Beginning of the Year Activities: Marshmallow Tower
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- Easel Activity
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Looking for a full week's + worth of beginning of the year activities for your science classroom? Beginning of the year activities establish classroom culture and community, build relationships, and set the tone for the school year. Start the school year off strong with this beginning of-the-year scPrice $24.00Original Price $27.00Save $3.00
Looking for a full week's + worth of beginning of the year activities for your classroom? Beginning of the year activities establish classroom culture and community, build relationships, and set the tone for the school year. Start the school year off strong with this Beginning-of-the-Year ActivitiesPrice $22.00Original Price $24.50Save $2.50
Are you desperately seeking ways to help your English Learners engage with your rigorous science content? The Science Projects Bundle is full of accessible, differentiated, low-prep, scaffolded, student-centered projects that allow your students to demonstrate their understanding of rigorous, grade-Price $39.00Original Price $44.00Save $5.00
Description
Looking for something engaging and collaborative for your students to do during the first week of school? Beginning of the year activities set classroom expectations and establish classroom culture. Beginning of the Year Activities: Marshmallow Tower is a great way to start the school year and introduce students to The Engineering Design Process. This engaging activity is fun, collaborative, student-centered, scaffolded, and differentiated. Students are tasked with building a prototype of a candy store (marshmallow tower) within the parameters outlined.
Student Packets Include:
- A short scenario introducing the task
- A detailed list of constraints and supplies
- A space to brainstorm and collect data
- Differentiated reflection questions
- A lesson plan (including standards for the teacher)
- UPDATED: Google Slides (TM) for assigning digitally! (Links to the digital version to assign to students are embedded in the PDF).
Description of Differentiated Versions of the student packet: Page numbers include 3 different fruits as discreet labels for the different student packets: Apples, Oranges, and Cherries.
1. Apple version: Provides the least amount of support.
2. Orange version: Provides a moderate amount of support (including sentence starters for reflection questions).
3. Cherry Version: Provides the most support. This version was created with ELLs and students with special needs in mind.
This resource is fantastic for teachers who have many different types of learners in one classroom, those looking to increase student engagement and creativity in their classrooms, as well as those wanting to try more student-centered activities in their classrooms. Do not be intimated by the E in STEAM. This project will help you to feel more confident in teaching your students engineering.
Feel free to email me @ jp@litsciencebyjp for questions and/or feedback.
Head over to my website for more information on literacy in science.
Related blog posts:
Activities for the Beginning of the School Year
3 Engaging and Empowering Examples of Student-Centered Learning Activities
Need more? Want to spend less? This resource is part of a money-saving bundle complete with a week's + worth of Back to School science-specific activities.
***Please note: This resource is not to be used or distributed for use by teachers working as independent contractors for commercial and/or online teaching platforms. For classroom teachers, I hope your students enjoy and benefit from the activity. I ask that out of respect for my work, you'd purchase additional licenses for multiple teachers. Thank you.***
