Week of September 7, 2020

Hello scientists! We are still experiencing some technology issues. I do not have any courses on Schoology yet, so there will not be any zoom meeting on Friday, September 11th. I am adding a short little welcome back video below. In the video, I included an experiment for you to watch or to try at home with parent permission. I look forward to Zooming with you when the issues are taken care of.

For the time being you can share with me through email flemink@dearbornschools.org

Beginning of year video

Welcome Back!

Welcome to a new and different kind of school year! Despite the distance learning, I am looking forward to exploring the wonderful world of Science with each and every one of you.

Most of you already know me and have had me for Science Enrichment/STEAM for several years now, but there may be some new students and Young 5’s and Kindergartners that have not. My name is Mrs. Fleming. I am married and have 2 grown children and a 7 year old dog. I have been teaching at Whitmore Bolles for 8 years. I love to read, travel and enjoy the great outdoors. I love science!!! I am looking forward to learning more about all of you too!

As a district, we will be using the Schoology platform this year. While this platform is new and we are all in the process of learning to navigate it, please know you can communicate with me via email as well: flemink@dearbornschools.org

Summer STEAM Calendar

I hope every one of you has a wonderful summer! I am providing a link to a STEAM calendar for you to check out over the summer. The calendar includes many fun activities. It is organized quite nicely – Math Monday, Outdoor Tuesday, Science Wednesday, Engineering Thursday, Fun Friday

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bTLlW0bHlWZyRQLXu5CJ4kzvaqcR9VSpNK9zoqxyTRo/edit?usp=sharing

If you want to share any activities that you do, you can always email me flemink@dearbornschools.org

Stay safe this summer and I hope to see you all in the September!

School ReOpening Survey

The district would like your input. Please take a few minutes to complete the following survey on your thoughts about school reopening in the fall. School ReOpen Committee Parent Survey #1 https://forms.gle/DNx3eN8hcRpXsfSs5

Mystery Doug Live

SPECIAL: Real kids interview a NASA astronaut! 👩‍🚀 Mystery Doug LIVE next Thursday, May 21st.

Dear families,

There is going to be a special live science show done by someone named Mystery Doug next Thursday, May 21st. He’s a science educator kids love. Will you please help your child watch this? All you need to do is open this website link:

https://mysteryscience.com/live

The show will be about 20 minutes long and will start at:

10am Pacific / 11am Mountain / 12pm Central / 1pm Eastern
Thursday, May 21
Add to your calendar with a click:
https://tinyurl.com/add-to-calendar

STEAM at Home

Hi everybody! I hope you are doing well. Even though I will be posting science assignments on your classroom teachers’ google classrooms from now on which will be required work, I still love to see all the STEAM activities you are doing at home in your free time. Please continue to send pictures if you do any activities and I will post them. If I come across any extra exciting STEAM projects, I will have to post them because that is my passion. LOL They will be optional but I know some of you love them as much as I do so I might have to post a few on my blog.

Alexis and Mackenzie did the “sparkly explosion” experiment.

Olivia’s straw rocket

Carson’s Maker Station bridge

Madison’s Daffodil dissection
Justin’s Daffodil Dissection

Elijah’s bridge

April 27-May 1

A message from Mrs. Fleming: STEAM work from me will now be on your classroom teacher’s google classroom or Class Dojo. This will count as a science assignment for their classroom not as a separate STEAM assignment. Hopefully this collaboration will help parents and students by enabling you to find student work in one place.

This week as we transition, I am putting the assignments on my blog as well as your teacher’s google classroom (with specific directions on google classroom) or Class Dojo.

Of course, I would still love to see your Maker Station projects (from previous blog posts) if you would like to keep submitting them. I will put a few experiments or STEAM activities on my blog periodically for you to do in your spare time (optional). I am also going to put some of the pictures you are sending me on my email. I love to see all of the wonderful activities you are doing! Thank you for sending them.

Young 5’s and Kindergarten – Needs of animals

Listen to the videos – Animal Needs (YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe9kSlVeEIM

Need Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4UDf3tF_O4

Write the 4 basic needs of animals and draw a picture

1st grade – Animals and their Babies

Watch the Animals and their Babies PPT

For your project, I want you to look at yourself and look at your mom and dad. Do you look more like mom? Do you look more like dad? Do you look like a perfect combination of both? Look for a photo of you and an a photo of the parent you look like more. Remember, it could be both. If you have a digital photo on a phone or computer, that is perfect. If you have a real photo, that is great too.

2nd grade – finishing Social Studies this week. Check your teacher’s google classroom

3rd grade – Growing food from scraps https://youtu.be/aow09fbPtcY

Take a picture of what you are growing and submit

Keep track of plant growth (document on google classroom) and turn in to google classroom

Use this link to see how to grow food from scraps https://www.diyncrafts.com/4732/repurpose/25-foods-can-re-grow-kitchen-scraps

Submit your work to google classroom or email me: flemink@dearbornschools.org

4th grade – Dissect a daffodil

Materials needed : daffodil or tulip or similar flower (ask before you pick one) If you don’t have one than watch the video and draw/label parts on paper, scissors, paper, pencil or pen

Watch the video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxCNC9yk7f8

Rewatch the video labeling parts of flower as you watch the video

Send the picture of your work to google classroom or my email :flemink@dearbornschools.org

5th grade – check your google classroom

Google Meets and Office Hours

I was planning to have a google meet this week, however the district is not currently supporting Google Meets due to some issues that have arisen. Therefore, teachers are currently working to navigate a new platform meeting. I will let you know when I have further information about that.  STAY TUNED! I will also be available via email Tuesdays from 12-1 pm if you have any questions.

Earth Day Lego Challenges

Earth Day is Wednesday, April 22. Here is a link to some Earth Day Lego Challenges https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/LEGO-Earth-Day-Challenges.pdf

April 17

Below are some pictures students sent me. Some students also wrote to me via email to tell me about the science activities they are doing. Please continue to share with me. I love to see and hear about what “STEAM” things you are doing. flemink@dearbornschools.org

Hunter’s sparkly explosion

Ian and his dad watched the online storyline The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake and decided to play the detective game. They wrote a few sentences to tell me about their experience.

Justin was busy last week completing his assignments. This is the email he sent me:

I did the maker project on building a box.  I did it with legos and it could also be a bank.  There are photos.I watched the mystery science live event with Doug, I liked the tin foil animals he did.I also watched the story about the case of the missing carrot cake.  It was good.My mom found me a good youtube channel for science stuff, it’s called finding stuff out.

April 13-17

Hello again! I hope everyone had a nice spring break and that you are all staying home and staying safe. I am going to include some activities these next weeks with some resources that will remain the same ( I will just change lessons/activities) and some new activities will be added. As time goes on I might explore different ways to communicate with you. I enjoyed seeing your faces on the chat I had with Mrs. Bennett’s class so I am going to explore that route. This is learning curve for all of us.

Storyline Online is a great STEAM resource for parents and children to do at home. There is no login and the story is read to students. Storyline Online has an activity guide section for teachers and parents with many STEAM activities relating to the story. I have included the parent activity guide which gives discussion questions and STEAM ideas relating to the book. The book this week, The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake is another good book with wonderful STEAM activities. Check out the Science and Art in the parent activity guide below.

All Grades – Week 4

The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake https://www.storylineonline.net/books/missing-carrot-cake/

Parent Activity Guidehttps://www.storylineonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/CarrotCake_FamilyActivityGuide.pdf

Science Experiment – Sparkly Explosion (do this experiment with adult supervision)http://preschoolpowolpackets.blogspot.com/2012/04/science-experiment-sparkly-explosion.html?m=1

If you have Legos at home – Space Lego Challenge Cards http://preschoolpowolpackets.blogspot.com/2012/04/science-experiment-sparkly-explosion.html?m=1

Please send pictures of the activities to show me what you have done. Write a few sentences to tell me about the activities. You can take a picture of your writing too or write in the email. I will respond to you. My email address is flemink@dearbornschools.org

Maker Stations

I am including the Maker Stations in this blog post again so you can continue to work on these at home. Brooke Brown has created this free pack of 15 Maker Stations. Each Maker Station includes simple challenges using items around the home, scannable QR code resources, and a student recording sheet. Enjoy the activities! You can continue to create one of these stations each week. You should have completed 3 these last few weeks so that leaves 12 more for the rest of the school year (one per week). Since we won’t be back at school this school year, you can email a picture of your finished project. I am in the process of finding other ways for you to turn in your student recording sheets (blueprints). I am keeping track of those of you who turn in your assignments on my class lists. You can send pictures of your finished projects and send to my email: flemink@dearbornschools.org

Carson’s vehicle maker station creation

Calyssa’s marble maze maker station creation






Click here to see Connor’s maker station activity!

Ian’s Science Experiment

Ian and his family decided to try the convection powered pinwheel from the Mystery Science glass making bonus materials. What a great idea!