My best memories of my elementary education are all the project-based activities that were embedded into the curriculum. Projects that were based on real-life situations that helped me learn in an innovative and creative fashion. In 4^th grade, I made a large-sized teepee (out of my mother’s good linens), decorated it with Sioux symbols and it sat in our school library for several months and served as a reading nook. I have no idea how I got or secured the lumber but I remember measuring the bed linens and painstakingly wrapping them around the 3 poles and then cutting a flap for the entrance way. I remember being the “authority” on teepee life and sharing my information with classmates who were studying other aspects of Sioux life. I moved to a different school in 6^th grade, a smaller school where there were 2 classes on each grade. When studying ancient civilizations, each class made up their own civilization complete with its own alphabet and culture and made artifacts to represent that culture. We then buried our artifacts in a volunteer’s backyard. (I grew up in a suburb of Chicago with plenty of room) After burying our created civilization, we became archeologists. We excavated the other class’s civilization, deciphered their artifacts and learned about their civilization. I just e-mailed with four of my 6^th grade classmates and they all remember the project fondly and had hilarious anecdotes to share.

STEAM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in five specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics — in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. Our 1978 6^th grade civilizations projects included all of these disciplines. Science and Art are all around us, everyday. Technology is expanding into every aspect of our children’s education lives; my students have their own iPads, store work in Google Docs & Google Classroom and navigate the Internet for research and information purposes. Mathematics is in our everyday lives and Engineering is not only the construction of bridges and buildings but the repairing of broken objects and making environmentally conscious changes to our home.

“In the 21st century, scientific and technological innovations have become increasingly important as we face the benefits and challenges of both globalization and a knowledge-based economy. To succeed in this new information-based and highly technological society, students need to develop their capabilities in STEM to levels much beyond what was considered acceptable in the past.” (National Science Foundation)

I believe very strongly in a STEAM based, interdisciplinary curriculum and usually, given the nature of elementary curriculum, it is social studies based.

When I taught 3^rd grade, we studied Ellis Island Immigration. I loved this unit and living in New York City, there was never a shortage of what and who to study, places to visit, and immigration stories to be heard. We did an Ellis Island re-enactment and a push-cart sale to raise money for a refugee center (2 separate blogs!) But my favorite mini-unit was Tenement Life. We visit the Tenement Museum in the Lower East Side of Manhattan and learn all about turn-of-the-century immigrant life. My class was divided into countries or areas of study – the Eastern European Jews, the Irish, the Italians, and the Germans and each group studied the push-pull factors of each culture, timelines and immigrations numbers, and their life once they reached New York. I would then built a tenement building for the immigrants to move into. I would build it out of cardboard boxes and being the hoarder that I am, I once found a wooden dollhouse on the street that I ransacked for parts (stairs, windows, doors) to use specifically for this project. You are probably thinking, that’s not very STEAM to have the teacher build the tenement but 1. Time was always of the essence as this project was always at the end of our study and we didn’t have time for the building and 2. The building of the tenement wasn’t the take away I wanted for the students. The children decorated and added specific details according to their studies. For example, one group built a fire escape outside their window and hung laundry across it. Another group added an outhouse to the back of the tenement dollhouse. Each country had their own floor and it was their responsibility to decorated accordingly. For example, the Eastern European Jews made their apartment into a sweatshop and the Germans, who were on the bottom floor, made their apartment into a salon. I was the landlord so they had to make sure that the jobs they secured were enough to pay rent and buy food. The majority of their research was done at The Tenement Museum http://www.tenement.org/ as well as from websites and books. When the tenement was all finished, the children then served as tour guides to their parents and other children of other grades.

I want to take a moment to say that A LOT of planning goes into STEAM projects. Organizing groups, making sure that they have age-appropriate materials both for research and building, keeping the chaos manageable and productive, and managing expectations and classroom behavior are just some of the things you need to keep in mind before undertaking projects of this magnitude. I am very fortunate to have a STEAM Integrator and Materials Librarian at my school who can make time in her day to help out when we are working on a project and who has an endless supply of hot glue sticks, wine corks, and duct tape. I also am very lucky that I have wonderful colleagues who love to get involved and help out with their disciplines. After some research, we discovered that the later wave of immigrants had electricity in their apartments so together with our fabulous Science teacher, those groups hung working light bulbs in their apartments. The take away for this unit was how immigrants assimilated to life in the Lower East Side of New York City and what they had to endure to create a better life for themselves and their families.

When I moved to 4^th grade, I was very sad to leave to leave this project behind and quickly started thinking of another STEAM project. In 4^th grade, we study the Eastern Woodland Native Americans, primarily the Lenape and the Haudenosaunne/Iroquois and how they used natural resources to survive, pre contact. This screamed STEAM to me! Building an Eastern Woodland Native American village out of natural resources complete with longhouse and wigwam. I quickly set about designing a STEAM curriculum that included all the information that I wanted the children to learn about this topic. I am a teacher who thrives in controlled chaos and diving into a topic that I knew relatively nothing about, (Remember, I grew up outside of Chicago with the Sioux and the knowledge that the Blackhawks were a hockey team) I had to learn alongside of the children.

First, I want the children to know about the geography and topography of the land before colonization, before contact. We primarily looked at New York state and its rivers, mountains, the ocean, lakes, forests, and farmland. We looked at maps, websites, atlases, and books. Fascinating how little children know about where they live! Since we focus primarily on the Haudenosaunee & the Lenape, we identified where they settled and why and then taking that information, we created our own large-scale map to hang in our classroom for future reference. I gave each student a landmark to research (the Hudson River, the Finger Lakes, Niagara Falls) and it was their responsibility to add it to our classroom map. Once the map was complete, we talked about why we thought the different groups of Native Americans settled where they did. Once we set our scene, the children were ready to research about all aspects of Native American life. Through Internet research, field trips, videos, and books, the children collected the information needed to start creating our village. This time, I provided the land. I went to Lowes and bought 4ft by 8ft green foam insulation board and painted a river down the middle of it. And the children took over. They measured, built, came up with a scale consensus, decided on how to make people, and overlapped on various topics. For example, the 2 children working on the longhouse collaborated with the student working on gender roles and the students working on farming, ceremonies, and The Three Sisters. An added bonus of this project was the children realizing that they couldn’t work in isolation and that every aspect of Native American life was interdependent and the children needed to work together to and learn from one another in order to successfully plan and execute our village.

We had children building women out of clay and taking them over to the students studying clothing to cloth the women appropriately and then taking one of the women with a baby over to the student who was studying transportation to create a cradleboard for the baby and then over to the students studying farming who hung the baby and cradleboard from a tree while the woman was placed in the kitchen garden outside of the longhouse. Parents bought supplies at Michaels, we went to the park to collect bark, the art teacher suggested making rubbings of the bark on butcher paper as to make it easier to measure and place onto the longhouse, the maintenance men cut wood and wire for us and our STEAM integrator manned the hot glue gun and was forever on the lookout for more resources to deepen our knowledge. It took a village to create this village! And all the while, the children were engaged, independently problem-solving, motivated, and happy!

We had a festival day complete with traditional Native American food, storytelling, and the children acting as museum guides to parents and other students.

This project included all the elements of STEAM as well as a 5-paragraph essay about their topic of study and the children wrote their own creation stories based on Iroquois creation stories that we read in class. At the end of 4^th grade, when I asked the children to reflect upon their year, almost every student said that learning about Native Americans and building the our village was the highlight of their year.

STEAM projects, whether they are embedded into the curriculum or standing alone are an amazing way to allow the students to think critically, creatively, and independently while facilitating collaborative teamwork and communication. And isn’t that the type of leaner/real world problem-solvers we want our children to be?

Consider all of the things you have read, heard, discussed, and thought about over the past 12 months that made you think to yourself, “I really should try that, do that, start that, finish that, or go for that.”  Now narrow that list down to those options for your classroom, program, or teaching practice that are focused on mathematics. From that list choose one thing that you know you can accomplish and then accomplish it. It is that easy.

Did you choose?

Making a set of Number Cards

Trying a new gross motor game that uses math 

Investing in new math-focused manipulatives

Check out some new children’s books that support early math learning

Revisit the new Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards

Planning for a new food activity

All of these can be completed in an hour or two.  Think about how great it feels to choose a task, begin the task, and then complete the task.  Once you get going, go back to your list and try out another idea.  Before you know it, you have made big changes one small task at a time.

However, don’t be confused between a source of inspiration and an actual curricular plan. I was working with a preschool director recently who told me that some of her staff use Pinterest as a means of developing their curriculum.  She said, for example,  that they find a picture of an art project and then recreate it in their classroom.  Well, I am all for sharing ideas and incorporating cool things into a program, however, taking a disconnected idea from a Pinterest Board because it is “cute” or “the kids will like it” is not how we develop meaningful curriculum.

This is in stark contrast to supporting children’s ideas by finding connected projects or activities that correspond to the interests of the children, the overall development of the group and the developmental appropriateness of the project or activity. If the children in your group are very excited about the newest children’s movie that is out (i.e., Frozen) and you want to further encourage this exploration via art and dress-ups, then by all means, look for inspiration on Pinterest. But use it as a starting point, a place to get going. You should still consider how this project or activity fits into your program, what learning might take place because of the children’s involvement, how you will know that the learning happened, and how you can further extend the play.  This is good curricular planning.

One of the most interesting and, hopefully useful aspects of the Early Math Counts website are the lesson plans that were designed to be easy to use and simple to execute with materials found in your manipulatives area or simple materials you probably already have at home.

Today, I wanted to take a look at that part of the website.  If you click here you will see that there are drop-down boxes that will help you narrow your search for an appropriate lesson plan.  You can choose your lesson by age group, material, or concept.

Let’s say you went to the Dollar Store over the weekend and while you were there you found a large set of boxcar-type cars that you know that your kids will love, but you also want to connect to a math activity.  You could go to the drop-down list called “Find Math Lessons that Use” and when you click on the drop-down list you will see cars as one of the items.

The lessons can be printed on one page (all of the colorful details are taken out so they are easy and cheap to print) PLUS there is a “Letter to Parents” included with each lesson that can be adapted to suit your particular needs.

We would love to hear what you think about the lesson plans in general, or if you have tried any of them specifically.

No matter where you work, you will feel some pressure to prove what you are doing is working for children.  Your funders have expectations, your licensing bodies have expectations, your director has expectations, your accrediting body has expectations, and you, yourself have expectations.  Oftentimes, these expectations are in direct contradiction with each other.  That is why if we need to find ways to prioritize the child at the center of our work, no matter what else is asked of us.  As long as we keep true to this focus, in a family-centered practice, we won’t stray too far afield.

Although many of the aforementioned groups will also expect you to regularly assess children’s learning, as long as you are using your assessment results to improve the teaching and learning in your program, you are doing just fine.

Building curriculum around children’s interests and learning needs is a good place to start.  You know how this works.  You set out a basket of scissors and paper and then observe as children attempt to use the scissors to cut the paper.  You keep a clipboard with a list of the children’s names nearby and you make notes about their attempts.  You may even keep scissors and paper out on the art table for a few weeks and make a chart with dates so you can observe the children over time.

At the end of the two weeks, you look at your data.  Who can use the scissors unassisted?  Who uses the scissors but struggles with cutting?  Who puts the wrong fingers in the holes?  Who, when assisted to put the correct fingers in the scissor holes, uses the scissors correctly?  Examine your results and think of ways to encourage scissor use in the future.  This will require observations about what the children are interested in so the draw to the scissors is child-initiated.  This is how we build curriculum using assessment data.

This past week I observed a group of young 3 year-olds as they listened to stories being read aloud by their teacher. She picked a book and then when they wanted another book, she chose another.  I asked her why she didn’t use this as an opportunity to let the children vote to choose the book.  She said that they children were unable to vote; that when asked to vote, they voted for every book, and it didn’t work.

It got me thinking about how the process is developmental and the only way children learn how to vote is by voting.  Over time and through experience, children learn.  I encouraged that teacher to use the children’s name cards and the books to vote for one choice.  It is simple.  Lay each book (yes, I would have the children vote between two choices before they vote for 3) on the rug and have the children one-by-one come up with their name cards and choose which story they want to vote for.  Once they lay their card on their choice, they are finished.  Some children will want to change their vote later, but telling them that they can vote again another day will reassure them that they can choose something different another day.

This method teaches the children about voting.  It also provides a visual representation of “how many” votes each book received.  Once they master this, they can use their hands to vote, one child can count the votes, another one can write the numbers down, other children can figure out which has more, and then voting becomes a regular part of your group’s curriculum.

Observe who does what, how they do it, and who struggles.  Keep accurate data and then consider ways to build opportunities into your curriculum that will support the children’s learning.  Be sure to continue the observation process.  This will provide all the fuel you need in order answer to each of the stakeholders who want you to prove what you are doing is good for children.

Knowing your families is the beginning of providing a curriculum that reflects children’s lives.  In Janice Keyser’s book From Parents to Partners, she says,

Think about the children and families your are working with now or have worked with in the past.  What are some of the experiences or significant events in their lives that might be included in your curriculum planning?  If you don’t have this kind of information about families, how could you get it?

Some of the more obvious curricular plans you should have ready to go include:

1.  A New Sibling Plan- When a baby is born or a new sibling is brought into the home, there should be some sort of curriculum plan to help the child in your program adjust to this change.  I am a big fan of ZaZa’s Baby Brother by Lucy Cousins.  This story takes a good, long look at how a new baby may affect an older sibling as well as the new time constraints placed on the parents.  

2.  A Stressful Family Experience The loss of a job, an illness, or other stressful events in the family can equally stress out children.  Consistency is the first and most important way to help children deal with stress, but you could also build in extra outdoor time (especially if that time is now unavailable at home).  You might set up the housekeeping area with doctor’s office equipment, so children can explore some of their feelings in a safe place.

3.  Divorce or a Two – Household Life- There are wonderful books directed at young children that help explain divorce or other examples of non traditional family structures.  Make sure that these are available to all of the children as it is equally important that they become aware of a variety of family structures.  Set up the housekeeping area to reflect different kinds of homes (houses, apartments).  Set up two areas so children can go from “Mom’s House” over to “Dad’s House”.  Be sure to have a variety of dolls or small people figurines that reflect a variety of families.

4.  A Death in the Family- Death and dying are both very complicated concepts for young children but many will face them during their early years.  Allowing children the space to ask questions, write letters to the deceased, or to talk about the funeral will help young children process their experiences.  You may want to provide this one-on-one as it may not be appropriate for everyone in your group.

5.  Moving- As adults we know that moving is a very stressful, yet very exciting time.  This may also be true for children.  Sometimes, a move means a new place to live, while everything else stays the same (same school, same neighborhood) while other times it means moving away from everything.  You can help ease the stress of the move by using a large dollhouse to play with new spaces (setting up a new bedroom) or by starting a letter writing campaign with the children so the child who moves, will receive mail from his old friends.

Some of these ideas are fairly straightforward to design and implement.  The trick is to have them ready to go when events arise in your program that can be supported through curriculum