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!