STEAMing into Christmas (Rotation 3)

Bell Ringer:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Christmas-Math-Centers-333470

I used the Christmas Coordinate Graphing page from this resource as our warm-up.

Lesson Frame:

Lesson:

I had six different STEAM challenges with each group having 3 students.  I carefully arranged the students myself, but then each table group the a number that represented one of the activities.  This allowed students to see that I didn't play favorites.

https://www.amazon.com/Bloxels-Build-Your-Video-Game/dp/B01FUFJ4ZQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509132839&sr=8-1&keywords=bloxels

Bloxels - http://home.bloxelsbuilder.com/index.html is a build your own video game activity.  I had three Bloxels kits and three iPads for students to use.  

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Lego Marble Run - https://frugalfun4boys.com/2016/01/13/lego-duplo-marble-run-stem-challenge/ is a STEAM challenge I found on the blog:  Frugal Fun 4 Boys and Girls.  We used the regular Lego sets I have with no difficulty.  This was the only true group activity where students worked together to complete a single outcome.

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http://littlebits.cc/

littleBits - http://littlebits.cc/ are easy to use electronic building blocks.  I was gifted a class set through Friends of Hamilton.  Again, there were enough pieces for all three students to have their own to explore with.

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https://hourofcode.com/us/learn

Hour of Code - https://hourofcode.com/us/learn gave students a chance to learn how to code.  To be honest, this was the least favorite, as everything else was more of a hands-on challenge.  I may try to find another hands-on activity next time.

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https://intentionalstorytime.wordpress.com/hands-on-science/engineering-challenge-index-card-towers/

STEAM Engineering Challenge:  Index Card Tower -  https://intentionalstorytime.wordpress.com/hands-on-science/engineering-challenge-index-card-towers/ challenged students to build a freestanding tower using only index cards.

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https://www.amazon.com/Klutz-Crazy-Action-Contraptions-Craft/dp/1591747694/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509134420&sr=8-1&keywords=lego+crazy+action+contraptions 

CrazyAction Contraptions - students worked to create one of the contraptions and, while no one was successful in fully completing the challenge, everyone loved it!

Close:

I actually used a random closure generating  website to reflect on the activities.  The website is:  Learning In Hand with Tony Vincent.  The reflection generator web address:

https://tonyv.neocities.org/reflect.html