Celebrate summer with hands-on learning in this round up of back-to-school lessons for students in grades K-8!
Summer may be coming to a close, but we’ve got some surefire ways to add a little sunshine to your back-to-school lesson plan as students return to the classroom. There are a variety of ways to combine hands-on creativity with impactful lessons that make new concepts stick with 3Doodler’s selection of 3D pens.
We’ve rounded up a few of our favorite lessons to build on summer fun and get the school year off to a great start. Read on to bring creativity to life in your classroom as students go back to school!
Floating Doodles: Grades K-2
The hot days of summer bring to mind days at the beach or visits to a lake or stream to cool off and explore nature. Tap into those memories with a lesson in buoyancy that your students won’t soon forget. In this lesson, students will work in pairs to design, test, and iterate on boats they’ve designed with easy to find materials and their 3Doodler pens. Once their designs are finished, test them out in a tub of water to see which one floats the longest. Get the floating doodle lesson and set sail!
Dial Up the Sun: Grades 3-5
The sundial is the earliest type of time keeping device. It determines the time of day by tracking the shadow of an object, often referred to as a gnomon, as it is exposed to the sun’s rays. Now your students will have an opportunity to combine history and science in an interesting lesson on time by doodling their own sundial. Working in groups, students will craft a gnomon to attach to a flat surface and track time over a period of hours. Take this lesson further to have students make observations and predictions about time using their newly doodled device. Sunny days are ahead with the dial up the sun lesson.
3Doodler City: Grade 6-8
Give your students a chance to reflect on their travels this summer and their local community with a lesson in building a city or town. The American Institute of Architects explains how early exposure to design concepts supports critical thinking and creativity. Invite your class to reimagine a city and build it from the ground up to include everything from houses and hospitals to banks, schools, parks, libraries and more. Use geometry to determine the shape the building will take and design by calculating the area and the perimeter. Apply real-world problem solving by using math and hands-on tech to create a 3Doodler city with this lesson!
These lessons are sure to inspire your class by working together to design creative solutions to real world challenges.