Every December I dread...I mean D-R-E-A-D putting up my classroom Christmas tree. I hate sorting the branches, attaching them to the pole, fluffing, etc, etc, etc!
Now, before you call me the Grinch, I LOVE Christmas time! I love decorating my house and my REAL tree. I love sitting next to the tree with only the Christmas tree lights on.
Last year as I was dragging my Christmas decor and tree out of storage, it hit me! I am not going to put the tree up this year, my students will as a S.T.E.M challenge!
This week I started math time by throwing all the parts to the Christmas tree down on the floor. (Yes very dramatic like!) I had students visualize the shape of the Christmas tree. And share with them their challenge.
Groups rotated to this as a station during our Guided Math time. It took them a bit to figure it out and at times our tree looked a little funny!
However, at the end of Guided Math, the tree only had 2 miss places branches.
This activity taught my students...
1. The importance of developing a plan first
2. How to listen to every one's ideas
3. How to effectively communicate our ideas
4. We shouldn't all do our own thing.
5. How to work as a team.
I will NEVER put together another class Christmas tree again! The learning benefits are amazing and as an added bonus, I don't have to put the tree together! Now, how do I make beginning of the year classroom set up a S.T.E.M activity?
