May STEM Breaks - A STEM Break for EACH Day!

STEM breaks are a little different from STEM challenges. They occur over a shorter time period, require less supplies, and are an opportunity for students to try out ideas they may later use in their STEM challenges.

In our classroom, STEM breaks are 10-20 minutes long, compared to STEM challenges that are 45-60 minutes long. We do not do STEM breaks every day, instead we try to do 1-2 a week. They are perfect for indoor recess activities, morning soft starts, or times when your kids just need a break from those traditional classroom assignments.

STEM breaks give kids a chance to work together, talk, share ideas, and try things out in a shorter period of time! I give students the opportunity to do a little research on their chromebooks for these STEM breaks. We usually record the data from these STEM breaks onto a piece of chart paper for the whole classroom. You can use individual data sheets, but STEM breaks are really more about the engineering experience.

These STEM breaks are based on holidays, events, and birthdays of famous people or characters. I project them onto my white board and the class gets to work. Some of these are meant to be individual challenges, while others can be done in pairs, trios, or groups. Teachers can decide what works best for their own classroom!

We display some of these on a smaller sized bulletin board in our classroom. I print out the page of the specific date, we add photos and our class data sheet on chart paper. We often refer to these STEM breaks as we are working on STEM challenges. Limiting the amounts of materials will make any STEM break more challenging!

Take a STEM Break!