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George Washington ESCAPE ROOM: Introduction Activity or President's Day

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The George Washington Escape Room will take students on a secret mission around the classroom! This escape room has students decode interesting facts about George Washington. This is the perfect resource to introduce George Washington, to review his accomplishments or

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Native American Homes STEM ~ STEM Engineering Challenge Pack ~ Set of 8!

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Why not bring STEM to your Native American Unit in social studies? Most elementary teachers are more comfortable and knowledgeable about themes, so I have decided to create STEM challenge packs based on specific themes, like Native Americans, specifically relating to their

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Boston Tea Party ~ Engineering Historical Events ~ STEM Challenge

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Can you design and create a crate that will keep your tea bag dry for the longest period of time in a tub of cold water?

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Guest Post by Cheryl and Wendy from Get Caught Engineering

Wouldn't history class be more fascinating if we could use a time machine to explore events of the past? Just as the fictional Ms. Frizzle and her school bus provides her students with amazing adventures to understand scientific concepts, with our own time machine we could provide inspiring visions for cultural accomplishments. Although, sadly, we can't have this fantasy tool to enliven our history lessons, we actually can provide insight to a past society's achievements by integrating STEM with our social studies lessons. History is full of amazing engineers, so why not tap into that source and enrich your history lessons by allowing your students to walk in the footsteps of the giants of engineering? Once a student has tried to create their own navigation tool, designed a pulley system to hoist a sail for a ship, attempted to build an arch or a dome, or had to struggle with engineering a container for a trip across the Plains, they begin to develop an understanding for the problems of earlier civilizations.

As educators, we understand the time crunch teachers experience every day and are big believers in integrating STEM lessons into other subjects. Hands on activities that use simple materials and that emphasize perseverance, problem solving, and collaborative skills provide a platform for further discussion of all the elements of history and social studies.

Not sure where to begin? It's just a matter of looking at history through a different lens.

Recreate an invention or technology that was created long ago. Begin with a discussion of why the technology was needed. What were their lives like before the new invention? How was it improved? What science and math principals did they already need to know? Our students will not only learn which science and math principals are behind the particular invention, but will also gain an appreciation for the struggles and hardships the people of a particular time period faced.

Ancient Egypt - Engineer a pyramid out of sugar cubes

Ancient Greece - Engineer columns out of paper and test their strength. The activity uses simple materials and is easy to integrate.

Ancient Rome- Engineer a dome from gumdrops and toothpicks or an arch out of crackers and frosting

This lesson is available for FREE at the Get Caught Engineering's Teachers Pay Teachers store: Ancient Greece - Engineer columns out of paper and test their strength.

Solve some of the everyday problems faced by a culture. Although history is filled with people that are recognized as the engineers and scientists of their times, ordinary people solved their technological problems every day. For any time period have the students identify some of the technological needs: How did they get water? How did they keep food from spoiling? What kind of shelter did they live in? How did they transport food or goods across land or water? What kinds of tools did they need to farm? How did they cook? Don't be afraid to try to have the students use some of the same materials such as twigs and leaves to build prototypes.

Water - Engineer a simple water filter system using cups, sand, and gravel

Shelter- Engineer a shelter that will withstand extreme weather (represented by a hair drier)

Food Storage - Engineer a container that will keep an ice cube frozen for the longest time

Improve or modify an invention previously made. Conestoga wagons journeyed across America's prairies - how would the student improve the design? Ancient civilizations had irrigation systems -how would they design them if they had lived in that time? Although ultimately each invention was either improved upon or eliminated when it was replaced by something else, it is valuable for students to consider how they would have created something. This allows the students to further consider what life was like in a by-gone time.

Covered wagons and storage- Design a trunk for a covered wagon using cardboard and tape.

Explorers and Navigation - Engineer a compass, a pulley system for a sail or a ship out of foil that can hold weight

Take a particular theme across time. For example, everyone throughout history has had a need to procure water for themselves, livestock and crops. The students could immerse themselves in looking at how individual groups met that need throughout history. One way to accomplish this is to assign different time periods or civilizations to different groups of students. Their challenge could be to either recreate the technology used or improve upon it.

Water - Engineer an aqueduct or an irrigation system

Roads - Engineer wheels that can handle rough roads

Structures- Engineer buildings out of various materials that can support weights

Investigate individual inventors. History is full of amazing people who laid the foundations for inventions of a more modern day. Leonardo di Vinci and Benjamin Franklin are just two who spring to mind. But encourage student to explore other less familiar names such as Grace Hopper or J. Robert Oppenheimer. How did their inventions and ideas change history?

We encourage you to hop on the virtual time machine and add STEM to your history lessons. We have lots more ideas and resources on our Facebook and Pinterest pages to help you develop lessons that will captivate your students and make history come alive.

Wendy and Cheryl together have over 50 years of classroom experience. They are eager to help spread the word on children's engineering. They have trained teachers, administrators, and families throughout the United States and have a website and blog, Get Caught Engineering. Contact them at getcaughtengineering@gmail.com

This article was written by Cheryl and Wendy from Get Caught Engineering

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Using STEM as Your Time Machine for History

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Guest Post by Cheryl and Wendy from Get Caught Engineering Wouldn't history class be more fascinating if we could use a time machine to explore events of the past? Just as the fictional Ms. Frizzle and her school bus provides her students with amazing adventures to understand scientific concepts, with our own time machine we could provide inspiring visions for cultural accomplishments.

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You can make Felicity her own hornbook out of cardboard using this template. To make an easy quill pen simply tape a stiff feather to a shortened pencil. Wrap the length of the pencil and feather stem up to where your feathers start with strips of black duct tape.

Of course you will only want this for a prop, ink will stain your dolls!

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How to Make a Colonial Quill Pen and Hornbook - Week 1

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You can make Felicity her own hornbook out of cardboard using this template. To make an easy quill pen simply tape a stiff feather to a shortened pencil. Wrap the length of the pencil and feather stem up to where your feathers start with strips of black duct tape.

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Display the flags of the Revolutionary War period and let kids recreate them with construction paper. Not all flags of this time were red, white and blue; one Grand Union flag had red and green stripes and a Sons of Liberty flag had red and white stripes going horizontally and vertically.

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Kids during the Revolutionary War period wrote their ABCs on this "book." Made of parchment paper and mounted on a small, wooden paddle-shaped board, the hornbook was an important possession for every school child. To replicate one, cut out the shape of a paddle from cardboard and attach a sheet of paper held in place with sticky-backed plastic for kids to write the alphabet on.

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There's been a certain levity to the last couple of bookmaking projects featured on Bookmaking with Kids. So now for something a little more serious. Except that it's still fun. Bookmaking is always fun.

This is one of a series of projects that lets kids recreate book formats used in times past. In the process they learn a little something about the evolution of books over the centuries as well as the different cultures that developed them. Making historical book models is a wonderful lens for looking at the past.

A hornbook was what children of the 14th through 18th centuries used to learn their ABCs.

"When little children first
are brought to schoole
A Horne-booke is a necessarie toole."
- Nicholas Breton, 1612

It wasn't really a book at all: it consisted of a sheet of parchment or paper with the alphabet, phonics and a prayer printed or in manuscript, mounted on a small, wooden, paddle-shaped board and protected by a thin sheet of transparent animal horn that was attached with metal strips and nails.

The hornbook is an easy-to-make project that's suitable whenever Colonial America pops up in your curriculum. I've taught it to 2nd graders, 3rd graders and 5th graders. The larger of the two replicas pictured to the right is good for younger students. It consists of a piece of stiff paper held inside a plastic sheet protector by brads and attached to a wooden paint stirrer! How easy is that?! The smaller one, more historically accurate in shape, is cut from cardboard. The written sheet is held in place with clear sticky-backed plastic. And four brads secure strips of gold-colored paper that mimic the metal used in real hornbooks.

Some curious facts about hornbooks:

Hornbooks were made of many materials beside wood, including ivory, silver, leather, bone ... and occasionally gingerbread. When students learned a letter, they were allowed to eat it!

Children wore their hornbooks. There was a hole in the handle so they could be attached to boy's belt or a girl's girdle.

Because they were fairly indestructible and went everywhere with their owners, hornbooks were often used as bats when children were at play.

English and European hornbooks typically had a cross in the upper lefthand corner. But there were no crosses in New England hornbooks, because the Puritans abhorred the symbol of the cross.

Click the link for a diagram you can print as a template, links to useful web sites and other information.

This illustration shows all the elements that go into a hornbook. Click here for a PDF to download and print.

To be completely, exuberantly excessive on this topic-like me!-you could bake gingerbread hornbooks. I bought a wooden mold from this web site. The accompanying booklet is actually the best resource for kids that I've found on this subject! Checking back recently, I discovered that the craftsman who makes the mold now sells hornbook replicas, too. Interesting to look at but perhaps too pricey for a classroom purchase.

If you include baking in your hornbook activities, make sure to share this verse by Matthew Prior (1664-1721), in his poem Alma, describing gingerbread hornbooks sold at fairs:

To Master John the English maid
A Hornbook gives of Gingerbread:
And that the Child may learn the better,
As he can name, he eats the Letter:
Proceeding thus with vast Delight,
He spells, and gnaws, from left to right.

Finally, please let me know if you're interested in more historical book projects by clicking here and I'll put you in touch with my East Bay colleague Kathy, who has pioneered a curriculum that dovetails perfectly with elementary- and middle-school social studies.

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Hands-on History of Books: Hornbooks - Bookmaking With Kids

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There's been a certain levity to the last couple of bookmaking projects featured on Bookmaking with Kids. So now for something a little more serious. Except that it's still fun. Bookmaking is always fun. This is one of a series of projects that lets kids recreate book formats used in times past.

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These dolls were very popular with kids during the Revolutionary War because they could be made with the material on hand -- corn husks left over from the harvest. Soak the husks in water for about an hour to keep them pliable. The children can then shape the dolls and dress them in period costumes, depicting soldiers or those who lived on the prairie.

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Native American Crafts Unit - TeachersFirst: How to Make Corn Husk Dolls

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TeachersFirst's Native American Crafts unit offers elementary students a hands-on experience with the crafts, toys, and food familiar to Native American children.

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Our Homeschool Teen Club is performing "Wind in the Willows" in April. My daughter is playing the role of "Mole", my son is working on sets and behind stage and I am working on costuming. Our costume committee has done a fine job with all the outfits and they are almost complete.

One of my tasks was to figure out how to make a judge's or barrister's wig. You know the kind...it looks a little like a George Washington wig. I searched everywhere on-line for some simple directions and came up with ZIP! So I'm hoping this will be helpful to others who might want to make their own instead of shelling out the $30-$40 to buy one. This cost me less than $5 and took about 3 hours to make.

I bought a cheap fiber Christmas tree skirt ($2.00 after Christmas sale), like the blanket of snow you might put under your putz Christmas houses. It is the same rolled polyfill batting that is sold at fabric stores. I used a ballcap for the base ( after I removed the bill) and just started molding the batting around it. (Everything was handsewn. I didn't bother dragging out the machine!)

I made a seam down the middle for a part. I gathered the back together then added a "ponytail" made from two flat pieces hot-glued together. Then I tied it with a black grosgrain ribbon.

For the side rolls, I took long strips of batting (approx. 5" wide) and rolled them up like pastries, sewing them shut with a running stitch. I left a little flap so I could sew one roll to the next. I removed the wig from the ballcap base and tried it on periodically to make sure it fit and looked right.

I had a hard time figuring out how to make the "bangs" because they are supposed to look like a "crewcut" in the front...not easy to do with fiber batting. I cut 3-4 lengths of batting 2" wide, clipped the top side of each row and glued them, one below the other across the forehead area, then "fluffed" them out.
The last thing I did was to take a black sharpie and draw in some "grey" hairs to outline the various parts, especially the bangs and the swirled up end of the rolls. Without the black outline, the whole thing looked like a bright white towel sitting on a head!

The young man who will be wearing this wig in the play tried it on and was happy with it but asked if I could add a few more rolls to make it longer, so I'm going to do that. You could make yours as long or short as you want.

I must get moving. I have one rat tail and 16 weasle tails to complete by Friday!

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Our Homeschool Teen Club is performing "Wind in the Willows" in April. My daughter is playing the role of "Mole", my son is working on sets and behind stage and I am working on costuming. Our costume committee has done a fine job with all the outfits and they are almost complete.

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Go back to a time before food processors with these authentic colonial recipes. Kids can help measure ingredients and even try creaming butter and sugar by hand. Ask them to imagine life without electricity. How would they like living in those times?

You can make several kinds of corn bread, fine confections and molasses cookies.