Minecraft Math: Star Ways Day Pixel Art

Star Wars Day is here again and it’s a terrific time to integrate Star Wars activities into your STEM and other technology lessons. Many teachers think of science experiments when it comes to STEM, however, STEM is not just about science. It includes the integration of math and technology as well.

Today's post is about a pixel art STEM activity that integrates students’ love for Minecraft with their love for Star Wars. It can be a challenging activity and can take anywhere from several hours to several days to complete. There is a potential for students to get frustrated with this activity, so I recommend this activity for students in the middle elementary grades and above.

How to Make a Spring Flowers Busy Bag

One of the first blog posts I ever wrote was about making pizza bags for your children. That was a fun post to write and lots of children had fun creating different types of pizza with the pieces in their busy bags. This blog post is about making another type of busy bag your students and children may enjoy... spring flowers! Keep reading for directions.

Skittles Math: Counting, Sorting, and Graphing Skittles

Once upon a time... almost thirty years ago...I was a student teacher in a first grade classroom. My mentor teacher and I sat down together and came up with a fun math lesson using Skittles. I don't know where she got the idea from, but the students in the class loved it! Our lesson included reviewing color words, sorting and counting Skittles by color, and how to make and read a simple bar graph. Keep reading for a quick rundown of the activities we used in our math lesson and for a free printable for you to download!

Minecraft Math: Thanksgiving Pixel Art

I love Minecraft pixel art. Back in September, I wrote a blog post about the advantages of having children create pixel art while playing Minecraft, described how creating pixel art can strengthen their math skills, and shared directions for making three Halloween pumpkin designs. In today's post, I'm sharing the directions you need to make this Thanksgiving turkey pixel art in Minecraft. Keep reading for details!

Simple Activities for Toddlers: A Practical Play-At-Home Handbook for Parents by Lisa Forsythe

Back in March, I wrote a blog post about Crackle and Pop! Bible Science Experiments by Hanna Holwerda. Crackle and Pop! is a fun collection of STEM and science activities that parents and teachers could use with their students. In today's guest post, author Lisa Forsythe tells us about her new book Simple Activities for Toddlers. Simple Activities for Toddlers is another fun collection of activities parents and teachers need to know about. It is packed full of crafts, games, STEM activities, and other fun ideas. Keep reading to learn about Simple Activities for Toddlers and how it can be a tremendous resource for parents... and teachers... of our littlest learners!

This is a guest post written by Lisa Forsythe, author of Simple Activities for Toddlers. To learn more about guest posts, please visit the Authors, Publishers, and Sponsors page. Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.

Minecraft Math Halloween Pixel Art

Anybody who knows me will be able to tell you about my love for the game Minecraft. In a previous post, I wrote about how you can use Minecraft to teach finding the area of an object in math. With Halloween right around the corner, I’d like to share another fun STEAM activity with you in today's post… how to use math and technology skills to create Halloween pictures in Minecraft. In the Minecraft community, these types of pictures are called pixel art. But in the classroom, teachers often refer to them as graph art.

Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.

Minecraft Math Find the Area

With Minecraft being the rage among children... and adults... of all ages, teachers are wondering how they can tap into the excitement and use Minecraft as a teaching tool. Believe it or not, Minecraft can be used to teach math skills such as finding the area, volume, and perimeter of shapes. 

For the purpose of this blog post, I’m not going to teach you how to play Minecraft. There are many resources online and books you can read to learn how to play it. Rather, I’m going to show you how to use Minecraft to introduce finding the area to your young students.

Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.

Mermaid Math: Counting, Colors, and Patterns

Earlier this year, I wrote about the children's book The Mermaid and the Grumpy Old Clam by Kirk Kirkpatrick... a book about a mermaid and her fish friend who work together to solve a problem and come up with a fun solution for it.  This mermaid math activity was inspired by The Mermaid and the Grumpy Old Clam and can be used to teach a variety of math skills:

🍎 counting verbally

🍎 identifying colors

🍎 identifying and creating patterns

🍎 understanding one-to-one correspondence

🍎 discovering basic concepts of addition and subtracting

🍎 and more

You can use this mermaid activity while working with students one-on-one, in a math center, as a busy bag, or when students finish their work early.  Keep reading to learn more about this mermaid math activity and for three simple ways you can use it with your students!

Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.

Straw Bridge STEM Challenge

Building bridges out of straws is a popular STEM challenge among elementary school teachers and a HUGE favorite among students.  In this straw bridge STEM activity, your students will be handed a bundle of straws, a pair of scissors, and a roll of clear tape.  Their objective... to design and construct a bridge that can span a distance of one foot and bear a reasonable amount of weight without collapsing.  Can it be done?  If so, who will build the strongest bridge in your class?

Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.

How to Make and Use a Pizza Busy Bag

Busy bags have become hugely popular among parents and teachers of young children in recent years. "What are busy bags," you may be wondering? Busy bags are activities that can be slipped into a Ziploc bag and stored in a purse, diaper bag, glove compartment, or math center. They keep children busy while quietly engaging them in learning.

Parents love to give busy bags to their children while they are waiting for their food in a restaurant or sitting in the waiting room at a doctor's office. Teachers use busy bags in math centers to reinforce skills taught in class. In this blog post, you will learn how to make a simple, pizza busy bag out of felt. Enjoy!

This is an updated version of a blog post I wrote in 2014.  Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.