I am a student teacher in a Bilingual Kindergarten class. My mentor teacher and I teach Language Arts and Writing in Spanish. I was having some difficulty on how we could incorporate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) into our classroom. This is when I found a great STEM website- http://teachers.egfi-k12.org/three-little-pigs-design-challenge/ , the one lesson that caught my eye was incorporating a classic book- the Three Little Pigs and a STEM activity to build the houses out of 'straw, wood, and brick'. They would have to make a sketch of the plans and then take it into action. The Big Bad Wolf (a fan dressed as a wolf) would blow the houses and they have to see if there's held on. I love how we can incorporate a STEM activity in out Language Arts class. My students will love this!
I think that is a great resource to use to integrate STEM activities into the classroom. I would also suggest using cognates for English language learners to make the lesson more comprehensible for them. I think this will make the lesson more relatable to the students when their native language is used as a tool to convey instruction to them.
I love how you can use the prior knolage and familiarity that they kids have with the story to give explinations in science. This is very creative. I will be checking out the website. Thanks for sharing!!
STEM
Hello, Brenda! I think that is such a great idea. It helps incorporate STEM with ELA. I think it would be very interesting to have your students do this as it allows them to also think about how they want to build it. It will allow them to expand their thinking as they can fix the house if the Big Bad Wolf knocks it down the first time. It would also be a good way to have students learn how to work together to solve a problem. I think it would very interesting to see older students work on this as well. Thank you for sharing!
That is a wonderful idea! Yes prior knowledge is crucial especially at a young age. I used to teach bilingual kindergarten. Science was always my favorite subject to teach with them. Which state do you teach in? I taught in Washington which has some district with wonderful bilingual programs. I can PM you some resources if you'd like. I still have lots of plans and links that might be helpful. I don't teach bilingual kinder anymore but it was a great experience and I loved it.
Forum content is subject to the same rules as NSTA List Serves. Rules and disclaimers