one round of fortifications, so we'll continue to build next week! We also practiced our graphing skills with a color, count, and graph. Be sure to follow on Instagram (@drrowereads) to see photos from our building sessions!

Recap 9/10: Yesterday, we were acting like stone masons and spent our time stamping our stones on the walls and towers of our castles. When students finished, they worked on completing some subtraction facts on a castle coloring page (those not quite ready for subtraction just colored).

Recap 9/3: We've started our castle construction! It will take several weeks to build our castles, but they are going to look awesome when they do come home! Yesterday, we all learned that builders need a blueprint to follow when they are building. One brilliant student said, "It's like a map!" So, we made our castle "map" and listened to beginning and ending sounds to label the map and learn the parts of a castle like a parapet, turret, drawbridge, and moat. Then, some students began working on stamping the front part of their castles while others worked on sorting skills, pattern matching and extending, and symmetry. Next week, students will swap and keep moving those castles forward!

Recap 8/27: Yesterday was a great day! Most of our friends were able to participate and everyone seemed to have a great time learning! We read a little bit about castles and learned the new terms: moat, drawbridge, and gate (portcullis). Then students used stencils to draw a large scale castle including those elements. Students also practiced their sorting skills by sorting in our castle towers with parapets. I was so proud of how many good listeners we had yesterday! Please make sure your student has supplies for each class and sharing is discouraged for the time being. If you'd like to see the things we work on in class, follow Dr. Rowe on Instagram (@drrowereads) to get a sneak peek!

Recap 8/20: We had a bit of a bumpy start yesterday, but I'm confident that things will improve as students learn procedures and become familiar with how STEAM works! We will continue to try and work outside, but if that becomes impossible, we may have to move inside. STEAM is a large class, so social distancing in a classroom is a challenge, so I would much prefer to stay outside. Please encourage students to follow directions, listen to the teachers (myself and our fabulous helper Ms. Wendi) and make good choices. Yesterday, we listened to a story and worked on creating radial designs with sidewalk chalk.

4/29-Today, we learned more about the process of becoming a knight. We also worked more on our knights' shields. These will begin to trickle home as we finish them. Next week is our last class! We have had so much fun learning about the Middle Ages and STEAM concepts!

4/22-As good readers, we know it is important to ask questions before we read. Today, we learned how to ask a lot of really thoughtful and insightful questions about knighthood. We started a book about a character named James who is training to be a knight (first he has to be a page, then a squire!). We will continue this story next week. We also started working on a shield design! We will continue working on this next week as well.

4/15/2021-We finished up our bed challenge. Almost everyone worked hard on a bed for the princess. We determined that for the bed to be able to stand on its own, it needed some type of base. We also learned that in order to keep the "pea" off the table, we needed a base as well. The thicker our materials (sponges) the less likely we were to feel the pea. Some kiddos did some princess and the pea math problems as well. These pages came home, so they can finish them if you would like! Next week, we'll work on a knight project!

4/8/2021-Construction on our Princess beds has begun! We'll build our beds and test them to see if the marble can be felt.

4/1/2021-Today we read The Princess and the Pea. Then, we began to construct our princess bed. We are attempting to build a bed so that the princess will not feel the pea (a marble).

3/25/2021-Today, we read The Evil Princess & the Brave Knight and we tested our catapults for distance, accuracy, and power. We also compared our data using graphs and charts. Next week, we'll work on a princess project!

3/11/2021-Everyone had a chance to regroup on their catapult project. We observed some images and labeled diagrams of the elements of a catapult and then rebuilt our structures. Students were able to exchange any extra materials in the STEAM store to get items they needed. We'll test our catapults when we return from break and read another story about another brave knight!

3/4/2021-We began working on our knight project--A catapult! First we read a story about a Knight who said, "NO!" and talked about sometimes it's o.k. to say no, both other times it is not--like if your mom asks you to clean your room! We opened up our STEAM Store and everyone had $5 (imaginary) to spend on items in the store (sticks, tape, spoon, lid, string, rubber bands, etc.). They had the option to work independently or work in a group. They quickly realized if they worked in a group, they could pool their money and have many more supplies! Then, groups had to make a list, determine how much money their supplies would be and then come shop! They also had to determine how much money they had left over. Then the construction began. We'll keep working on these next week and hopefully test for accuracy, distance, and power when we return from spring break!

2/25/2021-We finished up our Rainbow Clouds today. We'll hang them in our room for a bit before sending them home. Since that was a princess project, we moved on to discussing knight projects. The first knight project we're going to complete is a catapult. We talked about all the elements of a catapult and then made a supply list of STEAM supplies we could use to built our catapult. Many of the students were able to design their catapults. In the next few weeks, we'll be building and testing our catapults! It will be great fun!

2/18/2021-VIRTUAL CLASS- One of our upcoming projects will be Illuminated Letters. You might have an old text or Bible that has some illuminated letters. See if you can find some examples in your house. If you can't you can look at examples of Illuminated Letters online. Once you have looked at examples, try making your own! You can watch this video to walk you through how to make Illuminated Letters with an art teacher in Dublin, Ireland! Bring them to class the next time we meet!

2/11/2021-Everyone finished up their rainbows, so we discussed how rainbows are formed. We also discussed the water cycle and how precipitation occurs. We saw a science experiment which demonstrated how clouds become saturated and rain pours out of the clouds!

2/4/2021-Today, we began the final installment of our princess project. Everyone has finished the stitching around the edge of his or her cloud and most have moved on to making the rainbow! These are turning our wonderfully! We continue to improve our fine motor skills the longer we work on our clouds. These will hang in our room for a while before coming home, but you are welcome to pop in a see them once we get them displayed. Speaking of displays, you may have noticed our beautiful stained glass artwork on the windows across from the library. If you were not able to see those, you will not be disappointed if you stop by! They are truly spectacular with the sun shining through them. You can also read about all the things we learned during the process!