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Day Five: Showing of Finding Nemo to explore the Great Barrier Reef

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Day Five: Showing of Finding Nemo to explore the Great Barrier Reef

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Coral Reef week is an awesome time to show the movie Finding Nemo.  Finding Nemo takes place in the Great Barrier Reef which is one of the largest coral reefs in the world.  After students have completed a few of the barrier reef activities, watched the video or guided through the PowerPoint show students the movie.  It gives them the opportunity to compare and contrast what they learned about coral reefs to ideas shown in the movie.  Did Pixar get it right? Let's find out.

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Day Three & Four: Coral Reef Backgrounds~Tissue Paper Collage

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Day Three & Four: Coral Reef Backgrounds~Tissue Paper Collage

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Have each student create their own fish to add to the coral reef background and display them together to create a shoal or a group of fish.
tissue paper

Scissors

Cardstock or Watercolor paper

Glue/Water mixture (1:4 ratio)

Paintbrush

Plain glue

Pencil/eraser

Wiggle Eyes

1. Sketch out your fish shape using a pencil and an eraser.

2. Cut out pieces of tissue paper to fill in your collage.  Start with a large piece to cover the whole shape of the fish.  Paint the glue/water mixture on your paper and stick the tissue paper down.

3. Begin to layer in different pieces of tissue paper to create fun colors in your fish.  Continue to cover tissue paper with glue/water mixture as colors will bleed together.  Use plain un-watered down glue if you do not wish to have the colors bleed.

4. Fill in the background with tissue paper.

5.  Add an eye for the fish.

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Day Three & Four: Coral Reef Background ~ Printmaking

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Day Three & Four: Coral Reef Background ~ Printmaking

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During Day four you have a choice of two art activities to add a backdrop to your 3-D coral reef. Let students decide which one they would like to add to their scuplture:

What You'll Need:

Washable Paints

Wide paintbrush

Pencil

Scratch foam paper or piece of styrofoam

Construction paper

1.  Etch your design into a piece of foam paper using a dull pencil.  You may also use recycled styrofoam from food containers or to-go boxes and a dull pen.

2. Cover your etched plate with paint. Students stamp their design on a large sheer of paper.  Feel free to allow students to repeat using the same etched plate over and over with new colors!

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Day Two: Sea Animals of the Coral Reef (Color)

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Day Two: Sea Animals of the Coral Reef (Color)

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Running out of time? Use these colored copies to save student's time by allow them to jump quickly into cutting out their sea animals,

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Day Two:  Sea Animals of the Coral Reef (BW)

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Day Two:  Sea Animals of the Coral Reef (BW)

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Give a copy of the aquatic sea creatures to each team to add to each team's 3-D Coral Reef Design.  Tell students they must display a minimum of 5 sea animals living in the coral reef.

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Day Two: Creating an Upcycled 3D Coral Reef

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Day Two: Creating an Upcycled 3D Coral Reef

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Small groups of 4-5 students work on creating a 3D coral reef using recycled materials and any craft supplies.  Programs leaders watch this video to inspire ideas you can use in the classroom to help students come up with ways to create the marine life that live in a coral reef.  The goal is to provide students with different craft supplies to engineer a 3-5 sculpture. If you have access to a computer in the classroom this is a good video to show students to help quickly inspire ideas.

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This week during STEAM CAMP we are creating a 3-D sculpture of the Coral Reef. Use the outdoor time to move large projects like backgrounds and crafting spaces to create marine life to add to your design. In the morning introduce content in the afternoon activate ideas.

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Step-by-step instruction on how to build with your students.

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These DIY confetti poppers are a fun quick and easy 4th of July craft for kids and adults alike (and they're perfect for New Year's Eve, too!). Launch confetti high up into the air with a satisfying "POP!"

The weather is heating up, and 4th of July will be here before you know it! These easy DIY confetti poppers make a fun and safe alternative to sparklers - perfect for no-burn areas and younger kiddos! We made our confetti poppers for 4th of July, but they're also great for New Year's Eve, weddings, birthday parties, and more! DIY confetti poppers are an easy way to jazz up your next celebration!

Use patterned paper, stickers, markers, glitter, etc. to decorate the tubes. For these tubes, we simply wrapped them with 4th of July scrapbook paper, secured the paper with tape, and added a few star sticker embellishments.

They're SO much fun!
How do you celebrate 4th of July? If you have a favorite 4th of July kid's craft, please share a link in the comments! We love to check out all of your favorites!
Pin These DIY Confetti Poppers for Later!

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DIY confetti poppers are a fun quick and easy 4th of July craft for kids and adults alike! Launch confetti high up into the air with a satisfying "POP!"

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Build Indoor Play Outdoors: Pom Pom Popper (PROGRAM LEADERS)

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Build Indoor Play Outdoors: Pom Pom Popper (PROGRAM LEADERS)

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Get things popping using the force of balloons to make things POP! Watch to learn how to make this with your students.

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Now it is time to take the artwork outside to watch it transform.

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Shake-in-a-Bag Ice Cream: Video (FOR PROGRAM LEADERS)

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Shake-in-a-Bag Ice Cream: Video (FOR PROGRAM LEADERS)

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Program Leaders this will provide you with guided instruction on how to conduct this experiment with students. Take a look to learn how to get positive results.

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Homemade Shake-in-a-bag Ice Cream Recipe | Fun Food Activities

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Outdoor: Ice Cream in a Bag: Step-by-Step Posters for Outside

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Outdoor: Ice Cream in a Bag: Step-by-Step Posters for Outside

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Enjoy some cool and yummy ice cream with simple ingredients and some jumping energy.  Indoor set up the bags with ice cream ingredients. Outdoor add the ice and start shaking. Supplies not included in kit.

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This week start experiments inside then take them outside for the final results. All lesson start inside in the morning during STEAM Camp and end in the afternoon during our Great Outdoors STEAM Lessons.

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Preparation
To prepare for flight school you just need different types of recycled paper (printer, construction, card stock, etc.), scissors, paper clips and rulers.  Place materials and supplies on a table for all students to access.  Treat this like a open workshop where students can fold and test their airplanes at their own pace.  Make sure the test zone is ready at the beginning of class. The testing zone should be in an open space with a start line drawn with chalk or tape. All students test behind the start line.  Students are trying to determine how far each plane can fly and which one flew the furthest by the end of the week.

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Overview
Get students outdoors by setting up a paper airplane flight school.  You may set up outdoors just make sure you have tables for students to fold their airplanes.  You may also fold indoors and take students outside to test their airplanes. Each day students make a more challenging airplane.  Once they are done they go to a pre-set testing zone to see how their airplane works and how far it travels.  At the end of the week students select the best of their airplanes to use in a challenge to see which paper airplane flies the furthest.

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Here are all the airplanes directions in one packet to make them easy to print.

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Gravity also plays a big role in other playground activities, like balancing. In fact, gravity plays a big role in everything we do, including bending over to pick something up, which we’re exploring in this science activity! For this gravity experiment, all you’ll need is access to a playground.

Before you begin your lesson, talk about physical balance and how it relates to the center of gravity. When standing upright, your body is perfectly balanced, and you don’t have to worry about falling to one side. When you bend over, however, gravity challenges this center of balance.

Follow these steps to do this playground activity:

Pair your children or students.

Tell one student to stand and instruct the other student to watch them from the side.

Have the standing student slowly bend at the hips, keeping their legs straight.

Allow the second student to observe that, for the first student to keep their center of gravity, half of them moves forward and the other half moves backward.

Finish the lesson with critical thinking questions, like, “What would happen if the student leans backward instead of forward?” Or, “What would change if we did this experiment on the moon?”

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Using one or more of the concepts on the right you can put together some fun, educational games outdoors to help kids learn about science on the playground. Before conducting any of these activities and experiments, it’s important to briefly discuss the steps of the scientific method with your kids or class.

Identify your question

Make predictions and come up with a hypothesis

Gather and collect data

Analyze the data and make observations

Draw conclusions

Here are some fun science experiments to try next time you’re on the playground. Scroll left

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After introducing them to animal life science, you can help them put their knowledge to a visual and sensory test through a variation of hide-and-seek. Hide different items around a playground or in a sandbox, such as toy fossils, plastic eggs and other animal figures or parts. You can conceal some pieces on the playground equipment itself and let kids use their competitive skills to find the most items. When hiding these items, be sure you don’t place them in an area where they could present a tripping hazard.

After they explore the playground and collect these items, you can gather around and assemble the pieces together and investigate what they found. They can use shovels to complete this activity.

This game is a great opportunity for kids to ask questions about fossils and the life cycle of animals such as butterflies and caterpillars.

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Day One: Playground Science: Shadow Hunt

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Day One: Playground Science: Shadow Hunt

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You can conduct a shadow hunt on the playground and have kids point out shadows created by playground equipment and trees. You can also have kids measure shadows at different times of the day to see how they change according to the sun. Encourage them to create their own shadows using their hands or other small objects like water bottles or rubber balls.

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Day Two: Playground Science: Outdoor Scavenger Hunt

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Day Two: Playground Science: Outdoor Scavenger Hunt

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Kids will love to go on a scavenger hunt, especially for a prize at the end. You can create an outdoor scavenger hunt around the playground and have each kid identify different colors, shapes, weather elements and other concepts in nature.

For younger kids, see if they can point out these items and ask them questions about how they come to their conclusions. For older kids, you can hand out clipboards with a checklist of things they need to find and ask them to collect evidence in a basket to show you during their hunt. You can ask them to check off a box when they find:

A source of water

An animal interacting with the environment

A natural resource

A shadow that measures at least 5 inches long

An example of solid matter

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Day Three: Playground Science: Height and Bounce

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Day Three: Playground Science: Height and Bounce

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Using the raised height on your playground equipment, have kids drop different objects and see if they can predict which one will hit the ground first. For example, you can give one kid a sheet of paper and another a small rubber ball. Always make sure the area is clear and that kids stand away at a distance before dropping these items.

After discussing concepts like gravity and air resistance, see if they can correctly determine if the heavier or lighter object will reach the ground before the other. You can alternate with different heights, teams of kids and various objects and see what they learn with each round.

Another fun way to do this drop experiment is to hand each kid two identical pieces of paper and have them crumple one of the pieces into a ball while leaving the other flat. Ask them to drop both pieces from a raised platform, such as on the steps of a playground structure, and see which piece of paper falls faster. Then, you can discuss that even though both pieces of paper are the same object, the flat piece takes longer to hit the ground because it has more air resistance.