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Week 1- All things GERMS!

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  During the first week of steam, we learned about germs. It was super important to start the year by hitting all the district's health standards. Seeing that we just came off a two-year pandemic, we wanted to ensure that we were establishing expectations of keeping each other safe by washing our hands and coughing/sneezing in our sleeves or with our mouths covered. As grown-ups, we are very well aware of all the things that come home bacteria-wise from our children and how quickly they can get shared around the classroom.   We had a lot of fun in the lower grades by discovering secret germs on handprints I created for them to paint with watercolors. We talked about and watched a health video about washing our hands after restroom usage and before eating. The kiddos thoroughly enjoyed the water activity and finding the magic invisible germs on their little handprints. We also listened to the book called “ Sick Simon ,” and the kids were either thoroughly enthralled by th...

Person in STEAM - Kiyoshi Shiga

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  We spoke about Kiyoshi Shiga this week, and I differentiated the information between grades according to understanding. Kindergarten might learn that he found a nasty stomach bug, while the upper grades learn more details about the bacteria itself.  Shiga Kiyoshi , (born Feb. 7, 1871,  Sendai , Japan—died Jan. 25, 1957, Tokyo), Japanese bacteriologist, chiefly noted for his discovery (1897) of the  dysentery  bacillus  Shigella ,  which is named after him. Shiga graduated from the  University of Tokyo  in 1896. Two years earlier he had begun work with  Kitasato Shibasaburo , who had discovered the tetanus bacillus. In 1899 Shiga was appointed laboratory director at the Institute for  Infectious  Diseases in  Tokyo . Shortly thereafter he went to Europe and worked with  Paul Ehrlich , a German bacteriologist, on developing chemotherapy for trypanosomiasis, a  blood disease  caused by a protozoan micro-organ...

Continent Studies - ASIA

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  As a teacher, it is essential for me to teach students about the world. We have such great diversity in our classroom, and I want to take advantage of us learning from each other. So this year, we will be doing continent studies, which means we will be studying a new continent roughly every two months. In other posts, you will see that I am showcasing people of the STEAM community from those continents throughout those two months. First up was the continent of Asia, and many students were surprised that there were as many countries in the Asian continent as there were. Many students would raise their hand and say where they were from and be proud that they were being represented during our Asian studies. As you can see by the slide, I tried to highlight exciting facts to open up discussions and leads to deeper thinking and meaning. I hope you will enjoy following along with our continents study and the person in STEAM studies.