Learning is: Connecting STEM and Literature
Visit Ms. Jackson’s first grade classroom at Park Ridge Elementary School in Deerfield Beach, Florida. This month, they allowed our Discovery Education Community to join them in studying their connection between STEM and literature through the Aesop fable, The Crow and the Pitcher.
The Big Idea
By completing a series of hands-on activities and interactive stations, the students in Ms. Jackson’s class were able to verify the character’s actions from the Aesop fable, create mobiles as a way to retell the story, build a better birdhouse, and learn about different types of birds using Discovery Education Streaming and Discovery Education Board Builder.
Learn more by stepping into a 360 degree view of Ms. Jackson’s classroom. Here are tips to maximize the experience:
- After launching the 360 degree image, spin your view to find the pin that reads Begin Here. Play the embedded video to meet Ms. Jackson as she welcomes you to her classroom.
- Then, spin your view to find the pins that read The Variables and Making Graphs. Play the embedded videos to learn about the literature and math connections made in this lesson.
- Just as students rotate through the centers, follow the pins in numerical order. Each numbered pin contains an embedded video that describes what students are doing in each station to support their learning.
- Don’t take our word for it: hear from Ms. Jackson and see examples of her students’ learning by selecting the pins with images.
Interested in creating a similar experience in your class? Check out the strategies and resources used by Ms. Jackson. You can also explore additional resources and lesson plans by utilizing the updated Search by Standards feature within your Discovery Education resources.
Setting the Stage: After Ms. Jackson’s class returned from lunch and seated themselves on the classroom carpet, she quickly reviewed the problems the Crow faced in the Aesop fable, The Crow and the Pitcher. She then explained to the class that they would be working independently on addition fluency and working in small groups at four stations where instructions and examples would be displayed using an assignment in Board Builder from Discovery Education. Ms. Jackson assigned tasks to her students, and off they went.
Station One: Students created mobiles as a way of retelling the fable, The Crow and the Pitcher. After completing a written retelling, students viewed a Board from Discovery Education’s Board Builder titled Making A Story Mobile. Here, students created the images and text for the mobile and assembled it using the Board for directions and examples.
Station Two: This is where the students’ design process skills were brought to life. After designing a better bird house, Ms. Jackson’s students used paper plates and different sized plastic cups to build their birdhouse based on their original designs. Students viewed a Board from Discovery Education’s Board Builder called Design a Bird Feeder to assist them with their planning and construction.
Station Three: Ms. Wilson asked students to explain how the Crow was able to drink water from the pitcher. After they explained what the Crow did, the students tried their hands at the Crow’s magic. Using beakers of water, and three different types of ‘stones,’ the students added stones to the beakers to increase the volume measurement. Students tallied and graphed their results.
Station Four: At the technology station, students worked on two different activities. The first on involved a Board created in Discovery Education’s Board Builder called Comparing the Cockatoo and Crow. After viewing this Board, students used the Spotlight on Strategies, Get Venn-y With It, to compare and contrast the two different birds. The second activity here also used a Board called I Wonder…How Smart Are Crows? Students engaged with its content using Three Truths and 1 Fib, Ms. Jackson’s twist on the Spotlight On Strategies, Three Truths…1 Lie.
Independent Activities: As students rotated through independent stations, they engaged in math fluency activities involving activities with hundreds boards, dominos, different types of counters, and other technology tools such as Starfall.