STEM Activities for the Makerspace with Building Bricks like LEGO®️
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What educators are saying
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My favorite lower elementary STEM center! These STEM tasks are designed for building bricks like LEGO ®. These challenge cards are easy to set up but highly rigorous. Not only will your students be working creatively to solve problems, they will be reading, writing, and using math skills. What You'lPrice $29.00Original Price $44.50Save $15.50
This bundle includes resources to keep your students actively engaged in STEM all year long. There are over 90 STEM activities included in this resource.Start with the STEM classroom pack and poster sets, then move on to the rest of the resources in the bundle. Holiday and seasonal STEM resources arPrice $109.00Original Price $202.00Save $93.00
Elementary STEM teachers, this bundle has hundreds of activities (300+!) for your STEM classes! With a mix of quick STEM challenges, STEM center activities, and more in depth engineering design challenges, you will always have something new to do!This bundle includes everything in both the K-2 and 3Price $269.00Original Price $402.00Save $133.00
Are you a new STEM teacher? This resource will give you the background training you need to:Understand and utilize the engineering design process (EDP) with teacher training ebookSet up your classroom (posters and word wall)Vet STEM challenges and evaluate student work (checklist and rubrics)ProvidePrice $44.00Original Price $58.00Save $14.00
Description
The *perfect* makerspace task cards for building bricks! Reusable, print-and-go STEM mats encourage critical thinking skills and creativity, while providing hands-on building opportunities and practical math practice.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Lego engineering is the most favored activity in my second grade class. These mats are incredible. I pair up the students and give them each a tub of Legos and a mat. I just dumped all of the same colored blocks in a plastic food container and each color goes with a certain mat. This keeps the Legos well organized. The ideas the kids come up with for building are SO creative. At first some students were quite frustrated by not having directions, but now they just get right to work. They are building perseverance and creativity every time they work with Legos this way. I cannot say enough good things about this remarkable product!"
When to Use STEM Mats
- STEM Fridays or Maker Mondays ✅
- Early finisher activities ✅
- Math or STEM stations ✅
- Indoor recess activity ✅
- Family STEM night ✅
- After school STEM club ✅
What You'll Get
- Teacher instructions and sample images
- Letter to can send home to parents, caregivers, and friends to ask for donations
- 10 basic STEM Mats in bold colors (with 3 variations for the CVC mat, the landmarks mat, and the person mat)
- Recording sheet options - includes full and quarter page options, for pre-readers and beginning readers
- Sample mentor sentences to help the students complete their recording sheet
- Comparison sheet so students can alter the design and compare two designs
- Decor items - bunting and engineering design process graphic
- Blank STEM mats
- Sorting mats to break down the creation - by color or brick type
- Modified STEM mats are now included! These mats have simpler design criteria - if you are short on time, have younger students, or have students that get frustrated easily, these are the mats for you!
A full set of ALL mentioned above in spring colors is also included.
Learn More
For a detailed explanation of how to use STEM mats and to see some of the mats included in this resource, please visit this video. You can also download a free STEM Mat (the Supporting Document).
Want STEM Mats for the entire year?
STEM Mats for the Entire Year BUNDLE
Why use STEM Mats?
STEM Mats are easy to set up. There are hundreds of building challenge possibilities because each mat has design criteria spinners. A student can repeat the STEM mat challenge and end up with a totally different design. Not only does this make it different from other STEM challenges, but they also won't be comparing themselves to others.
What materials will I need?
You will need building bricks / building blocks like legos. That does not mean you need to purchase expensive ones! I have found asking for donations works very well. You can even see if your local library has a building club and would be willing to lend you a bin of bricks. There are also numerous compatible bricks out there that are not made by the expensive brand. Check Target for deals on these types of bricks. Other than that you will only need paper and simple classroom supplies (pencils, paper clips, erasers, etc.)!
How can I differentiate these?
If you have advanced learners, you can take these to the next level. Ask your students to count the number of bricks used, or to complete the challenge wish as few bricks as possible. After all, materials cost money! If you have *very* high learners, you can even ask them to figure out how many possible combinations there are in the spinners!
Metric measurements are now included where applicable!
*************************** Related Resources *************************
Engineering Design Process Posters
Engineering Disciplines Posters
STEM Activities - 10 STEM Challenges
STEM Activities - 10 STEM Challenges (Set 2)
STEM Challenges Classroom Pack (STEAM)
STEM Tales
ALL STEM Tales: Fairy tales with a STEM twist! Ideal for grades 1-3.
Digital / Paperless STEM
STEM Journal for use with ANY STEM Challenge
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