Category: Wikki Stix

Unplugged Play {Learning Landscape EDU}

9/23/2018

Towards the end of the summer, I received a promotional email from Wikki Stix about their National Unplugged Play Day on September 29. They were offering a kit of Wikki Stix and activities for only $5 with free shipping - I was sold! I have Wikki Stix as part of my STEAM resources collection, but I feel I can never have enough. Students use them in a variety of ways for creating where some can be reused and others, well, they end up as smooth balls of waxy yarn.

I decided to take advantage of the National Unplugged Day to work in a Learning Landscape. I knew this was going to be a bit of stretch in thinking for the students, but knew they were up for a good challenge! The teacher I was working with told me they were reviewing multiplication and factors, so I decided to work in my new Sum Blox with the Wikki Stix.

I started out by reading the story, Unplugged by Steve Anthony as a way to introduce National Unplugged Day. I love a good picture book and even though I was reading this to 4th graders, they still loved it! Our activity was going to be that the students had to select a number (between 4-20) and then determine all of the factors/fact families for that number. Once they determined the factors, they had to use those numbers to design a piece of playground equipment using the Sum Blox (of their determined factors) and the Wikki Stix. I feel like I had a lot of blank eyes staring at me when I explained this (to be expected!), but then I showed them how the Sum Blox "worked" and I think the pieces started fitting together.

Unplugged Play Handout

My Example

I intentionally did not want to show them what I had created, as then I knew I would see every group using the number 10 and building slides. I did this activity with 2 classes on the same day, and I only felt that I had to show one group my example (as they were struggling a bit more with the concept).

Student Work

My focus for this activity (other than the content aspect of multiplication factors) was for students to be placed into a situation where they had to really collaborate to make one piece of playground equipment. Working together in groups can be difficult at any age, but I feel it is especially important for younger students to learn how to share their ideas, listen, and create with others. I felt that this would be a good activity for them to really dig deep into not only what they know, but how they can work with one another to produce something greater than what they could on their own.

Student Playground Equipment Creations

I saw so many great creations from this mini Learning Landscape EDU project! There were swings, monkey bars, gaga ball pits, slides, zip lines, and so many other creations that I didn't get a chance to get pictures of because I was caught up in building and sharing! Some groups put some great details into their creations beyond the basic playground equipment - people, balls, and other action pieces.

The final part of this activity was a gallery walk where each group had the opportunity to share what they created. I received a microphone as part of a Donors Choose project, and it was amazing how one of the classes had such confidence in sharing what they created with the microphone. The gallery walk also gave students the chance to be proud of what they created and show off their hard work.

For Next Time

I knew this was going to be a hard activity for students to grasp. Taking something they are familiar with (multiplication factors) and then putting a completely different spin on it and turning it into playground equipment was a tall order. Some things I would do differently next time:

Have them build a factor wall with the Sum Blox first. This would help them visually see their factors and what blocks they could choose from. I think some groups got caught up in the creation part of the activity and forgot the factor part.
We ran out of time at the end and I didn't have a chance to bring the activity back to the story concept, but I am glad that I chose to give students the chance to share at the end - definitely not something that I would cut out!
My personal thought - I wish the Educational Classroom Set of Sum Blox was four boxes instead of 2. I think 4 boxes would give a classroom enough blocks to use for a whole class activity - especially when you are working with factors and multiples!

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Paper Plate Mazes

3/19/2018

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The 4th grade class that I have been working with this year recently spent a week at the museum in their Immerse program. The teacher was telling me about some of the activities they did through out the week and it sounds like the kids had an awesome week of authentic learning!

One of the activities that she shared was that they were able to go through a maze and learn about different things as they went through the maze. So, for our STEM activity for the week we worked on creating mazes! The teacher started off by recapping their experience in the maze and different aspects of the maze (dead ends, routes that led you back to the beginning, etc.) and how that could translate to their paper plate mazes.

For this activity, we used the following materials:

Wikki Stix
Paper Plates
Marbles

As the students were working, you could tell they were having to work through some frustration points (which makes me so happy because they persevered through it and each group finished a maze!). It was interesting to see how their creativity came out. Some had amazing decorations, while others came up with rules for their mazes (such as, can't touch any red Wikki Stix, must go through each dead end, must go under every arch). It was so great to see them make connections from their personal experiences and translate it into a fun, creative activity that they could share with others.

Student Mazes

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Quickfire: Winter Olympic Pictograms

2/2/2018

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I was recently asked how some of the Quickfires I have done are different from a STEM Challenge. In a lot ways, they are very similar. But on the same note, they are also very different. Totally clear explanation, right?

The biggest thing that is different with the Quickfires is the constraints and time limit that is imposed on the students. In many STEM Challenges, the challenges are open-ended and give students time to plan, design, re-design, and explain their creation and the process it took to getting to the end product. This is also part of a Quickfire, but due to the constraints set on the challenge as well as the time limit, you are asking students to go with their gut feeling and create something that meets the given constraints. The time limit does not always allow for a full planning, design, re-design, and explanation, but rather, what can you create under the given circumstances.

Let's say your challenge involves pipe cleaners...

Example of a framed STEM Challenge: What can you create that represents a discipline in the Winter Olympics?
Example of a framed Quickfire Challenge: Using 10 pipe cleaners (using no more than 3 colors, must stand independently, and incorporates three 90 degree angles), create a representation of a discipline in the Winter Olympics. Time allotted: 15 minutes.

Based on the example here, you can see where the Quickfire has several constraints that amp up a STEM Challenge. At the end of the day, they are similar and a Quickfire is often rooted in a STEM Challenge.

For this Quickfire, we explained what the Olympic pictograms are and how the host country can personalize the pictograms to represent the feel of the Olympics in their own way. We used Wikki Stix and asked students to think about if the Winter Olympics were to be held in our city. How could they create a pictogram that would represent a discipline as well as our city?

The constraints we gave the students were:

Must use black Wikki Stix as the body of their pictogram
Use no more than 3 colors (includes the black of their body)
Pictogram must fit within the given box on the paper
Time limit: 30 minutes

Presentation & Printable Student Sheets

At the end of the given time, we had students present their new pictograms and include:

Name of discipline
Explanation of discipline
Who participates in the discipline
Where the discipline would take place in our own city

This was a great way for students to explore new sports/disciplines that they have not heard of before as well as build community among the class as they shared their creations and thoughts.