SCIENCE WEEK 2018!

Game changers and change makers...

Doesn't that theme just get you excited for Science Week? To me it's all about STEM, innovation, inquiry, investigations and experiments. We want to encourage our students to think outside the box, use their creativity and push the boundaries of what they already know and take for granted.

Science Week 2018 takes place of the week between 11th and 19th of August right around Australia. Some schools might choose to do lunch time activities in the Science labs, buddy class activities, rotations around the school or simply make extra time in their timetables for some super fun Science activities within their own classrooms.

This is a sponsored post as part of my Brand Ambassadorship with Teach Starter. 

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Top Tips for Teaching Shape

Today we're talking about SHAPES!

It's probably the second biggest Mathematics unit in your term after Number. Children are usually exposed to the basic 2D shapes well before they start school (quite often thanks to the Play School windows), but it's so important that we as Junior Primary teachers give them a good foundation of both 2D and 3D shapes. As I was planning this post, and how to incorporate some Teach Starter resources, I came up with four key points to keep in mind when planning learning experiences for young children.

• Make it hands on
• Make it real life
• Make it purposeful
• and make it fun.

This is a sponsored post as part of my Brand Ambassadorship with Teach Starter. 

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A Wrap Up of our Term 1 Living Things Unit

I don't know about you - but we had THE BEST time in the Early Years in Term 1. So much learning happened. So many new things, new friends and new experiences.

For a few years now, our key theme for Term 1 is "Living Things" alongside our author study of Eric Carle. Of course we are always evolving, adding, changing and updating our programme, but the overarching theme has remained the same. It's just such a good starting place for the first term of school.

Eric Carle Animal Alphabet flash cards + alphabet pebbles + alphablocks

Way back when I first started blogging in 2014, I did a post about our Eric Carle Author Study (read it here - my how much my blog has changed and evolved since then!). In this post I go through 5 of the key texts which are all about insects/living things in the garden. Today's post is a bit more general and to show you some other things we've been doing (incase you missed them on Instagram).

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This Month's STEM Nest Activity Kits

You all know how much I love STEM right? Well it's time for another update on what we've been doing with our monthly STEM Nest activity kits. We have got to experience so much already - constructing, designing, building, experimenting, recording, freezing, melting, pouring, mixing, stacking and exploring our senses. Incase you missed them - check out my previous posts here...

• New Exciting Products from STEM Nest
• Teaching STEM to Preschoolers
• Celebrating Science Week

This month was all about living things - in particular, germinating seeds!

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New Exciting Products from STEM Nest

Over the past four months, we've been sampling the STEM Nest and Little STEMies activity kits. I've been so impressed with the variety of activities. and learning opportunities in which they have provided. This month, Karlie, the owner of STEM Nest (also from Adelaide) has expanded her online store range to include some fantastic educational products, toys and resources to encourage STEM thinking.

This is a sponsored post as part of my Brand Ambassadorship with STEM Nest. 

Here's just a few of my favourites...(well my top 5 actually) but there are many more on the site!

Firstly are the Neoformers magnetic shapes. You may have seen similar products to this one around (but this one is much more affordable) and it's such a great construction toy. The shapes cleverly attach together with magnets making structures more stable. This set comes with triangles and squares which allows for many possible structures and shapes. Learning about magnets is more certainly a part of science, however this toy pretty much ticks all of the STEM boxes.

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Tips for Teaching STEM to Preschoolers

There's been a lot of talk about STEM and STEAM on my blog lately, and for good reason! I've been working with a new small Adelaide based business called STEM Nest who are all about bringing STEM into your everyday life at home - no matter the age of your child! You may remember my post on school aged children's activity kits and I'm so pleased this month to be able to give you an idea of what Karlie from STEM Nest is able to provide to preschoolers (or "Little STEMies"). It's all about hands on learning, exploring materials, sensory play and encouraging our little ones to be little innovators before they've even started school.

Sound like something your little one might like? Read on!

This is a sponsored post as part of my Brand Ambassadorship with STEM Nest. These products were kindly gifted.

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5 STEAM Learning Opportunities with Rusty Rivets

This is a sponsored post in conjunction with Mumtastic and Nick Jr. 

Every now and then you come across a new kid’s TV show that really impresses. Now, as a teacher I have quite a critical eye when it comes to my kid’s TV viewing, and if they have opportunities to think and learn while they’re watching – I’m happy.

STEAM (an acronym for the subject areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) is huge in schools right now – and Rusty from Nick Jr’s new show Rusty Rivets is quite the little engineer creating all sorts of gadgets and gizmos using a variety of tools and recycled materials. His friend Ruby is always by his side ready for help and work as a team!

So this week we got our thinking caps on and raided the shed to find all sorts of nuts, bolts and bits and pieces that we could use to do some STEAM of our own! Keep reading for a fun activity to do for each learning area (some of course will cover more than one!).

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