Circuitry in Elementary STEAM/STEM

Circuitry standards don’t {officially} start until fourth grade, but that doesn’t stop us from exploring and applying what we’ve learned about circuitry into our projects in grades K-5. We work with a variety of circuits:

• littleBits

• Circuit Cubes

• Makey Makey

• Squishy Circuits

• Paper Circuits & Traditional Circuitry Components

• Snap Circuits

• Hummingbird Bits (starting 2023-24 school year)

We learn through exploratory investigations and guided instruction. Students then work with materials to add light, sound, and movement to their engineering projects. We even use our 3D printer to print circuitry components. Circuits are added to our schoolwide STEAM Challenges and are always displayed during Family STEAM Night.

Schoolwide Projects:

• Tiny Town

• Tree Houses

• Board Games

• Helpful Inventions

• Putt Putt Holes

• Mechanimals

• Food Trucks

Here’s a slide deck that I use for our Exploratory day. I need to add in a few more circuit types, now that we’ve added additional resources to our toolbox. I’m excited for my students to begin working with the Hummingbird Bits next fall!

To help my fourth and fifth grade students with more complex circuits, I created anchor chart boards for them to explore when deciding which type of switch to use in their designs (when using standard circuit making materials).

You can view and/or download files by clicking the arrow below!