Homeschool Meet-Up: Lucky Rocks and Microscopes

A monthly Thursday morning library program for homeschool families. 

Goals:

·                     Opportunity to explore STEAM concepts in a relaxed setting.

·                     Participants can socialize and connect with other homeschool families.

·                     Students build confidence and cooperative skills by completing tasks together.  

 

 

Activities of the day:

 “A” is for art: Paint Lucky Rocks

I spray painted some rocks gold.  I also bought some St. Patrick’s Day shamrock temporary tattoos.  I encouraged the children to paint the rocks or add the tattoos to the rocks.  Apparently temporary tattoos can be applied to rocks the same way they go on skin. 

  

 

“S” is for Science: Microscopes

I got the microscope kit from my library!  The kit includes traditional microscopes as well as a few hand-held microscopes.  The kit also comes with a variety of prepared slides.  The children enjoyed seeing cat fur, carrot skin, and a bunch of other everyday items at the microscopic level.   

 

 

“E” is for Engineering: Build with Blocks

I opened up the wood block cabinet for some creative building. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paper Hoop Glider - Passive Craft Table

 

What do you do when you find tons of plastic straws in your craft supply storage?  You create a craft table to use them up!  I created this passive craft table last summer to help use up all the straws I found.  This was a supper cheap craft table since I already had the paper, tape and coloring pens already on hand.  I found super easy instructions for this activity on the Instructables site at https://www.instructables.com/Hoop-Gliders-Galore/.  On another page they even explained the science of lift for these fun to make gliders at https://www.instructables.com/Hoop-GliderAirplane-STEAM-Activity/.  

Robots, BeeBots - A Family STEAM & Stories Event

This program was intended to introduce STEAM concepts through stories and exploration activity stations to families with children ages 3-8 years old.    

Intro song:  Hello Friends (sign language action song for the words hello, friends, math, fun, and time)

Hello friends,
Hello friends,
Hello friends,
It's time to say hello.

Hello science,
Hello science,
Hello science,
It's time to have some fun.   

 

Demonstration and Storytime:

 

·         Read the book Remarkable Robots by Tony Mitton, illustrated by Ant Parker  

·         Show the word card for robots.  Talk about what this word means.

·         Show pictures of various types of robots and talk about what these robots do.        

·         Instruct on how to use the stations. 

 

Stations: 

Station #1- BeeBots

The children entered movement commands into the BeeBots.    

Station #2 – Ozobots

Using a variety of small magnetic tiles, the children created paths for the tiny Ozobot robots to follow along with special color tiles with action codes. 

 

Station #3 – Animatronics

The children created an animatronic hand that really worked using cardstock, scissors, tape, yarn, and straws.      

 

 

Station #4 – Measuring robots

I found a cute free printable online that encouraged children to use Unifix cubes to measure the robots on the paper.      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Homeschool Meet-Up: Shrinky Dinks and Block Play

A monthly Thursday morning library program for homeschool families. 

Goals:

·                     Opportunity to explore STEAM concepts in a relaxed setting.

·                     Participants can socialize and connect with other homeschool families.

·                     Students build confidence and cooperative skills by completing tasks together.  

  

Activities of the day:

 “A” is for art and “S” is for science: Shrinky Dinks

I borrowed the library’s toaster oven and brought in “shrinky dink” plastic sheets for the children to design their own little pieces of plastic to watch them shrink in the oven. 

  

“E” is for Engineering: Build with Blocks

I opened up the wood block cabinet for some creative building.  I also brought out the bristle blocks and Unifix cubes to build with. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colors of the Rainbow - A Family STEAM & Stories event

This program was intended to introduce STEAM concepts through stories and exploration activity stations to families with children ages 3-8 years old.    

Intro song:  Hello Friends (sign language action song for the words hello, friends, math, fun, and time)

Hello friends,
Hello friends,
Hello friends,
It's time to say hello.

Hello science,
Hello science,
Hello science,
It's time to have some fun.   

 

Demonstration and Storytime:

 

·         Read the book What Is a Rainbow? by Harritet Blackford, illustrated by Mike Henson (from the TechTots STEM Science series  

·         Show the word card for rainbow.  Talk about what this word means.

·         Show the word card for colors.  Talk about what the word means.      

·         Show the word card for color spectrum.  Show a color spectrum chart.  Be sure to mention the “ROY G Biv” memory device. 

 

·         Put the color words for ROY G Viv on the white board.  Hand out papers with the colors on it.  (Give the blue, indigo, and violet papers to the older kids.)  Allow the children to tape their paper to the white board under the correct color. 

·         Instruct on how to use the stations. 

 

Stations: 

 

Station #1- Color roll game

The children roll the cloth die.  They then pick an action card that matches the up-top color on the die and do the action.  I used the ThinkFun Roll & Play game. 

Station #2 – Prism play

The children changed look through various shaped prisms to see the color spectrum. 

 

Station #3 – Beaded rainbow sun catcher

The children create a sun catcher using pony beads strong on a length of pipe-cleaners with one prism bead attached at the bottom.  I got this idea from Rhythms Of Play website at https://rhythmsofplay.com/rainbow-pony-bead-prism-suncatcher/.    

 

Station #4 – Lego brick challenge

I found some free printable Lego Rainbow challenge cards from the Little Bins for Little Hands website at https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/lego-rainbow-build-challenge-kids/.  I set out a large tub of Lego bricks along with these challenge cards.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinosaurs Again - A Family STEAM & Stories event

This program was intended to introduce STEAM concepts through stories and exploration activity stations to families with children ages 3-8 years old.    

Intro song:  Hello Friends (sign language action song for the words hello, friends, math, fun, and time)

Hello friends,
Hello friends,
Hello friends,
It's time to say hello.

Hello science,
Hello science,
Hello science,
It's time to have some fun.   

Hello dinosaur,
Hello dinosaur,
Hello dinosaur,
It’s time to give a roar!

 

Demonstration and Storytime:

 

·         Read the book T. Rex Meets It’s Match by Elizabeth Gilbert Bedia, illustrated by Marie Bollmann

·         Show pictures of dinosaurs and try to name them. 

·         Show the word cards for dinosaur, fossil, and extinct.  Talk about what the definitions of these words. 

·         Talk about how large a dinosaur footprint would be.

·         Show the life-size dinosaur footprint (pre-drawn on butcher paper). Guess how many children would fit inside this footprint (nontraditional measurement). 

·         Urge the children to stand in the footprint and count how many children fit inside.     

·         Instruct on how to use the stations. 

 

Stations: 

 

Station #1- Dinosaur scratch art ornament (similar to seen at https://a.co/d/1WgrDBX)

Use the wooden stylus to scratch off the black to create a colorful dinosaur.    

 

Station #2 – Clay fossil print   

Children take a small clump of air dry clay and then press it flat.  Next, they make fossil-like imprints in the clay with the provided materials (such as shells, pinecones, toy dinosaurs, sticks, plastic toy plants, etc.). 

  

Station #3 – Dinosaur classification   

The children look at dinosaur toy figures.  They place the dinosaurs on the classification papers that best match each dinosaur (carnivore, herbivore, four legs, two legs, lives in the ocean, etc.) 

 

 

Station #4 – Dinosaur Memory Game

 

Station #5 – Large 3-D Dino Bones (as seen at https://shop.imaginationplayground.com/products/large-dino-bones?srsltid=AfmBOoqi_RFKZZcZsZ90CPiaMF4v8pWW5od1njSr69Op55FcSR5SCxTL)