All I Want for Christmas is a Good STEM Lesson | The 12 Sleighs of Christmas
Are you looking for a meaningful but fun Christmas math or science lesson for your classroom? Then why not try incorporating Sherri Duskey Rinker’s The Twelve Days of Christmas. Students can use math and science skills to design and build a new sleigh for Santa. Younger grades can use the book to connect to their grade-level appropriate ELA standards. Teachers for older grades can use the picture book as a lesson hook to engage students. After all everyone loves a good picture book! At least my high schoolers did, so pull out the carpet squares for a little good old fashioned circle time.
What is the STEM Design Process?
The STEM Design Process and the Mathematical Modeling Process are very similar. Mathematical modeling has a stronger emphasis on mathematics as the underlying structure to the model. Because the processes are so similar, you can use this for either a math or science lesson (or combined lesson). Just emphasize the skills that fit your subject area.
See my How to Cure Math Anxiety with Modeling Mondays post to learn more about Mathematical Modeling.
- Notice: What do you notice about the situation?
- Wonder: What questions can you ask? What problems exist? Generate ideas.
- Plan: Select a solution path.
- Create: Make a model
- Experiment: Try! Evaluate the model.
- Improve: Make the model better.
- Share: Communicate and share your findings with others.
Subscribe now for my free printable of the STEM Design Process to use in your classroom!
Notice and Wonder
Regardless if you are doing mathematical modeling or a STEM lesson, it’s important to train students to pause and notice the world around them and ask questions. In both processes, it is equally important for students to refine and improve their model and to communicate their results. Because of time, these are the steps that we often skip in the classroom, but the ability to communicate and revise our work is crucial in real life. You can be the greatest scientist in the world but if you can’t communicate your ideas, you won’t get funding.
Note: For more information on Noticing and Wondering see my blog post: Increase Student Engagement by Using Picture Books to Launch the Notice & Wonder Routine.
STEM and Early Literacy
I’m sure you are aware of the importance of early literacy, yet it often gets overlooked in STEM projects and math lessons. And yes, students need to practice reading informational texts, but that is not the only way to incorporate literacy. You can also incorporate picture books. Picture books can help increase engagement and create connections in a STEM unit or a math lesson.
I’ve also written some other lessons integrating picture books with math/STEM concepts. Be sure to check them out on my Math Lessons web page or my picture book blog posts. Subscribe to my blog to get more of these types of lessons sent straight to your inbox.
The Design Process
Step 1: Notice
Give students a notice and wonder chart. Show students a picture of Santa’s sleigh and have them list all the things that they notice.
Step 2: Wonder
Then have students write down all the questions they wonder about Santa’s sleigh. Have students share their noticings and wonderings with the class. This is a low risk activity as there are no wrong answers, and it will draw students into discussion. One of the students will probably wonder why Santa uses a sleigh. Once someone asks that question, that will be the hook into your lesson.
Before we explore the question of interest, we will pause to tie in some ELA standards for a truly cross-curricular lesson.
ELA Connection
The 12 Sleighs of Christmas by Sherri Duskey Rinker
Note: Younger students should focus on the ELA connection. Older students can skip the reading comprehension questions below, but just read the book for fun and proceed to the question of interest.
Pre-reading
- Have any of you ever read The 12 Sleighs of Christmas before? For those of you who have not, predict what you think the book will be about. What can you learn about the characters from the cover? (Note: Many students will be familiar with the author’s Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site series.)
- Who do you think is the main character? What do you learn about main character’s family from the title page?
Reading
Spread 1
- Understanding Characters: Who are the main characters? What is their mood?
- Understanding Setting: Where does the story take place?
Spread 2
- Understanding Plot: What is the problem?
- Making Predictions: What do you think the elves will do?
Spread 3
- Understanding Language: What is the rhyme pattern? How does the rhyme and rhythm contribute to the story?
- Vocabulary: What are some words that you don’t understand? How can you figure out their meaning?
- Making Predictions: What do you think will happen next?
Spread 4
- Understanding Mood: What is the mood of the story? What evidence can you find in the story so far to support your claim.
- Making Connections: Would you like to be a part of a sleigh making competition? Explain.
Spread 5
- Using Illustrations to Create Meaning: Can you make predictions about some of the sleigh designs based on the illustrations?
Spread 6
- Word choice: What type of words are words like bang, clang, grind, buzz, clank, whirl, squak, honk, bonk, and splat. How do using these types of words contribute to the story?
Spreads 7-11
- For each spread, evaluate this new sleigh design. What do you like about it? What don’t you like about it? (Teacher’s Note: You may want to come back and do these discussion questions after reading the whole book.)
Spread 12
- Understanding Character: What do you learn about Santa’s personality?
- Making Predictions: What do you think Tim’s back up plan is?
Spread 13
- Understanding Plot: What’s the resolution of the problem?
Spread 14
- Making Predictions: What do you think the elves will do next?
Spread 15
- Do you think it was worthwhile to make the additional sleigh designs? Why or why not?
- Think to yourself: What kind of sleigh would you design for Santa?
Spread 16
- Making Inferences: How do you think Santa broke his sleigh the first time?
Post-Reading
- Summarizing: Can someone retell the story?
- Understanding Theme: What do you think the main message of the story was?
- Understanding Setting: Why is the setting important for the story?
- Making Connections: What science concepts would be involved in making Santa a sleigh. Explain.
The Design Process, continued
Revisit your exploratory question with your students: Why does Santa use a sleigh? After reading, you will need to pivot the question to “What kind of sleigh/vehicle should Santa drive?” or “What kind of sleigh/vehicle would you design for Santa?”
Then revisit the STEM design process. Explain that we’ve already noticed and wondered, so now we are on step 3 of our process.
Step 3: Plan
Brainstorming
Ask students for ideas about various Santa sleighs. Give them 3-5 minutes to brainstorm their ideas. Note: Unlike most STEM activities this activity is grounded in the imagination, so let their crazy imaginations run wild!
Planning
After the brainstorming session is over have them pick one and draw a picture.
Science and Math Connections
Give students a list of grade-level science and math level vocabulary. Have each student circle the words that they can use to apply to their vehicle for Santa. (I would have them choose a minimum of ten words to use.)
This is a great site for printable Science academic vocabulary words by grade level that you can use: Resources – lead4ward
Planning to Evaluate
As a class have them discuss how the elves were evaluating each others sleigh designs. For example, some sleighs were too loud. Others were too heavy. Come up with a class list of about 3-5 criteria for evaluating Santa sleighs. Then tell students that they will use that criteria to evaluate each other’s sleighs.
Math Practice Connections
Even though this is an imaginary activity, they will be using several math practice standards.
SMP.4: Model with mathematics.
This is the main math standard that they will be using as the whole purpose of this activity is going through the math modeling/STEM design process.
SMP.3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
Students will have to explain how their sleighs work using grade-level appropriate vocabulary. They will also have to evaluate their classmates’ sleighs. Since this is an imaginary context, providing reasoning for their own sleigh and critiquing the reasoning of their classmates is where the math/science comes in.
SMP.5: Use appropriate tools strategically.
Students need to select the tools/resources that they have to build the sleigh.
SMP.6: Attend to precision.
If you read the description of this math practice standard, you may be surprised to learn how precision involves the correct use of mathematical language. Can your students use precision when talking/writing about their sleighs?
Step 4: Create
Have students make their model. This can be completed in class or as an homework assignment. Since this is an imaginary project, let them use whatever resources they want. Some may use boxes or pipe cleaners. Other may use clay or 2 Liter bottles. Since these sleighs won’t really fly, technically they are still more of a design in Step 3. However, building 3 dimensional objects helps students build spatial reasoning that is important for learning math and science concepts.
Step 5: Experiment
Since this is an imaginary, the experiment is also imaginary. Student can do a write-up or oral presentation to the class about how their sleigh works. Again make sure they use a minimum of ten or more vocabulary words related to math and/or science. Now it’s time for the class to evaluate each other’s sleighs. Do they agree with the creator’s logic and reasoning or not?
Step 6: Improve
If time permits, have students analyze and improve their model based on the evaluation. Did their model solve Santa’s problem? Are they happy with the results? Would an outsider like another teacher, parent, or principal be happy with their results? Is there any way they could make their model better?
Step 7: Share
Have students share their results with others. This could be a small writing assignment, or it could be a presentation to another classroom, the janitor, the principal, or parents etc. Another easy option would be to post the sleighs on your school’s website or social media account. If you do so, please tag Word and Numbers!
Conclusion
Add holiday spirit to your math classroom and increase student engagement by incorporating a holiday picture book and fun STEM activity.
Do you have any ideas of ways to incorporate STEM lessons with picture books? If so, drop a note in the comments, and I may it as inspiration for a future lesson plan!
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Focus Standards
Math, Science, & ELA
There are math and science standards that can be applied at each grade level. Because this activity can be used in a variety of grade levels, there are too many to list here. Some Science topics include energy, sounds, and forces. Some math topics could include measurement or geometry or distance/rate/time scenarios.
NGSS Engineering Design
The NGSS Engineering Design Standards are the heart of this lesson. I’m just going to post their table for readability.
Once again Annie provides an easy and entertaining method to teach math and science, two difficult subject.