Family engagement is my "thing." So much so that I even wrote a book about it that was published a little over a year ago.
I believe that a child's family is their first teacher. I further believe that we could learn a lot about how to best help our students learn if we would just rely a little bit more on the insight of their families.
Backtrack about three years and a different district: My co-teacher and I decided to combine our classes and do a monthly STEM/STEAM parent engagement morning activity. While it was well-received, it was also cut short by the damn-demic (I borrowed that term from a speaker I heard this summer!)
Now that the restrictions from the damn-demic have been lifted, I asked permission, in my new district, to reinstate the Family Engagement STEM/STEAM monthly activity, and I got permission!
Our first one was this past Friday. Let me tell you, it exceeded my wildest hopes! It was so much fun! Out of the 14 students we had in attendance, 10 had one or both parents with them! The theme was "Apples. Apples. Everywhere!" We had four stations. I started with a story of the star in the center of the apple. That gained the children's attention. They thought I was magical!
We had four stations:
- Torn Paper Apples-children could choose from red, green, or yellow. They tore the paper into small pieces and glued it onto a small paper plate, then added a stem and leaf. (Tearing paper builds fine motor skills)
- Apple Prints-We had red, yellow, and green paint. Children dipped the apples in the paint and stamped them on the paper. (Process art)
- Johnny Appleseed Hats-Children colored and cut out saucepans,clued them on a strip of paper, colored an apple, glued it onto the saucepan. The hats were pre-labeled with their names: "___________ Appleseed." (Fine motor-coloring, cutting)
- Apple-tasting-we had apple juice, apple pie, freeze-dried apple chips, red apples, green apples, and applesauce. I went to three stores and couldn't find any yellow apples. The children were to taste the apples and decide which kind was their favorite. Their family wrote their name on a sticky note and added it to a graph I had created. When everyone had been through all four stations, we talked about the graph. We counted, compared and contrasted, which had more and less, which had the most, which had the same (all math skills)
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