October STEM Challenges: Scratch + Tinkercad

What your students do

Your 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders code a trick-or-treat street game, a leaf catch game, a rocket landing on the Moon, and a fire drill escape map in Scratch, then design a jack-o'-lantern, a smoke alarm, a new chess piece, and a moon colony in Tinkercad. A clear "Your program must..." checklist on every challenge shows kids exactly what done looks like.

Why teachers love it

Every challenge has 3 levels, so the whole class can work on the same challenge at different levels. Hint cards, cheat sheets, sample solutions, and an October calendar of which challenge fits which week make it easy to run, even if you have never coded. Both tools are free and run in a browser.

What's included

• 17 challenge pages (8 Scratch, 8 Tinkercad, 1 optional Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples' Day challenge), each with 3 levels
• 2 menu boards for student choice
• Real millimeter measurements on every Tinkercad challenge
• 17 hint cards plus a blank card for a classmate's hint
• Sample solutions for every challenge
• A Dictionary Day word bank with 12 fall, space, and STEM words
• 36 classroom posters in full color and in black and white
• Plan, Build Checklist, Debug Log, Reflect, and Peer Feedback pages
• A 20-point rubric with student self-scoring and 8 exit tickets
• A teacher guide with an October calendar
• A 38-slide typeable Student Digital Workbook and 26 projectable slides

Perfect for

• Gifted and talented and enrichment groups
• Early finishers all month long
• World Space Week and Fire Prevention Week
• The week before Halloween
• Coding clubs

Standards

CSTA 1B-AP-08, 1B-AP-10, 1B-AP-11, 1B-AP-12, 1B-AP-15, and 1B-AP-17, and NGSS 3-5-ETS1-1, 3-5-ETS1-2, and 3-5-ETS1-3. The full wording is in the resource.