After they were done with their drawings, I had some Creation Cubes set up at the carpet area and asked them to create whatever they wanted, but it had to be the best thing in the world. This really let me have a peek into their world and see them build things that were interesting to them. We had Power Rangers, Transformers, giraffes, puppet shows, and so much more!
This week in Y5/T1, we read the story, Mervin the Sloth is About to do the Best Thing in the World. My students know I love sloths and always comment on my phone case as it has a sloth on it - so why not bring them into my sloth world?! After reading the story, I introduced them to augmented reality. I used one of the downloadable sheets from Quiver Vision and put an image of a sloth and "The Best Thing in the World" on it. On the back side, I had the same Quiver Vision sheet and just had "The Best Thing in the World" on it. I had them color the sloth side first and then we learned how to scan our papers. They were so amazed at the husky that appeared with their picture on a frame! I knew this would blow their minds, so then I told them I wanted to see one of their original pieces of artwork on the back - I wanted them to draw what the best thing in the world was for them. They worked hard on their drawings and then working with one another showing how to scan their pictures and how to move around to change the perspective of their creation. Some kiddos even figured out how to use the camera to take a picture to change what was displayed on the easel. So glad I had Guided Access turned on so I knew they figured out something new within the app! After they were done with their drawings, I had some Creation Cubes set up at the carpet area and asked them to create whatever they wanted, but it had to be the best thing in the world. This really let me have a peek into their world and see them build things that were interesting to them. We had Power Rangers, Transformers, giraffes, puppet shows, and so much more!
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We have been working really hard the past couple of weeks in Y5 and T1 building, engineering, and using some serious critical thinking skills. This week I wanted to focus on the "A" of STEAM (I use "aesthetics" instead of "art"), and see what they would come up with for the story, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey. This activity allowed them to focus on some fine motor skills such as coloring, cutting, and gluing. We read the story, they colored one of the circles, and then they cut out the circle. We hot glued it on a popsicle stick (for the instant hold and dry), and ta-da! They had a craftivity that they could take home and share about the story we read in class. After building our Story Sticks, we then used Creation Cubes to build stands to display our new works of art. This was definitely challenging for them and I am so glad that I decided to add this at the last minute. They struggled with how do they build something to hold up their stick and make it look different from everyone else's. There was such great conversation and kids naturally gravitated towards helping each other. As I was thinking about activities for my Y5 and T1 classes for our Toy Story STEAM Mania unit, I wanted to have some activities that had manipulatives they were familiar with, but then paired with a good critical thinking challenge. I have done pixel art with Legos in the past, and students have really enjoyed it, but thought it might be a little too frustrating for my littles. In looking around online, I found these Snap Cube Math Centers and knew that was the perfect direction for my idea! I adapted the format a bit as I am working with young kiddos. The Y5 kiddos struggled a bit with the pixel art, but worked through it even when it became real difficult. Conceptualizing based on a picture drawing was probably the most challenging part, but I heard some great counting, trouble shooting with peers, and LOTS of complements from one another. That made it a win in my book right there! Tinker a New (Tinker) ToyFor STEAM time today, I broke the activities up into two different centers. One being the pixel art, and the second being toy design. I asked the students to use the Tinker Toys to create a toy (like Bonnie created Forky in Toy Story 4). Some students built things that they were familiar with (as no one had used Tinker Toys before), and others came up with something completely new! I can tell our work with sharing materials and working together is starting to sink in, because I was seeing much more positive sharing and appropriate building.
Week one of school and already shared a Click Clack (Doreen Cronin) book...that didn't take long! I love these books not only are they entertaining and silly, but they offer great opportunities to engage kiddos in the story. This story and activity I did with a Young 5s class as well as a Transitional 1st and both were excited to listen and then build. The prep that I had to do for this was minimal, but the thinking and building for the students was big! I simply took pictures of some of the characters, items, or places in the book and laminated them. Easy peasy! After reading the story to the students, I explained how we were going to build things from the book with the Creation Cubes. I started with putting Farmer Brown up on the board. We talked about some of his characteristics (black boots, blue pants, yellow shirt, red bandana, yellow hat) and how those were things we could incorporate into what we were building. I said it did not have to look exactly like the picture, but I was challenging them to build something that was recognizable as the picture on the board. We didn't get through many character/item/place, but after they worked on Farmer Brown, I gave them the option to build something else from the story. Some went with some of the other things on the cards I had while others built things like the truck they took from the farm to school. My hope was simply for them to begin to start working their brains on how to build and share materials - it can be super hard for the little kiddos! I would say it was a success based on how they didn't want to take their creations apart - a sign they really cared about what they created!
Today I worked with one of our awesome 7th grade teachers, Alissa Huggins, to do an activity for her ELA students to get them communicating and collaborating together as they started off the school year. We both like to think outside the box with things, so our ideas often build off each other to come together in a grand plan. It usually results in a pretty awesome experience for students and leaves both of us wiped out by the end of the day. I don't think we would have it any other way though! As students entered the Media Center, we gave each of them a golf back with a number on it - this told them which table to go sit at for their group. We conducted a little survey to build some empathy to find out how many students had played mini golf before (this also allowed us to collect their numbers to use with the next group). It was really interesting to see the final numbers when collected the numbers. It helped us target groups who might need a little further explanation of what mini golf is, how obstacles work, and how to bring their ideas to a tangible design. For this Learning Landscape, we told students they would be creating a hole as part of a mini golf course. BUT...they would be using the picture book at their table as their inspiration for the design for their hole. We told them they could build whatever they wanted as far as how the hole was shaped, but the obstacles and other elements had to be themed around the book. Based on their reactions of the somewhat simple picture books at their table, I think they thought this was going to be easy-peasy. It definitely proved to be more difficult than they anticipated, and I think they were glad I chose easy picture books! IdeationBefore students began building anything, we had each student do some individual brainstorming. After this, we had them discuss their ideas as a group and either decide on one of the group members' designs or combine elements of different ones to come up with a new design. We wanted all students to be active and accountable during the ideation process. I am including some of the student brainstorming sheets below because it was so interesting to see their conceptual drawings and then how they translated those ideas from paper to a tangible design. Some were able to put their thoughts into pictures and words, where others struggled with sketches but were able to verbally articulate their design ideas. PrototypingAfter students were done working as a group to come up with one cohesive design, they had to present it to their teacher or myself to receive approval to begin building. This ensured they were all on the same page as far as designing and everyone had a part of construct that they were responsible for once they had their materials. This really ensured that they were truly collaborating and communicating to come to one design for their hole. As they were constructing, one student even made a little "judge's stand" to reinforce the rules of mini-golf for the players. :) The materials we used were:
TestingWhen students had reached a point where they were done constructing and ready for testing, they were asked to test out their course designs. Some even constructed their own little golf clubs to use - how creative! After testing their designs, some groups had to go back and do some redesigning, as they found their courses may have looked pretty cool, but they were next to impossible to actually play. After some redesign and another round or two of testing, their courses were in a much better playable design. There were so many interesting and fun designs, but I have to say I think this one might have been at the top of my list for how an idea came to life. The collaboration and communication between team members of this group was amazing too! If they had more time to build, I know they would have had some awesome obstacles. (The hole spanned over the 2 large Lego baseplates and the cow head was a ramp. When you hit the ball, it would have to go up the cow head ramp and the end hole would be between the cow's horns.) Other honorable mentions...
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