We continued our STEAM Survival series with planting bulbs and making plant packets today. It was better than last year, but there's still room for betterment. STEAM similar to the physical science unit I teach requires a lot of material set up and teamwork. I want to think about this over the summer as I know that the projects benefit from good organization. That said, however, every student made three plant packets and started a iris bulb. We'll watch the bulbs grow and in two weeks we'll open the plant packets to see what sprouts appear, then students will plant the seedlings in soil cups and bring the home to continue to care fo their pumpkin, watermelon, and sunflower plants.
Besides the continued effort to better teamwork and materials management, I'd like to add a scavenger hunt at the start of the STEAM series next year. During the hike students can collect most of the materials they'll need for the projects. I also want to think about fostering even better routines for listening, following directions, exploring, and creating more.
Tomorrow it's back to math, reading, and writing as well as play practice. On Thursday students will start their third STEAM project, solar ovens. In the meantime, I'll work on that materials management a bit more. Onward.
