Novel Engineering Snowy Day

I have been going to STEM training through my school district this year.  I have tried to start incorporating what I am learning in the meetings into my kindergarten classroom.  This post is one of three novel engineering experiences I have tried this year.  I read the book The Snowy Day in January and asked them to come up with an idea of how to help Peter.

For this lesson I posted some of the main problems Peter had on the board after we read the story.  They picked if they wanted to work in a small group or individually.  Then they were given a planning sheet.  I had bags of materials gathered ahead of time for them to use since this was our first experience.  They shared their ideas at the end.  What a fun experience! 

Acting Out The Enormous Turnip

My kids had a blast acting out The Enormous Turnip By: Bridie McBeath.  I made my turnip out of bulletin board paper.  I just bunched it up in the shape of a turnip and stapled it closed.  I added some colored cardboard for the leaves.  I put the turnip in between two desks and had just the leaves sticking up.  The farmer and his wife wore the brown hats, the neighbors and kids didn't need costumes, and the animals wore masks.  As each new character is introduce in the book that person comes up, grabs on the rope, and pulls.  I had two students behind the desks by the turnip, one of my students popped an arm out from behind the desks and held up the mouse stuffed animal.