Summer STREAM
Engaging Students with Easy Ideas All Summer Long
What is Summer STREAM?
Every week we choose a children's book and develop a program around that book. We include activities that promote the foundations of STREAM: Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. Not all areas are covered every week but we do a good job of implementing most of them at one time.
Below are some examples of the books we chose and the activities we used. We hope this inspires you to start your own summer programs in your school.
Galileo's Leaning Tower Experiment by Wendy Macdonald
Galileo's Discovery
Students consider what will happen when they drop two objects with different masses from the same height, discuss and record their predictions. Using a variety of objects, students drop them from the various heights and then the same height. Discuss what they discovered (Objects with different masses will land at the same time when dropped from the same height as long as wind resistance isn't a factor.) Share the story Galileo's Leaning Tower Experiment by Wendy Macdonald. Ask students to relate their own experiments with Galileo's.
Expand on the tower theme by challenging teams of students to build towers using the same number of large and small marshmallows and toothpicks. Allow about 20 minutes for them to work on the towers before measuring them to see which tower was tallest and was able to stand without them touching it. Discuss the process they used in building, what worked, and what they'd do differently.
The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires
We love this book! If you don't have a copy in your STREAM area, get one! We shared it with our students and talked a lot about feelings of frustration and perseverance. Most of our students could relate to a time when they felt frustrated but worked through it. Some mentioned things like Minecraft structures or puzzles. On this day we gave them a task to build a moving vehicle out of Legos. We added a few details to increase the challenge but the task of engineering is often one of trial and error. We had a great time watching their vehicles roll in the hallway and fall apart...Back to the drawing board! At the end of the day, it was a great opportunity to develop deep character in our students.
Book Talks
Shark Week
First we shared shark stories and asked questions about sharks. It was just an opening conversation and everyone had something to share about sharks! Next we read several shark books like Nugget and Fang by Tammi Sauer and Michael Slack and The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark by Ken Geist . We did a read aloud time and paused to let students predict. We also used a concept map to compare Geist's book to the familiar story of the Three Little Pigs. Our technology piece really got the students excited because we tracked sharks at http://www.ocearch.org/. We looked at the different kinds of sharks all over the world and compared their sizes. We were able to look at a history of where the sharks had traveled and checked in. Students were asked to pick their favorite shark. We measured paper the lengths of their sharks and cut out a shark. Students were amazed at the size and laughed when they fit in the shark belly.
Mr. Nussbaum also has a very full Shark section: http://mrnussbaum.com/sharks/
Most importantly, shark and ocean books flew off the shelves that week!
Story Retelling
Any Engineering Idea Will Engage!
Check back as we are currently planning this year's Summer STREAM!
Jennifer Roberson
Email: jennifer.roberson@rss.k12.nc.us
Website: http://bostianmedia.webs.com/
Location: Bostian Elementary School, Old Beatty Ford Road, China Grove, NC, United States
Twitter: @bostianmedia
Becky Goddard
Email: rebecca.goddard@rss.k12.nc.us
Website: http://goddardrl.webs.com/
Location: Bostian Elementary School, Old Beatty Ford Road, China Grove, NC, United States
Twitter: @beckyg314