I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for sharing your children and their building adventures. It has been an honor and a joy to facilitate their experiences in Maker Space. I look forward to seeing them for library next year.

End of the Year

Every class had the opportunity to create vehicles in Maker Space. Kindergarten students attached axels and wheels and decorated a car. First grade students made a carriage for Cinderella. Second, third, and fourth grade students constructed a sail powered vehicle and tested and modified it. After that, students participated in basic Maker projects such as making kites and building towers. Most classes had the opportunity to share their favorite project. It was fun and, for me,illuminating to hear the variety of answers.
Have a wonderful summer and keep on Making!

Night of All Knights

There has been a buzz of excitement around the building as preparations for the Night of All Knights. Teacher Raffle offerings have been finalized and class projects are well underway. I hope to see you all at this very important fundraiser next month.

Kindergarten

The Sea Turtles and Starfish have been making connections to literature in Makerspace. After reading Corduroy, students made creative sculptures out of Playdoh and buttons. Mouse carriers were created to keep Splat’s pet safe after we read Spat the Cat. We explored balance by creating balancing bats after hearing the story Stellaluna.

First Grade

The Beluga Whales and the Dolphins listened to a favorite story, Where the Wild Things Are, then created tent for Max to use while the King of the Wild Things and a boat to sail home in after his adventure. Students who finished early got to create either a dinner to lure Max home or a wild thing to play with him. They also spent time building mazes out of paper plates, paper and straws.

Second Grade

The Tigers and Elephants created mazes out of gift boxes and paper. After finishing constructing their mazes, they had the opportunity yo name and decorate their creations. We have begun constructing models of a hand, using the knowledge they learned earlier in science class.

Third Grade

The Tree Frogs and Llamas had a good time during our virtual class creating snowmen and catapults to knock them down, It was a pleasure having the opportunity to do an activity that would be difficult to do socially distanced. While in school, the students made mazes our of gift boxes and paper. It was interesting seeing the increased level of complexity each grade level adds when completing the same project!

Fourth Grade

The  Foxes and Geckos are nearing completion! There has been much attention paid to the supports as the structures gain in height.

Kindergarten

The Sea Turtles and Starfish have worked on a few Makerspace projects during the past weeks. The Sea Turtles and Starfish worked on their planning and balancing skills while building the highest lookout tower for their horse from plastic cups and index cards. They had the chance to try several different approaches during the class period. Both classes also tried out their knowledge of primary and secondary colors while making penny spinners. The Starfish spent a class period constructing mazes using craft sticks and cardboard, then using magnets, navigated their creations.

First Grade

The Dolphins and Beluga Whales had the opportunity to complete several projects. The first grade students used marshmallow and toothpicks to construct snow shelters. During the first period, they used mini marshmallows. During the second class period, they appreciated the addition of three large marshmallows! After renewing their acquaintance with the nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty”, the students constructed a wall with plastic cups, then created a safety device for their own “Humpty Dumpty” so the great fall would be prevented. The Beluga Whales also spent time exploring the creative side of drinking straws when they made dancing figures and paper plate mazes.

Second Grade

The Tigers and Elephants tried out their knowledge of primary and secondary colors while making penny spinners. They then spent two weeks planning and conducting an experiment with planes made with straws and construction paper strips. After making their first plane, they decided on an element of design to change when constructing their second planes. They then tested both planes to see the results of their modification and reported back to the class. The two things included in the report were which plane flew farther and which plane flew straighter.

Third Grade

The Llamas and Tree Frogs spent two weeks creating a skier and a chair lift to get him ar her to the top of the slope. They then spent two weeks planning and conducting an experiment with planes made with straws and construction paper strips. After making their first plane, they decided on an element of design to change when constructing their second planes. They then tested both planes to see the results of their modification and reported back to the class. The two things included in the report were which plane flew farther and which plane flew straighter.

Fourth Grade

The Geckos and Foxes have begun construction of roller coasters. The entire structure will be made with paper and tape! As you can see, the coasters are coming along wonderfully.

Kindergarten

The Kindergarten students enjoyed two different projects over the past two weeks. The first one was building withe paper circles. They had the opportunity to experiment with different ways to fasten the circles into three dimensional structures, then the students had the chance to learn how to make a paper chain. The next week the Starfish and Sea Turtles created an ocean scene using Sharpie markers on a plastic bag. Using a black background, they were able to highlight areas of their pictures using a paper flashlight.

First Grade

The Dolphins and Beluga Whales created an ocean scene using Sharpie markers on a plastic bag. Using a black background, they were able to highlight areas of their pictures using a paper flashlight. The next project was completed after revisiting the Goldilocks and the Three Bears story. We decided that if Goldilocks wanted to visit the Three Bears again, she needed her own chair. Using a variety of materials, the students built a chair that Goldilocks could use on her next visit.

Second and Third Grades

The second and third grade students spent two weeks completing an activity created by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. The Mars rover that was launched this summer has a helicopter on board to assist in the exploration of the Martian surface.  One of the challenges of designing a helicopter that could fly in the Martian atmosphere was designing a vehicle whose rotors could spin at the rate of 60 rotations every second. The students then created a simple paper helicopter and developed a method to count the number of rotations their helicopter made in its flight.

Fourth Grade

Work on our rooms for the houses is almost complete. The Geckos and the Foxes are finishing up their work and creating slides and voice recordings about their rooms.

As school was conducted remotely last week, Makerspace continued full steam. Kudos to everyone who got their Makerspace supplies home and kudos to those who improvised if they didn’t!

Kindergarten

The Sea Turtles had the chance to use their imaginations as they used a bag full of interesting supplies to make anything they wanted. Some students spent time focused on creating one product while others created a variety of products with their supplies.

The Starfish designed anew bridge for the Three Billy Goats Gruff to use that took them high above the river and out of the troll’s reach.

First Grade

The Beluga Whales and Dolphins practice fine motor skills and following directions as they used a sheet of paper to create paper cups or paper airplanes. It was great to be able to make paper airplanes this week, a project we are unable to do in-person because of social distancing requirements. I firmly hold that an airplane needs to be flown shortly after making to get the most learning from the experience!

Second Grade

The Tigers and the Elephants completed a tower challenge this week. With a total of 12 index cards and tape, they were tasked with building the tallest tower they could. Earlier this year, they completed a similar challenge of building an index card tower without tape. Some of the students applied the skills they learned from the earlier challenge to this challenge while some students experimented with new techniques.

Third Grade

The Llamas and the Tree Frogs became sculpture designers this week, using these directions to guide them:

You are being commissioned to create a sculpture for the We Help You Bake baking supply company. You need to use all of the materials in the bag to create a prototype of your work. THE SPOON MUST BE ON THE TOP OF YOUR SCULPTURE! Then write a pitch to tell the company why they should hire you to create this work of art.

To make it even more interesting, they imagined that if their sculpture was chosen, they would receive a million dollars to complete it!

Fourth Grade

The Geckos have almost all completed their dream rooms for our Covid Dream Houses while many of the Foxes continue to work on building the furnishings for theirs. They have practiced sharing audio recordings with me and some have been experimenting with angles to take pictures of their creations that will allow them to share both their creations and the ideas behind them. I have been working on the physical structures that will house the students’ rooms and working with some of the virtual students on plans to include their rooms digitally.  Students who were waiting for conferences with me or had finished all the possible work they could do on their rooms were invited to build some pretty complex paper airplanes.

All of the Makerspace classes had the opportunity to learn about the Day of the Dead, a Mexican holiday. We then had a fun time creating masks and decorations for these special days.

Makerspace

Makerspace has been a joyful and active time. While we miss the boxes and bins of supplies we used to dig through in the LRC, our new learning experiences have been very exciting. One of the areas that I am still working to improve is taking pictures to share with you! I hope you enjoy our news.

Kindergarten

The Kindergarten students have begun exploring some of the concepts and skills we use in Makerspace. They had the opportunity to learn how to attach materials as they made ribbon streamers and played with them at home and on the West Campus. The students also experimented with bases and supports as they made buildings out of toothpicks and marshmallow. They also got to explore using a variety of materials to create anything they wanted. 

First Grade

The Dolphins and the Beluga Whales were presented with the challenge of building a bridge to help a frog cross a river of lava with limited materials. They came up with a wonderful variety of ideas to solve this problem while learning about support and stability. They also had the opportunity to build a tower using only ten index cards. After experimenting with a set of five cards, they shared their ideas and techniques, then set off to build their towers!

Second Grade

The Tigers and Elephants explored a technique to add movement to their projects as they created butterflies with flapping wings. As time permitted, they also created another product that utilized the same technique. The second grade students also had the opportunity to create their own version of one of four famous towers using only twelve straws and masking tape. Some of the challenging parts of this were making the Leaning Tower lean without falling over and how to balance the iconic top of Seattle’s Space Needle without toppling its base!

Third Grade

The third grade students also explored a technique to add movement to their work by creating flapping butterflies. They were able to be more independent in their work by using a video I posted in their Google Classroom. They are currently building 12 straw towers, interpreting four famous towers. At this level, there is more in-depth planning of the towers which includes planning for a stable base.

Fourth Grade

As the students and I well know, one person’s  trash is another person’s treasure. When I saw the boxes from the new first grade desks, I grabbed them. They were the inspiration for our current project: the dream room each student wished they had in March.

The fourth grade students are diving deep into project design, planning an individual room to put into one of our houses. They also brainstormed a list of supplies they could use to construct their rooms. While the Geckos and Foxes came up with different lists, there are many items that made it onto both.

The students are beginning construction of the individual rooms using the floor plans they created. They are finding that they need to modify some of their plans as they experiment with their materials. The Foxes and Geckos are off to a great start!