You can grab the STEM I Can Build cards from my TPT store HERE. I created these “I Can Build…” Cards to spark students’ engineering excitement! The cards challenge and inspire students to create something amazing. An easy way to add a STEM activity into your science center is to put a tub of wooden blocks on the shelf. STEM and STEAM are huge right now in education. Add a book about the pet or plant to spark students’ interests. Something students can take care of and observe over time. You want to have something living in your science center. Remember to rotate the items based on the season or theme in your classroom. The Dollar Tree has shells, rocks, sometimes tree rings, and other seasonal nature items in their craft section. Natural materials are easy to find and provide students with endless hours of investigating! Try adding shells, rocks, leaves, fruits, vegetables, seeds, feathers, sticks, pine cones, seedpods, flowers, and any other item you can find outside in nature to your science center. Yes, more fine motor work too! Other science tools you can add to your center are test tubes, mirrors, prisms, discovery bottles (sensory bottles), microscopes, and binoculars. Little scientists LOVE using pipettes and pie plates to explore and investigate. Learn how to make your own bean and rainbow rulers HERE. Put out balance scales, rulers, connecting cubes, and other measurement tools in the center for students to use when they are investigating and experimenting. In addition, by adding tweezers, you are sneaking in some fine motor work too! Sorting trays and tweezers give students a place to examine, count, organize and classify (sort) items. All my other materials and tools are rotated throughout the year based on what we are investigating, our theme, and students’ interests. Don’t forget to have words paired with a picture on your labels! Grab my Classroom Labels HERE with real photographs!Įvery scientist needs tools! Two tools that are always in the center are magnifying glasses and goggles. They will be able to find it themselves in the center. They won’t have to ask you for what they need. It makes cleaning up easier and helps students be independent in your classroom. Labels show students (and teachers) where the items belong. Now let’s start setting up the center! First things first: labeling! Label everything you can in the center. I believe math and science overlap in SO many areas it is natural to combine them together. In my classroom, I combine my math and science centers together, aka the Discovery Center. This post contains affiliate links which means I earn a tiny commission when you use my links at no cost to you. Grab the FREEBIE by entering your email in the box at the bottom of this post. Make your science center amazing to enhance their experiences! Plus, I have a few freebies for your center too! They are curious and eager to explore the world and everything in it! As teachers, it is our job to nurture their scientific spirit and help students form questions, investigations, collect data and share their conclusions. Students can observe, experiment, create, construct, classify, compare and question. Sensory tables can also help develop fine-motor skills, especially with the addition of zippers, buttons, and beads, and provide a calming place for children who enjoy the feel of dried beans, rice, or sand sifting through their fingers.The science center in my classroom is always a busy place. Providing time to become familiar with different textures, shapes and objects provides a venue to not only experience the world, but an opportunity to communicate delight, imagination, and curiosity within the confines a familiar, safe environment. With additional exposure to sensory experiences, sensory intake and processing can become fine-tuned. Sensory tables can provide enormous benefits for children with autism.
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