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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G3XOtCpD3I

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If I Built a House – 🏠 Creative read aloud kids book by Chris Van Dusen

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For the activity to go along with this read a loud, students get to compose their dream house. This is an open ended activity where students are immediately captivated by the possibilities of a “Dream House,” and it easily leads into a discussion about smart homes of the future that use cleaner forms energy, withstand natural disasters, and offer exciting entertainment features. Students design and create models of a “Smart Home” with features of the future and rooms of their dreams. They can research alternative energy sources, strong construction materials, and methods of insulation. Materials can be determined by the students. Science and Engineering are 2 stem elements that are used in this activity. Students would use all 4 C's of engineering (critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity). There will be multiple iterations considering that each student has the ability to create their own dream/smart house.

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Book: Violet the Pilot by Steve Breen
Challenge: Work in teams, design and build an airplane that will have the longest air time.
Time: 15 minutes
Materials:  Piece of paper, scissors, and stopwatch
Testing: Stand on the line, 1 group member (or I) will time (in seconds) on a stopwatch to see how many seconds the airplane stayed in the air for. Each group/team will write how many seconds on the board.
Reiterate: 15 minutes you will be to redesign your airplane and test it

Stem Read Aloud Checklist:
- Open-ended problem for students to solve?

Yes, design/build an airplane that will have the longest air time

Not all airplanes are the same, students will have the option of designs to build their airplane and/or use their ideas

- At least 2 elements of STEM integrated? YES

Engineering (creating different designs)

Test/Revision (learning process)

- Could you see students do multiple iterations of the activity to improve their design?

Yes, I can see the student doing this for multiple days

Gives students opportunities to think about which design worked better than others

Testing their theories

Revising/creating new designs

Coming up with questions to investigate

- Do students use the 4 C’s of Engineering? YES

Students will create new designs,

Students will be collaborating and communicating in their groups as well as a whole class

Students will think critically as we come together as a class, sharing ideas, discussing trial results, and evaluate the information

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Books for kids: VIOLET THE PILOT read aloud by Wonder House Storytime

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This video reads aloud Muncha Muncha Muncha, which presents a farmer who faces many bunnies that eat his crops. He attempts to build walls and trenches all to block out the animals, but continuously fails to do so until the end.

The STEM challenge from this read aloud is to have students try to build something out of any materials we have in the classroom that they think could’ve helped the farmer in this story to keep the bunnies away from his carrots, lettuce and other crops. The criteria would be that it has to be tall enough so they can’t jump over (2inches) and that it needs to cover all sides of the square garden. This is an open ended project that lets them determine how they want to create the project and lets them select whatever materials they want.

This encompasses the two components of mathematics and engineering of STEM. Students are taught geometry through creating a square barrier of the garden, while also having the chance to create a design that reflects an engineer’s perspective.
Students would definitely use the 4 C’s of engineering. They can work with other students and likely be placed in groups to collaborate and communicate with others on how to build the best blockade. Additionally, students will have to critically think and consider all of the solutions the farmer in the story attempted, and try to determine why they failed. Using those interpretations for their own models, they engage in a creative process of designing something the farmer didn’t think of, something that will work for his problem.

Students will use multiple iterations. Like how the farmer in the story had to try many times as the bunnies kept entering his garden anyways, the students would be presented with problems of their creations that need improvement. They will have time to have multiple chances to really make their design the best to assist the farmer in this story.

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Muncha Muncha Muncha STEM Challenge and Read Aloud

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Read Aloud Book: Iggy Peck Architect

Challenge: Design and construct a building made out of any two materials. You must only use two materials the entire time, which you can grab from around the classroom or bring in from home. The building should be able to easily fit on your desk and should be able to stay upright and in place on its own. Be as creative as possible, and have fun gathering your materials and building your structure! Who says the world’s greatest buildings need to be made from brick, stone, and wood?

Time: One lesson block (materials gathered beforehand) ~30 minutes

Materials: Paper and pencil to design their building, and any two safe materials either from the classroom or from home. Must be able to fit safely and easily onto the desk and must not be too messy, sharp, etc.

Testing: Who can successfully design and construct a creative building out of non-traditional materials

Reiteration: Use different materials or use just one material. You can work in groups, with partners, or individually. You could also have the students make their design and then switch with a partner and have the students build each others’ models. This would provide an extra challenge and a more social environment.

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STEM Read Aloud Checklist:

Open-ended problem for students to solve?

Yes! They have the task of designing and building with very little restrictions on what they can or cannot do. This provides them with many different levels of problem-solving they must overcome.

At least two elements of STEM integrated?

Yes! The design process can incorporate math and engineering, as does the building process.

Could you see students do multiple iterations of the activity to improve their design?

Absolutely! They can do this many times using different materials, different designs, different amounts of materials, etc.

Do students use the four C’s of Engineering?

Yes! Critical thinking is used throughout the entire design and build process. Collaboration can be used if the students are put into partners or groups, or if they switch their designs with a partner and build each other’s designs. Communication can be used if the students are put into pairs to share or groups to discuss their design and provide feedback to others before the building portion of the challenge takes place, as well as after the challenge when we debrief and reflect on what worked and what did not. Creativity is used all throughout this lesson! From the fun book to gathering of materials to the design and build, there is so much freedom for the students to be free in their learning.

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Challenge: Students will use their imagination to build something with legos (material.) It can be whatever they please, as long as it has a special meaning to them, and that they can explain what it's purpose is.
Time: They will have the whole science lesson to build what they please; and it is an open ended question that allows them to be creative.
Testing: To see if students can successfully build something creative using a material they are most likely familiar with, and one that is easy to work with and has tons of possibilities.
Iterations: Yes! Legos definitely allow for students to make plenty iterations of whatever they choose to build. They could even build something completely different just as easily.
Stem elements: This activity really only includes engineering, but that's okay because it's going to require a lot of critical thinking.
4 C's of engineering: Yes! Students will for sure need to use critical thinking in order to think about exactly how they want to go about building their structure, such as what pieces need to go where. Collaboration could be used if students need help figuring out how to make something work. They could ask their peers for their opinions on what they think would work best; the same goes for communication as it always for it. Creativity is definitely used as they need to come up with what they want to build on their own without any prompts from the teacher.

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When I Build With Blocks by Niki Alling [Short Story Book Read Aloud For Kids]

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Hi Serena, I love how well this read aloud connects to the challenge you've pulled from it. I think creating an airplane is a great way to incorporate STEM into the classroom and overall achieve all the components of engineering. Students will also be super engaged in this challenge, as competition gets them excited to see if their plane will wind up being the fastest! This reminds me a lot of the towers we've built for this class and how we had to attempt it multiple times with the added competition of whose could hold more on top. Overall, this is a great lesson!-Angelina Sangiovanni

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Hi Megan, this is such a great read aloud STEM challenge! I love that the students can choose whatever materials they want from their classroom and home, as this increases the endless possibilities of results you might receive of this prompt. It's also great that the students can work in groups, partners or individually because it gives them choice to work however they think would be optimal for them. The connections to other structures and buildings in the world is so helpful for these students to see how what their doing applies outside of the classroom, giving their work a sense of purpose. This book and lesson are overall great! -Angelina Sangiovanni

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Hi Holly, I really love this lesson! Children generally love to talk about themselves and things that they love, and this is a great way to allow that to reflect in their STEM classroom. Having this connections gives them incentive and engages them so much more as opposed to just having them discuss these topics verbally. As you mentioned, this can also lead to general discussions in so many topics of science, like natural disasters or energy sources. I especially like how interdisciplinary this can also be because I can already see mathematic and english components present. This can lead to a mathematic discussion on measurements of houses, geometry, etc. -Angelina Sangiovanni

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Challenge: After the students listen and watch the read-aloud, it is the student's turn to create something useful and fun out of the box. The students can research ideas online or use their imaginations, just like the boy did in this book. I think this would be a really cool project to do around or after the holidays, when there are a lot of boxes at the house for toys, clothing, packages, etc. This can be done as a family project or an independent project. Then I would have the students bring the boxes or their creations to school. This allows students to think outside the box, literally. They look at boxes and create this new world, or something helpful, or something they can use in their everyday lives. This STEM challenge allows the students to think of something creative to make out of a box. We can continue or expand this thinking by asking students what other objects we reuse or repurpose can be used for this project. This brings the idea of reducing, reuse, and recycle. This is an open-ended project in the sense that they can create anything their heart desires as long as it is out of the box. I also think this is a great activity for the student's to do, especially nowadays, because we live in such a digital world. Having the students come back to physical objects and their imagination taps into their creative means. Depending on the age, ideas wants, and needs, the student can create a wide range of things.

2 Elements of Stem: Engineering is involved because they have to create something, anything, out of a box. So this would make them think of ideas, create them, re-work them, etc. This aspect of the project allows for multiple iterations. This could be done after the students bring them in and the students could give each other feedback on their projects or after the students look at each other's projects might have a new idea to weave into their project. Science would also be involved in learning about recycling, reducing, and reusing objects. This can be done during a recycling unit.

4 C's:
Collaboration: The students can work on this project with their family members with boxes around their home as well as other reusable objects.
Communication: The students can communicate with their families and then when they bring the box back to school, the students can look at each other's boxes, or now their creations, and give them feedback on what they liked and what they didn't like.
Critical Thinking: The students will have to use critical thinking to create something out of this box. This is something different than a normal stem lab because they can create anything they want to out of these materials. They have to think outside the box and make corrections, or altercations, based on the work they begin to do.
Creativity: This project is filled with creativity. The students can create anything they would like to. There are no restrictions with this activity as long as a box is used. They can build a far-away land or a tv or a house, or whatever their heart desires and what can be made out of a box.

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📕 Kids Book Read Aloud: 📦 WHAT TO DO WITH A BOX by Jane Yolen

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Challenge: Put five animals in a boat without it sinking!
Time: Students will each be given a small plastic bowl of water. They will be asked to make a paper boat, with instructions provided. They will also be provided with a table of manipulatives (buttons, dice, building blocks, rocks, etc.). to choose from representing animals. They will only be able to choose up to five.
Test: Once their boat is complete, they collect their "animals" and place them in the boat one at a time. The key to this testing is that students will not fail if the boat sinks. The purpose of the test is for students to decide what order the "animals" may need to be placed in on the boat for it to not sink or if they have to switch out some of their manipulatives because they are too heavy. The test is to see students make the connection between the weight of different objects affecting whether or not their boat sinks.
Iterations: Yes. The whole point of the experiment is trial and error! Students can even build another boat if they must.
STEM Elements: This lesson and read-aloud specifically include engineering, problem-solving, and a little bit of math without the students knowing they are doing it!
4 C's of engineering: I do believe that students can practice the 4's of engineering in some capacity. Modifications may have to be made to the lesson, or it can always be a two-day activity. The first day is all about independently doing the work thinking critically and creatively. While the second day can be working with a partner to fit as many manipulatives in a boat as they can. still thinking critically and creatively, but now also communicating and collaborating.

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Who Sank the Boat? - Read Aloud for STEM Challenge

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zchDOocci4
The read aloud I chose is How to Catch the Wind. The challenge I would incorporate is have students work in groups to build a structure that cannot be knocked down by the wind (in this case someone blowing on it). The criteria is it has to be at least 6 inches tall and include 3 different materials. The materials being provided would be tinfoil, cardboard, paper, tape, scissors, and glue. They would also need a ruler to measure. This challenge is definitely open ended as the only instruction is to build something that is not knocked down by the wind. There are definitely elements of stem involved as it uses math for measurement and engineering to create/build a structure. Students would be using the 4 C’s of engineering. Collaboration and communication would be used because they will be working in groups to create something. Critical thinking and creativity will be used because they will have to get creative with this structure as they do not necessarily have materials that are heavy so they need to brainstorm a lot of different ideas. I definitely think students should do multiple iterations because it allows for students to see what worked and what didn’t as well as give them opportunities to get creative.

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How To Catch The 💨 Wind (STEM) Book Read Aloud For Children!

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Challenge: Build Your Dream Tree House!
Students can design whatever type of tree house they want using popsicle sticks, glue, tooth picks, felt, etc. This project is open ended because students have free reign to design whatever type of house they would like with the materials provided. Students are using elements of STEM like engineering and design to create a functional standing tree house. There can be multiple iterations of this project- every student's project will look different!

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Froggy builds a tree house - Read aloud story time

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The challenge that I would have students do to go along with the read-aloud of this book would be to create a device that would prevent an egg from breaking when dropped off the roof of the building. It can be done individually or in groups, but I would most likely lean more towards the students doing the challenge in groups in order for them to work on their collaboration and communication skills. This challenge is most definitely an open-ended one in which students have the ability to express their creativity in multiple ways. There is no "right way" to construct the egg drop device and there is no limit to the number of tools and materials they can use. Depending on how much of one material the students use, I may put a cap on how much they can use for their devices. Due to the fact that there is no one "correct way" of completing this challenge, it most definitely has multiple iterations. Every group's device will be different and will utilize different materials in order to accomplish a shared goal of preventing the egg from breaking inside the device. This challenge includes both science and engineering. Science is involved because students have to think about the weight of their device, the rate at which it hits the ground, and the force applied to the egg. Based on those factors, the students must incorporate proper engineering techniques to develop a device to protect the egg from cracking, like in the book. Within this challenge, the 4 C's of engineering (communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity) are all embedded in order to make this a well-rounded learning experience. The purpose of this challenge is for students to apply their interdisciplinary knowledge in a way that allows them to work on the skills associated with the 4 C's of engineering, while simultaneously giving them the opportunity to facilitate their own instruction and learn from their peers.

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Egg Drop - Read Aloud for STEM Challenge

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Stem Challenge: Students will put glue into a container as well as some beads in order to see the change that occurs over time with the glue. The materials needed for this experiment includes white glue, beads, and a plastic container. The students will start by putting a layer of glue into their container and sprinkling some beads onto of the glue. The students will then observe the change in the color and texture of the glue over the course of a few days.

This experiment can be open ended depending on how much glue the students want to use, the amount of beads the students want to place, the size of the beads used, and the size of the container. The two elements of stem that are incorporated into this experiment include science and engineering. Science is involved because the science of the glue going from white to clear is the process of polyvinyl acetate and water (ingredients of glue) losing water due to evaporation, causing the glue to harden and become clear. This process can be explained to students in an easier to understand way, but to still help them understand why glue has the reaction it does. Engineering is involved because the students are putting the glue into the containers themselves. Students would use the 4 C's of engineering in this experiment. This experiment would be done in partners or groups, causing them to collaborate with one another. Within the groups, students would communicate with each other in order to decide on how much glue they would like to put or discuss the guided questions asked by the teacher with each other. Students would also be expected to come up with driving questions in the beginning of the lesson prior to preforming the experiment and will discuss those with partners. Critical thinking is involved in this experiment by deciding if the amount of glue put in the container and how thick the glue is will effect the texture, how quickly it dries, the color, etc. Creativity is involved in this experiment by adding the beads to the glue because how many and the size of the beads are the student's choice as well as allowing them to add their own creativity to it. Students can do multiple iterations of this by seeing if the thickness of glue effects the texture, drying rate, color, etc. Students can also do another iteration by seeing if the environment the container is in effects these characteristics of the glue by seeing if placing it under a heat lamp or in a freezer would change the result from the original experiment being done in a constant temperature of the room.

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🧴Too Much Glue(Read Aloud) | Storytime by Jason Lifebvre *Miss Jill

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpYPEUJObQ0

Book: Be A Maker
Challenge: Students will be given different random objects from around the room and will have to create an object of their choice. The object they create must use at least 5 materials, and must be able to stand on it's own. Each student will create a plan first, then conduct their investigation and create a product. Afterwards, each student will share to the class. Engineering is involved because this activity involves the students creating something. They can do it up to 3 times in order to get their item just how they want it, especially after listening to what other students did. Science is another element of stem that is involved. Since we are using materials we find around the classroom, we can talk about how we reuse materials. The students will collaborate with their peers to create their items as well as communicate with the people around them and the teacher if they have any questions. They will use critical thinking to come up with a plan. This project is also full of places where the students can be creative and make their own decisions.

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Be A Maker ~ STEM read aloud ~ STEM Story time ~ STEAM books

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Read aloud: Mr. Ferris and His Wheel
Challenge: After reading this book students will be challenged with creating a ferris wheel with a group. Students will be given materials and criteria that will allow them to compete against each other to create the tallest and biggest working ferris wheel. This will be a 2 day challenge. Day one students will be given the materials and be given the time to just try to figure out how they can create a wheel. Students on day two will then be provided with resources (ie. youtube videos) to come up with the most effective way to create the ferris wheel.
Criteria: Students will be given a criteria and constraint list. This will include how high this needs to be, how much it needs to hold, if it spins etc.
Materials: Students will be given cardboard, popsicle sticks, skewers, and glue.

This is an open ended lesson because there is no answer or correct way to do it. Students will be given the freedom to just think and experiment with classmates. This will hit engineering and math. This lesson hits communication by working with classmates, critical thinking by encouraging students to think of ways to engineer in their own way, collaboration and creativity.
Students will be given multiple opportunities to recreate this lesson and make it better than the last time.

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STEM Activity for Kids: Popsicle Stick Ferris Wheel by ABCmouse.com

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Egg Drop - Read Aloud for STEM Challenge

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This is a read aloud of "If I Built a School", a fun story about a young boy explaining all of the things that he would include if he built a school (a tube transport system, classrooms in towers, a robotic chef, holograms, etc.).

The open-ended "problem" that students could work on related to this book would be designing or changing something about their school. This would be a great way to think about real work application of engineering and design. I would say that the two main STEM aspects included in such an activity would be Technology (what technologies would be included/beneficial to the school and why), and Engineering (having the students work as engineers to design the school, come up with a plan for improvements, etc.).

For a challenge, students could be tasked with finding an actual problem or area in need of improvement, and a realistic solution. I do not think it should be a competition, there shouldn't be a "best" idea or a winner. Instead, I would want the lesson to give every student an opportunity to come up with and work on their idea without it being compared to others.

I think multiple iterations would be necessary and the lesson would be insufficient if it were just done once. Trying to teach kids about a design process would not be possible without them having the opportunity to collaborate, revise and redesign.

I believe an activity coming from this story would absolutely hit all of the four C's of engineering. For collaboration, students could work in groups or if they are working individually, present their ideas to each other for feedback and support. Communication would be included for those same reasons. They would also need to communicate in order to find what people would like changed about their school. Critical thinking and creativity will naturally be a part of this entire process as well.