October is a great time to get into the STEM spirit!
We’ve started creating STEM + Literacy combo lesson plans! Teachers and young students love them! Try our 1st Grade STEM activities. While there are many ways to use STEM in your classroom, one of our favorite ways is through read-alouds! Yes, you read that correctly. You may be thinking,…
but doesn’t STEM stand for science, technology, engineering and math?
It does! There are a lot of great ways to explore science, technology, engineering, and math through reading though. In fact, we actually think connecting literacy to STEM is one of the best ways to teach STEM.
If you are new to using literacy and STEM together, these October STEM activities are a great place to start. If you are already a lover of the STEM + Literacy combo – you will love these three October themed read alouds to continue using literacy + STEM together in your classroom!
Recommended Read Aloud Books to Teach STEM & Literacy
Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds
- Creepy Carrots book is the tale of Jasper the Rabbit. Like most rabbits, carrots are Jasper’s favorite treat! Unfortunately, he starts to fear that the carrots he loves so much are out to get him! This picture book is perfect for early elementary students (or anyone who loves a good story).
Bonaparte Falls Apart
- Bonaparte Falls Apart, by Margery Cuyler is a clever book that follows the main character Bonaparte, a young skeleton, who is trying to figure out how to enjoy life – without falling apart! Something that is quite difficult when every time he tries to do something, like play catch, it’s not just the ball that goes flying! Students will love following Bonaparte on his challenging , journey and thinking about ways to help him solve his problem.
Crankenstein by Samantha Berger and Dan Dantat
- Crankenstein is a relatable book for anyone who has had a bad day – especially young kids! Young Crankenstein just can’t seem to catch a break in his day. From his melting popsicle to an early bedtime, nothing seems to go his way, and EVERYTHING seems to make him grumpy! Students will be able to relate to some of these challenges, and also have a good giggle.
All three of these books are not only fun and engaging reads for students, they are perfect for teaching STEM! . Keep reading to learn how the challenges each character faces creates a perfect STEM challenge for students to solve.
How do we combine STEM and Literacy with Read Alouds?
Each read-aloud created for these three books provides 3-5 daily lesson plans to help students develop literacy skills. At the end of the literacy lessons, each read-aloud requires students to use what they’ve learned to solve a problem. We’ve added a problem that require students to use STEM skills to create a solution!
3 Super Fun Halloween Literacy & STEM Activities
Creepy Carrots Interactive Read Aloud with STEM Activity
- The main problem Jasper faces in this book is his fear of the creepy carrots! To help Jasper, students use their engineering skills to build something to keep the creepy carrots in the garden. This activity guides students through the entire engineering design process that begins with identifying the problem and ends with the final solution.
Bonaparte Falls Apart Read Aloud with STEM Activity
- Students follow the engineering design process for this STEM challenge as well. In this challenge, students help Bonaparte solve his problem of always falling apart by creating a way for his skeleton to be sturdy enough to walk to school! As part of the engineering design process students test out if their solution works and refine if needed.
Buy Now: Bonaparte Falls Apart Read Aloud Lesson Plan
Crankenstein Read Aloud with STEM Activity
- One thing that makes Crankenstein especially grumpy is melting popsicle. In this STEM challenge, students set out to build a structure that will protect Crankenstein’s popsicle from melting in the sun. As with all of our STEM activities, students follow all the steps of the engineering design process.
Make It A Bundle with Our Halloween Read Aloud with STEM Activities!
- One important aspect of a true STEM curriculum is that it is cross curricular. This means that students learn how to incorporate skills from science, technology, engineering, and math together – to solve problems. Another important aspect of STEM is that students learn how to use these skills to solve real world problems. All of these Halloween STEM activities reflect these important elements of STEM.
If you’re looking for more STEM activities for First and Second Graders you can visit our shop or you may be interested in these blog posts such as:
