math Archives - Teacher's Brain

The Top 3 Benefits of STEM Activities in Elementary

November 3, 2023 teachersbrain Science, STEM, Teacher's Pay Teachers, Teaching Tips

Wondering about the benefits of STEM activities in elementary? You’re in the right place! If you know me, you know I love STEM activities and it’s so fun to see our young students light up when they are wrapped up and fully engaged in STEM learning.

What is STEM and why is it important?

STEM is essentially an integrated approach to learning that incorporates four key disciplines: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. These subjects are at the heart of many of the world’s most pressing challenges and exciting opportunities, so it’s important that we get our kiddos comfortable with it from an early age.

Here are some of the top benefits of STEM activities:

STEM Activities Foster Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving

STEM challenges are like brain-boosting exercises for our young learners. They help our students flex their thinking muscles by encouraging them to ask questions, explore solutions, and adapt their strategies when faced with hurdles. It’s all about honing those essential problem-solving skills that will serve them well in school and beyond.

Tip: To make this even more exciting, encourage your students to team up and work together. When they brainstorm and chat about their ideas, it can take their critical thinking skills to a whole new level!

Promotes a Love for Learning

Let’s make learning an adventure! STEM challenges turn the classroom into a place where students can have a blast while they learn. Children are naturally curious, and these activities tap into that curiosity. When kids are having fun, they’re more likely to remember what they’ve learned and develop a deep love for STEM subjects.

Tip: Choose challenges that match your students’ interests. Whether it’s building, experimenting, or exploring, let their passions lead the way. And don’t forget to weave in some fun stories and real-world examples to keep them engaged.

Builds Confidence and Resilience

Completing STEM challenges is a wonderful confidence booster! When students conquer obstacles and see their ideas come to life, they walk a little taller and believe in themselves, and what teacher wouldn’t love that?! Plus, they learn that mistakes are just stepping stones to success. That kind of resilience is a life skill that will stay with them long after they leave your classroom.

Tip: Celebrate every little success with your students. Emphasize the value of hard work and not giving up, even when things get tough. Encourage them to look back on their mistakes as opportunities to grow and do even better in the next challenge.

Looking for the perfect STEM challenge? Here are some super fun and engaging STEM challenges to try with your students:

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie STEM Challenge | Build a Mouse House

Be the teacher they remember with these engaging STEM Activities! Kids will have a blast learning about blueprints, floor plans, area, design, and writing while doing these activities! Use the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff as a HOOK with this STEM activity! Check it out!

Apollo Lunar Module STEM Challenge

Are you looking for an engaging STEM Challenge to enhance your space unit or to teach how the first man landed on the moon? This is a great challenge for students to use materials to create a Lunar Lander module to test for a soft landing with their “shock absorbers.”

Building 2D & 3D Shapes Toothpick Cards, Activities and Challenges

Are you looking for some fun STEM ideas to incorporate into building math geometry skills with 2D and 3D Shapes? I have you covered with these Build A Shape Mats! Print and laminate. Students build it with toothpicks and molding dough (you can use marshmallows or gumdrops instead), count the toothpicks, sides, vertices, and trace the words!

I hope you love these activities and that your students have lots of fun with them! Looking for more tips for STEM learning? Check out my post here!

How to Help Students Avoid the Summer Slide

May 12, 2023 teachersbrain Teaching Tips

With summer fast approaching, it’s time to start thinking about how you can prevent your students from experiencing the dreaded “summer slide.”

What is the summer slide in education?

Summer slide is that phenomenon where kids lose some of the academic skills they gained during the school year when they’re away from the classroom for too long. Yikes!

Is summer slide a real thing?

Unfortunately yes, it is. According to research by the National Summer Learning Association, students can lose up to two months of academic progress over the summer months!

The National Summer Learning Association also reports that teachers spend between four and six weeks re-teaching material at the beginning of each school year due to summer learning loss.

So how do you beat the summer slide?

Don’t worry, there are plenty of things you can do to help your students avoid the summer slide and keep their brains engaged all summer long. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Encourage Reading

As you know, reading is a great way to keep your students’ minds active and engaged over the summer. Encourage them to pick up books that interest them and make sure they have plenty of opportunities to read. You might consider hosting a summer reading program or creating a reading challenge to keep kids motivated. You can also suggest that they check out their local library for similar programs!

Make Learning Fun

Summer is the perfect time to get creative with your lesson plans. Try to find ways to make learning fun and engaging, whether that’s through hands-on activities, group projects, or field trips. The more enjoyable the learning experience, the more likely your students will be to stay engaged and motivated.

Utilize Online Resources

Thanks to the internet, there are plenty of online resources available that can help keep your students engaged over the summer. Whether it’s educational videos, interactive games, or virtual field trips, there’s something out there for everyone. Consider creating a list of resources for your students to explore over the summer.

Keep It Balanced

While it’s important to keep students engaged academically over the summer, it’s also important to give them a break and allow them to enjoy their summer vacation. Make sure your students have plenty of time for rest, relaxation, and fun activities that don’t involve schoolwork. Balance is key!

If you want the perfect resource to help minimize summer slide in your students, you should check out these Summer Packets! I created them with education, fun, and balance in mind so that your students can keep their brains engaged all summer long.

These packets are math and literacy-focused Google Ready digital activities that make it easy to do them at home with parents.

Here’s how to use it:

This is designed with Google Slides. It includes a parent letter, physical and oral suggestions, a reading log, and a review of math and language arts activities. Download and TpT will force a copy of it on your Google Drive. Students do not need to have Google Classroom to participate.

Here’s what’s included:

Pg. 1 Cover

pg. 2. How to use this packet and Parent Tips

pg.3 Oral and physical activity suggestions

pg. 4 Reading Log

Pg. 5 & 6 Sight Word List

Pg. 7-12 Sight Word Sort Review Activities

pg. 13-18 Word Families

pg. 19- 23 ABC Order Printables

pg. 24-25 Correcting Sentences

pg. 26-29 (Nouns, Verbs, Proper Nouns, Long and Short Vowels)

pg. 30-38 WRITING – Narrative, Opinion, Creative (Some printable to encourage handwriting)

pg. 39-41 Comprehension & Fluency

pg. 42- 59 Math Number Bonds, Addition, Subtraction, Shapes, measurement, 10 More 10 Less

Check out the video tutorial!

Love this but need it for a different grade? Check out other grades or get the bundle!

By implementing these strategies, you can help your students avoid the summer slide and start the next school year on the right foot. Remember, summer should be a time of fun and exploration, but that doesn’t mean learning has to take a backseat. With a little creativity and planning, you can help your students keep their minds active and engaged all summer long.

For more reasons to keep learning going all summer, check out my post here!

Summer Packets To Prevent The Summer Slide

May 13, 2022 teachersbrain education, Math, Reading, Sight Words, Teacher's Pay Teachers, Teaching Tips

Summer is just around the corner! This is one of the best times of the year because not only do you get a much-needed break, but you get to see all of the progress your students have made throughout the year and celebrate them for it. Seeing how far they have come in their reading levels or math skills is just wonderful. Even better, it’s amazing to see how their confidence has grown throughout the year!

With the long relaxing break, however, comes one not-so-fun thing. The summer slide.

What is the summer slide?

This is the tendency of students to lose some of the achievement gains that they made during the school year and regress academically. This is especially prevalent in low-income areas.

How do you beat the summer slide?

I know, the last thing you want is for your students to go backward. But what can you do? One of the best ways to keep that knowledge fresh is to assign some educational activities for students to complete during summer break. Another idea is to keep them reading with some fun reading summer challenges. You could send home a reading log for students to fill in with everything they read on their own during the summer and if they bring it back completed they get to go to an ice cream party.

For more reasons to keep students learning during summer break, check out my post here!

How do you engage students over the summer?

You’ll want activities that are engaging enough that they will stick to it and be excited to do. Need summer activities for students? Don’t worry, I have you covered!

These summer packets for 1st grade are all you need!

I love these packets because they are completely digital. This means that you don’t need to print out a bunch of packets and spend time putting them together. Students can complete it all online!

This is designed with Google Slides. It includes a parent letter, physical and oral suggestions, a reading log, and a review of math and language arts activities. Students do not need to have Google Classroom to participate.

Here’s what’s included:

How to use this packet and Parent Tips
Oral and physical activity suggestions
Reading Log
Sight Word List
Sight Word Sort Review Activities
Word Families
ABC Order Printables
Correcting Sentences
(Nouns, Verbs, Proper Nouns, Long and Short Vowels)
WRITING – Narrative, Opinion, Creative (Some printable to encourage handwriting)
Comprehension & Fluency
MATH Number Bonds, Addition, Subtraction, Shapes, measurement, 10 More 10 Less

Check out the summer packets for 1st grade video tutorial here!

If you love this summer packet, make sure to check out the packet for each grade in elementary school!

These are perfect no matter what grade you teach. The activities can be explained by the adult, but on most pages, it should not be necessary since it is a review. Children should be able to complete most activities independently.

I recommend setting a 20 to 30-minute block of time for the student daily to work on these activities. They should enhance their vacation! Each packet includes a summer journal, sight words, reading logs, math, and LA printables.

Do you assign summer activity packets? Let me know in the comments!

Spring Break Packets For Elementary

March 11, 2022 teachersbrain Teacher's Pay Teachers

We all know how important it is for our students to get a break from school. To relax and take their mind off of it and just enjoy being kids. Spring break is a great time to do this!

As important as the downtime is, it wouldn’t hurt for students to also get a little practice with those skills we’ve been working so hard on in class. In fact, parents are often asking for something for their children to work on while they’re out of school.

Naturally, with any break from school, there is a degree of regression. Studies actually show that students are more likely to score lower on tests after being on break than they are during school.

Assigning light but engaging activities during spring break can be the perfect way to keep their brains active while not in school and prevent that learning regression as much as possible.

The key is to assign work that is engaging and will get your students thinking, but won’t take up too much of their time.

When I was in the classroom, I would let the students know that it’s not mandatory, but if they complete it, they will get some sort of reward or prize when they return it to school. This could be a homework pass, treat, pizza party, or something similar.

I created Spring Break Packets for each elementary grade to help make it easy for you!

These packets have a spring theme to make it fun for students. You can buy them as a bundle or individually for the grade you need! No prep required, just print these out and go!

Here’s what you can expect for each grade level:

Pre-K

Spring break word bank, reading log, sight word lists and progress monitoring sheet, handwriting, trace lines, find the letter, color the crayon, writing, upper and lowercase letter work, patterns, sight word find, coloring, comprehension sequencing cards, math printables (adding, counting, shapes, number charts, number line, counting on)

Kindergarten

Spring break word bank, reading log, sight word lists, progress monitoring sheet, narrative writing, printables on CVC word families, reading comprehension, rhyming word crossword puzzle, handwriting practice, ABC order, rewrite the sentence, adjectives and nouns, math printables (addition, subtraction, counting on, adding single digit numbers, shapes, fill in the number chart, number bonds, 10 more, 10 less and 1 MORE 1 Less)

First Grade

Spring break word bank, reading log, sight word lists, narrative writing, printables on CVC word families, reading comprehension, , ABC order, rewrite the sentence, adjectives and nouns, Math Printables ( Addition, subtraction, mental math, adding 2 digit numbers, shapes, measurement, number bonds, 10 more, 10 less and 1 MORE 1 Less)

Second Grade

Word bank, reading log, sight word list, opinion writing, printables on adjectives, nouns , plural and singular nouns, collective nouns, reading comprehension, suffixes, ABC order, rewrite the sentence and word sorts, math printables ( expanded form addition, subtraction, mental math, adding 3 numbers, shapes, measurement, 10 more, 10 less)

Third Grade

Word bank, reading log, sight word list, opinion & narrative writing, printables on context clues, abbreviations, prepositions, verbs reading comprehension, suffixes, ABC order, and rewriting the sentence, math printables (bar graph, addition and subtraction 3 digits, rounding, perimeter and area, fractions, multiplication, division and comparing numbers)

Fourth Grade

Word bank, reading log, suggested sight word list, biography reporting, opinion & narrative writing, printables on context clues, to too two, there they’re their, a an, prefixes, root words, suffixes, relative pronouns, comprehension, past tenses, ABC order, and rewriting the sentence, Math Printables (factoring, 3-digit addition, rounding, multiping using the area model, greater than less than, rounding, fractions, multiplication and comparing numbers)

Fifth Grade

Word bank, reading log, 5th grade suggested sight word list, biography reporting, opinion, informative & narrative writing, printables on context clues, fluency, there they’re their, inference, main Idea, prefixes, root words, suffixes, relative pronouns, comprehension, past tenses, ABC order, and correcting sentences, math printables (graphing points, coordinate patterns, adding subtracting and multiplying decimals, order of operation, factoring, 3-digit addition, rounding, multiping using the area model, greater than less than, rounding, fractions, multiplication and comparing numbers)

Do you assign school work during spring break? Let me know in the comments!