February is such a busy month. Maybe because it’s a couple days shorter, maybe it’s because we’re back into the swing of things after Winter Break, maybe it’s because it’s cold here and everyone is inside ready to create. I’m not sure about the reason, but my students are definitely ready for some new ways to make. Check out my ideas for this month, but be sure to check out my ideas from February 2017 as those are different activities for your MakerSpace.
Make a Heart Bookmark: My students enjoy working with paper. We have many origami books that the students check out regularly and I consistently see students with paper “fortune tellers” they have made at home. Knowing this, along with my own daughter coming home with paper bookmarks she had made at school, it wasn’t hard to combine the two and find directions for making a heart bookmark for February. The blog, Easy, Peasy and Fun, had some easy to follow directions with great pictures to accompany them. I find with younger students, having pictures to go with directions makes life easier for everyone. I modified the directions slightly as I actually made the bookmark and saw areas where I might have been confused. I also took the time to pre-cut my 8.5 x 11 inch paper to 8 x 8 inch as origami paper is a square shape. You can download my direction sheet here.
Make a House for the Three Little Pigs: This is an easy STEM activity that requires only one item which means it’s easy, fast and neat. Students use playing cards to make a house for the Three Little Pigs. It’s that simple! Now, you can make it more complicated and allow them to create houses out of any type of material like cardboard, paper, paper towel rolls, index cards, paper toll rolls, etc, but for me, the simple use of playing cards worked. As an added bonus, I found that when I asked my students about making houses with cards almost all of them had never heard of or done this game. They were very excited to give it a try. If you are looking for a more formal approach to this challenge using index cards and tape, Teacher’s Gumbo has free Piggy’s House of Cards STEM download on TpT.
Ozobot: If you’re looking for a technology to add to your MakerSpace that isn’t super expensive, but allows kids to be creative and have experience coding, I recommend Ozobots. Students control Ozobot with color markers by drawing lines and codes for it to explore. At about $60 (non-device, app, bluetooth) or $90 (also works with an app) you can add this to your MakerSpace.
I don’t necessarily give the students any direct instructions with the Ozobots. I simple put out a direction sheet, markers, paper and Ozobot code cheat sheets (free TpT download from The LibrariAnne) and let the kids create. I also show them this introduction video to get started. It’s fun to hear the kids discuss the different codes they are using while also being creative with what they draw.
Valentine’s Day Memory: I am not sure where or when I got this, but I have a heart Valentine’s Day Memory game that I am going to put out this month. I’m curious to see how many kids know this classic game. For fun, I did do a Google search to see if I could find the game to purchase. I did not, but there were all kinds of free printable ones you could use.
I hope these ideas help you get making this month. See you in March and Happy Making!
Monthly MakerSpace Moments 