Solar Oven S'mores to Build Lasting Memories

Are you ready to promote a love for learning with solar oven s'mores?  Bring a touch of summertime and camping into the classroom by building pizza box solar ovens to cook your class their very own s'mores!  National S'mores Day is August 10th, and since we start school in Arizona near August 1st, solar cooking is one of my favorite ways to build classroom memories each school year.

To minimize my teacher prep time, I recruit parents starting at Meet the Teacher to make solar ovens for our science experiment.  In the same section of the room/newsletter where I ask for classroom donations, I put a special educational request in for a donation of DIY pizza box solar ovens.  I highly recommend Steve Spangler's Science Made Easy tutorial on how to make a pizza box solar oven.  This is the tutorial I sendmy families and they always turn out great.  Also, I don't feel bad accepting the help when I hear that several of my families rave about turning it into a weekend bonding project!  

Another way I reduce my teacher time prepping is by getting the materials laid out in class while the students are busy writing down the lab purpose, the hypothesis and listing the materials on their lab reports.  This works great for labs that don't require precise measuring.  While the students are filling out these portions of the lab, I add square graham crackers and marshmallows into the solar ovens.  Then, by the time, we get to the procedure part of the experiment, it's time to find a spot to place the s'mores solar cookers outside!

 Why don't I add the chocolate at the same time? For starters, I teach in Arizona and chocolate melts in your purse in as little as two minutes.  I recommend doing a trial to get an idea for what time parameters work well in your area.  For me, I found that adding chocolate when we return outdoors gives it the MINUTE it needs to melt naturally in the sun without being added to the solar oven!  Each student walks outside with a paper plate topped with one square graham and chocolate (if they're not allergic).  As they wait in line UNDER the SUN melting their chocolate, I grab a melted mallow graham and overturn it onto their plate to complete their S'more!  We eat outside, unless it's too miserable, and then we return indoors to cool off and discuss solar energy!

 According to the tutorial above, you'll also need a few more supplies to build the solar cooker:

• Large cardboard pizza box (in pretty good shape)
• 2 Clear page protectors
• Black construction paper
• Duct tape
• Wide, clear packing tape
• Box cutter
• Scissors
• 12” (30 cm) Wooden food skewer (or a ruler or will do too)
• Glue stick (Elmer's Glue® works, too.)
• Aluminum foil (wide, heavy duty if possible)
• Ruler
• Pen or pencil

Thinking about school from the perspective of a kid, the BEST MOMENTS always involved food and any hands-on science experiment!  So, I combined the best of both worlds by adding this experiment to my annual rotation.  Who can say their best school memories happened as a result of an assigned worksheet?  

Sadly, by the time the students get to me in fourth grade, they haven’t had much time engaging in science experiments.  This is because in Arizona, our primary teachers are stressed out about helping these kids read, not leaving much room for scientific exploration in the school day.  

Each year, without fail, I get the same AWE-STRUCK look from the fourth graders who enter my class and hear me proclaim, “this is the YEAR of SCIENCE!” like Oprah announcing everyone gets a free puppy.  They can’t believe what they just heard, but they’re ready to LOVE every moment of it!

During the first month of school, I make sure to PRIORITIZE science and we create LASTING MEMORIES with eight fun experiments.  As a teaser, we begin the year with the Don't Eat the Marshmallow Challenge which is based on a TED talk in which scientists placed a marshmallow in front of a child with the option to potentially earn another if they simply wait for a certain time frame.  If they chose not to wait, then the child was able to enjoy the marshmallow immediately!

I try to plan in at least 2-3 experiments a week during our first month together!  One of my absolute favorites, is making s’mores with pizza box solar ovens.  The idea came to me after learning there was a National S’MORES Day a few years ago, and I knew we had to celebrate this joyous occasion in my classroom!

National S’MORES Day is August 10th – sometimes it’s a school day, but even if it falls on the weekend, we celebrate as close to the day as possible.  Whenever we will make S’mores at school, I make sure to announce this A WEEK AHEAD of time to the class, so we can have plenty of time to gather the needed supplies.  On Meet the Teacher Night, I even have my optional class donation cut-outs labeled with a pizza box solar oven and s’mores ingredients.  Luckily, I’ve had several repeat families who know what this is for, and others, who are extremely generous!

Don’t underestimate the GIFT of giving your class this unforgettable experience.  It surprised me to find out that one of my students had never had a S’MORE before in their entire life until we did this experiment together.  Getting to complete this science experiment at school, helped him to learn he really liked S’MORES, and he made sure to tell me after he had messily devoured it!

Setting the Stage for “The Year of Science:”
Each year, I get my students ready to think like a scientist by introducing the Scientific Method.  We take notes after setting up our science journals.  I make sure to play these related video clips:

• BrainPop
• Think Like a Scientist!

Then, we dive into the science experiments!  The Gummy Bear experiment is always the first!  This piques their interest because they’re forced to wait a WHOLE day to see the results.  I like adding more SUSPENSE, so I hide our soaking bears in my cabinet, and I tell the students it’s to make sure roaches don’t get them, of course!   Naturally, this is all the kids can talk about the next school day.

Then, I up the ante, with the Magic Potion Lab!  We get to observe a chemical reaction between baking soda and vinegar to inflate a balloon *magically!*   You can use any regular latex balloon (I prefer the emoji kind from the 99¢ store).  Even though this balloon kind of smells bad (not sure if it’s the rubber latex or the ink used to print the design ), they transform into personal emoji trophies for the students to parade out of school with at dismissal!  

Check out what others have said about using these science experiments in their classrooms:

Either way, I hope you are inspired to celebrate National S'mores Day with S'mores cooked by Solar Oven Pizza Boxes!