Including STEM in your classroom doesn't have to be spooky! There are many easy ways to incorporate hands on activities and promote thinking skills. Teaching 200 kindergartners per week, plus another 150 students in grades 1-4 makes it difficult to do complex activities with a lot of materials. I found using reusable materials like Legos, wooden blocks, magnet builders, recycled materials makes it much easier!
Find your favorite Halloween read aloud books and pull some activities from there!! It could be something a character does,the way something gets transported around, a funny moment. These small things can become a fun activity for students.
I love the poem and video for Five Little Pumpkins, so after watching, my students create their own gate for five pumpkins to sit on. This activity incorporates counting, balancing, problem solving and building. It is very simple and requires common materials, but the students have so much fun with it! Click here to see more.
Another simple idea is to create Halloween themed items with building bricks! Students can try to create 3D pumpkins, ghosts, bats and more! I use spark cards to inspire creativity and building. This is an easy way to incorporate building and problem solving into a class. Students are challenged with trying to make round objects out of bricks. It requires more thinking than we realize!
Check out these creations my first graders built!
For more simple, low prep challenges visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store. All activities come with a ready to go slideshow, so you can model and display read aloud videos, task cards, response sheets to your class. There are also certificates & stickers included.
