This week is teacher and school staff appreciation week. Now that we, as parents, are starting to understand what teachers and school staff do every day, it’s important to let them know how much we appreciate them. Schools are helping to organize virtual activities, and there are tons posts and suggestions from the education community. But I had an idea, why not do it a little differently? Instead of saying thank you for being a great teacher, staff member, or friendly face, why not SHOW them how they have influenced you and your kiddos?
How to Start: First, you need to decide who you are thanking any why. There may be one person that stands out as a strong influence in your kiddo’s lives. There may be multiple staff members you want to thank, or even the entire school. I know for us, our district has jumped in and banded together in a way I could not have imagined prior to this craziness.
What to do next: Be creative with your “thank you”. Since this is a STEAM blog, send a STEAM thank you! You can build a robot, design a Rube Goldberg, code, or use cabbage juice and pH to spell out a colorful “thank you”. If you’re not sure what to do, pick your favorite STEAM field and go from there. Then, send a picture or video to show how grateful you are.
Expand it: How can you bring in other content areas?
After you pick your STEAM field, try to incorporate the other STEAM fields below. No suggestions this time, that’s up to you.
- Science
- Technology
- Engineering
- Arts
- Math
STEAM Resources:
- Cabbage juice and pH from Carolina: https://www.carolina.com/teacher-resources/Interactive/red-cabbage-guice-homemade-ph-indicator/tr10851.tr
- Rube Goldberg: https://www.rubegoldberg.com/
- Girls Who Code at home activities: https://girlswhocode.com/programs/code-at-home
- Code.org activities: https://code.org/hourofcode/overview
- Multiple ideas that can be tweaked to deliver a message by The Tech Interactive, click “Building and Making Activities”: https://www.thetech.org/athome
-Peace
The Unexpected Parent-Teacher 