The week before Christmas is always a tough one for students and teachers because we are all so excited for Christmas and the much needed break! It can be challenging to keep kids on task..especially when you have a full week of full days! Knowing this, I decided to plan some engaging STEM activities to excite and motivate the kids to use their brains and think "outside of the box." Let me tell you, they did a GREAT job! They worked individually and in groups and I was in awe of their critical thinking skills and interest in these activities. I hope that they shared some of the knowledge that they learned about snowflakes and igloos with you at home! Check out the pictures below to see some of what we did before Christmas!
We really had a great last week before Christmas!
Miss Tosti
Symmetrical Snowflakes
We first watched a video about how snowflakes are formed. The kids were shocked to learn that a single snowflake starts from a speck of dust! After talking about the life cycle of a snowflake we learned that each snowflake has 6 sides and they are symmetrical. After talking about what symmetry was we constructed our own snowflakes using Q-Tips. Each snowflake came out unique!
Engineering Igloos
Next, we learned about the coldest place in the world! Some kids already knew that it was the South Pole! We watched a video of a real igloo being built in the South Pole. We paid special attention to how the eskimos built from the bottom to the top. After talking about the construction and why it has to be built that way the kids were excited to build their own! I gave them a styrofoam cup, mini marshmallows and some icing for glue and they each built their own igloo! You could hear a pin drop in our classroom during this activity! I think it was their favorite :)
Candy Cane Experiment
Our last Science activity was the Candy Cane Experiment. We got our materials: candy canes, hot water, cold water and vinegar. We talked about predictions and discussed what the word dissolve meant. Then each student predicted what liquid would dissolve the candy cane the fastest. Most thought vinegar, followed by cold water and then hot. We were shocked to see just how quickly some of the candy canes started dissolving. We recorded and drew our observations. In the end, the hot water dissolved the candy cane in 25 minutes (followed by the vinegar then cold water)!
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