Family STEAM Fun

Join us for a Family STEAM Fun! This storytime uses the book The Very Lonely Firefly by ERIC Carle and the STEAM exploration is inspired by Neil deGrasse Tyson. The activity is from my book, Inspiring Innovation and Creativity in Young Learners published by Prufrock Press. You can download the book discussion cards here.

The Very Lonely Firefly Book Discussion Cards

Are you an educator interested in virtual PD to learn more about this activity and encouraging literacy through the content areas in young learners (PreK-Grade 3)? You may be interested in Green River Regional Educational Cooperatives Early Childhood Literacy Academy. Contact me to learn more about this opportunity. We'd love to have you join our group!

Virtual (or Face to Face) Getting to Know You Ideas for The Start of School

In Episode 6 we share ideas to build community and get to know your students in a virtual or face to face format. You can listen on Spotify or Anchor. If you are a parent or caregiver, we didn't leave you out! Most of these ideas and tips work well for you to do with your own children, especially if you are embarking on virtual learning together this year. These strategies will open the door to important discussions that help set the stage for a good year of learning and growing together. What we love most about each of these ideas is that they are the SAME things we do with kids face to face, we just share them in a virtual format this year. Best practice is best practice... we just have to figure out how to make it work in our new normal... or at least normal for now. Listen to the podcast to hear more about these strategies and also learn more about the websites (like flipgrid or google docs) that we'd recommend using for each one.

Middle-High School Getting to Know You Ideas:

Daniel has created graphics/organizers for 5 ideas that will work well for older kids. The google slides file for this video can be found here .

PreK-Elementary Getting to Know You Ideas:

In the screencast below Allison shares 10 getting to know you ideas that can be done face to face or in a virtual format with young learners. The google slides file for this video can be found here.

Here is the link to a couple of things mentioned in the video.

• Mrs. Spritzer's Garden: If I Were A Flower

• Just Add Water Baking Mix for Families: Recipe for Me

If you need to see a tutorial for Flipgrid, just let us know. I think it is the perfect tool for most of these activities. (You can hear more about specific suggestions on the podcast.)

How to Create A Screen Cast using Screencastify

In this tutorial Daniel shares a step by step "How To" on using Screencastify. Screencasts are an excellent tool for distance learning. For teachers or administrators, you can show your screen and your face for asynchronous instruction. For children, it's a great way to film yourself to ask questions or share your work with peers or teachers. Hope this helps!