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Writer's picturePamela Hall

October STEM Snippets News

Updated: Dec 12, 2019

Lots of learning is going on in engineering class. Your children displayed growth in working together and critical thinking skills. They demonstrated tenacity while redoing and improving designs. They are fun to teach.


At the end of each month beginning in October, your child will bring home a STEM Family Project page. This is totally optional, but fun to do together. The page lists what your child/family will need to do. It also has a due date. Please have your child bring their project to engineering class to share with the class on the day they come to engineering. They'll share and display their project. Please take a picture of the project and your child (if you allow photos). Please post it on Instagram using: #SimplyST3M

I will choose one picture to feature in the following monthly newsletter. Let's saturate the world with STEM learning. :)


Click here to read an informative article by The Washington Post about design thinking in the classroom.


Pre-K and Kindergarten

Pre-K and kindergarten students learned stories and songs to accompany their engineering design challenges. The number one skill they are learning is to share supplies and work with a partner. Additionally, they learned that engineers use shapes and designs in patterns and that there are multiple ways to solve a problem.


After reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar, they used shapes to construct a caterpillar. Then, they used shapes to create a beautiful butterfly.

We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Afterwards, students constructed a tree to hold letters of the alphabet.

The students learned about pumpkins and created bridges that held five pumpkins. They also built structures to hold the pumpkins.


October is bully prevention month. Every month at CAES is anti-bully month. We focus on kindness and GREAT citizenship. To highlight the concept of being unique and having positive qualities that others don't accept, we read The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin. Students learned that being different is okay and beneficial. All students engineered a variety of square pumpkins. Pre-k used Play Doh. Kindergarten used Lego blocks. They all enjoyed creating and designing pumpkins of various shapes.




First Grade, Second Grade, and Third Grade


This month, the students have wowed me with expanding their engineering vocabulary and ability to apply previously learned skills to a new engineering challenge. They continue to flex their critical thinking. It is exciting to experience.


This video was from the first week of October as we finished up September challenges. The students are learning life skills by sharing their experiences and presenting to classmates.


This team worked well together. Listen to their presentation and learning. They are preparing for college, careers, and life by utilizing essential life skills. (All engineer students present their projects; therefore, all students are learning life skills.)


Students learned about famous towers of the world. Then they designed and constructed a tower that would hold an animal (6 oz. stuffed animal) for at least ten seconds. They learned many skills from this challenge such as balance, weight, beams are needed for support, measurement, and structure designs that are strong such as X's and triangles. The following are some student quotes:

  • "I liked learning about towers in the world. The Eiffel tower is cool."

  • "I learned towers need a strong foundation and a wide base."

  • "I learned about weight and balance."

  • "I learned that using diamond-shaped designs are strong."

  • "We made our tower foundation like a table top."




Students learned about creating new inventions. They learned that it takes multiple tries to make something work. Using their critical thinking skills, they created a "Bobby Dropper". (A way for Bobby the bobby pin to land safely.) Students used their knowledge from S.O.A.R. class and applied it to inventing a dropper for Bobby.

October is bully prevention month. Every month at CAES is anti-bully month. We focus on kindness and GREAT citizenship. To highlight the concept of being unique and having positive qualities that others don't accept, we read The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin. Students learned that being different is okay and beneficial. All students engineered a variety of square pumpkins. First and second graders used magnets as well as straws and connectors to design and create various pumpkin shapes. They created plane shapes. We counted the sides and vertices. Third graders designed and built 3-D shapes. We counted the sides, vertices, and calculated area.




First and second graders designed and created pumpkin catapults. Third graders created pumpkin elevators which utilized knowledge of pulleys.


October has been outrageously fun and filled with ongoing critical thinking skills.


Have a wonderful day!

Mrs. Pamela Hall

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