PlacenTinkers Makerspace

This month we built bird nests in our PlacenTinkers makerspace!   Nest building engaged us in a fun and educational way and also helped us to appreciate the natural world.  The book This is the Nest that Robin Built by Denise Fleming was a great way for to us to discover the wide range of materials that birds use to build their nests.  We set out to create our own nests using shredded paper, Spanish moss, pipe cleaners, string and “mud” (glue). We used emapthy for the baby birds when designing our nests.  After the nests were built, we tested them with our Makerspace "eggs".
 

By exploring the architecture of bird nests and using various materials, PlacenTinkers gained an appreciation for nature's ingenuity and developed important skills like design thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving.

In April PlacenTinkers had fun with coding!  We learned that coding is how we communicate with computers and robots by giving them specific directions “step by step”. We also discovered that computers aren’t “smart”: they don't have brains or feelings like we do. They can only do things that people tell them to do. 

We read the book Ava in Code Land by Jess Hitchmans and Gavin Cullen.  Ava lives in a computer game with her best friend Pixels the cat.    Ava has to use her coding skills to keep her game going!  

In our first center activity, students coded friendly little robots to help teach sequencing, estimation and problem solving.  At the second center students had great fun using the app Kodable on the ipads to learn about the core programming concepts of coding:  sequences, loops and algorithms.   Learning to code teaches valuable cognitive skills like critical thinking and problem solving. 

PlacenTinkers love to code - PlacenTinkers are thinkers!

PlacenTinkers are so Curious!!  This past makerspace we read The Little Book of Curiosity by Zach Bush and Laurie Friedman.  This book taught us about the many benefits to being curious.  We rotated through several activity centers asking open ended questions and exploring new things.  Our centers were:

• Electronics take-apart center

• Marble run/maze

• Exploration Station (with microscopes and and old fashioned typewriter!)

• Rocks and Minerals center

• Lego wall

• Measuring center

There was a palpable enthusiasm and a sense that curiosity makes our brains more interested in learning, and that as we learn, we enjoy the excitement it brings.  Placentinkers now know that it's fun to explore and learn and there is no such thing as a bad question.

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence.”
~Albert Einstein

Our first PlacenTinker makerspace of the year was a big success, and made it clear that “We’re Better Together.” We learned a lot about empathy, cooperation, collaboration (and penguins!) as we set out to build things to make Peppy the Penguin happy. 

We started by reading the picture book “We’re Better Together” by Eileen Spinelli,  which prompted great conversations around the benefits of cooperation and collaboration. We talked about empathy and how important it is to try to understand how others are feeling and thinking.  That helped us see that the best way to make something Peppy would like, would be to learn more about penguins!  So we did.  Armed with fun penguin facts, plenty of enthusiasm, and our collaborative mindset, we set our creative juices flowing.  Our supplies were cardboard, pipe cleaners, craft sticks, pom-poms, and tape. Lots. And lots. Of Tape.

We built all sorts of toys, play spaces and tools for Peppy, and shared our creations with our classmates. We discussed our processes  — what worked, what didn’t; what surprised us, what we learned.  Everyone agreed that we are, indeed, better together.

The educational foundation for our maker space — empathy —is a key component of social awareness, and a theme that informs our entire curriculum.  And having a hands-on way to understand the value — and challenges — of cooperative, collaborative work, was ideal.  The students were fully engaged and as always, I am amazed at the way they absorb complex ideas and apply them in thoughtful and creative ways. 

Welcome back PlacenTinkers!  We kicked off our 2021-2022 PlacenTinker makerspace by reading  The Rulers of the Playground by Joseph Kuefler. An amusing story that shows being ruler of the playground is less fun than playing together and sharing.

Using the book as a jumping off point, our Placentinkers were charged with designing a prototype of a playground using empathy for the students who will play there.  The supplies were cardboard, pipe cleaners, craft sticks, pom poms and a LOT of tape.

 As always, collaboration and design thinking was key - we had to agree upon a plan before building could begin.  We talked about empathy and how we might design a structure based on the students’ favorite playground areas: climbing wall, sand pit, swings etc.   

Halfway through the process, we had to adjust our designs when it was announced that new students were joining our playgrounds. 

 Adapting and tweaking our already-formulated plans was no easy task!  We then shared our revised prototypes and discussed how empathy impacted our designs.

In the end our playgrounds were designed to ensure children of all abilities and interests can play together!

 Snowflakes are one of the best things about winter!  You can catch them on your tongue, watch them dance in the air and look at them on your sleeve. And like us, they are all unique.   It takes many, many snowflakes to come together to build a snowman, a snowball or a snow fort!

PlacenTinkers read the book Snow by Uri Shulevitz.   In this whimsical story a boy wishes for snow and believes in this heart that the snow is coming!   With just a few snowflakes falling, the adults on the street say it's nothing, or that one snowflake isn't enough, or it'll just melt.   But the little boy sticks to his convictions that it will snow! 

     After reading the book we talked about how a single snowflake on its own doesn’t have much of an impact.  But when millions of snowflakes come together great things are possible.  And like snowflakes, PlacenTinkers are capable of creating great things when we COLLABORATE!  We collaborated in many ways!  Each class collaborated on creating a beautiful winter scene comprised of indivdual snowflakes using paint markers.  As a school, we collaborated on a giant poster called StickTogether!  We had such fun adding stickers to a large, pixelated mosaic.  Once completed, a colorful winter scene was revealed.   We also used iPads and coloring sheets to make penguins come to life using an Augmented Reality app called Quiver.  

     As PlacenTinkers we came to appreciate the benefits and power of collaboration. Collaboration creates a culture that values everyone's strengths and an environment that believes that we can all learn from one another.  To quote Helen Keller, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much".

This month our PlacenTinkers had fun learning the fundamentals of computer coding!  We learned that coding is how we communicate with computers and robots by giving them specific directions “step by step”. We read the book Boy + Bot by Ame Dyckman.  This is a sweet, simple story of an unlikely friendship between Boy and his new robot friend, Bot. 

In our first center activity, students coded friendly little robots to help teach sequencing, estimation and problem solving.  At the second center students had great fun using the app Kodable on the ipads to learn about the core programming concepts of coding:  sequences, loops and algorithms.   Learning to code teaches valuable cognitive skills like critical thinking and problem solving.

There’s something about the ocean that is so exciting to children. Maybe it’s our close proximity to the shore, or all of the different creatures that can be found there: especially tide pools creatures!  This month PlacenTinkers were able to dive right into a tide pool adventure to  learn about the incredible creatures that dwell there!  It was a treasure trove of new discoveries and learning!

We started by reading poems out of the book Ocean Soup by Stephen R. Swinburne. We learned that tide pools aren’t for the faint of heart!  It’s tough to survive in this habitat! Next we became Marine Biologists who were assigned the task of collaborating with our team to create a prototype of a new Tide Pool creature: one that could survive the Tide Pool’s rugged environment. Our materials were, paper towel holders, craft sticks, modeling clay, pipe cleaners and shiny rocks.

     By working together and collaborating, PlacenTinkers discovered that each one of us has valuable ideas. After all teams finished creating a unique tide pool prototype, we shared them with the class by projecting them onto our new Promethean Panel.  Students donned lab coats (because of course, Marine Biologists are scientists) and each group presented their prototype and described the features that help them adapt to their Tide Pool Habitat.

PlacenTinkers discovered that starting over is okay, and testing and retesting builds tenacity and expands knowledge. Our students grow, not only in creativity or critical thinking skills, but by collaborating and showing empathy.

This month we traveled to Malawi Africa!  With the help of Google Earth and our interactive Promethean panel we were able to go from our own Placentino Elementary School to an elementary school in Malawi!  We read the book Galimoto by Karen Lynn Williams, about a determined 7 year old boy, Kondi, and his quest for making a galimoto.  Kondi learns to use his ingenuity and everyday resources to craft a toy car, or galimoto, from discarded junk!  We observed that as PlacenTinkers we share the same sense of ingenuity and perseverance!

Armed with screwdrivers and imagination we channeled Kondi’s passion and ingenuity by tinkering with the everyday, discarded “junk” that was assembled in our Makerspace.  It became a Breakerspace!  We took apart small electronic items like alphasmarts, laptops, VCRs, cameras, remotes and toys.  In addition to the tinker tables, we had the opportunity to check out different centers around the room: a Lego Wall, a Marble Maze Run, an Exploration Station and a K’NEX and Magna-Tiles Station. 

Kondi helped us to appreciate the sense of joy and accomplishment that comes with perseverance and a good imagination!

The Placentino Pollinates Kick-off celebration was hosted by Placentinkers this month!  We read the book Flower Talk by Sara Levine. This delightful and informative book features a snarky cactus who reveals the significance of different colored flowers and how pollinators are attracted to them.

PlacenTinkers love coding, so to celebrate our new Pollinator garden we coded Bee-Bots (cute little robots) to pollinate flowers around the room. In the process we learned about pollination as well as cause and effect, directional language and early programming.  

Bee-lieve it or not we also inspected our pollinator friends up close and personal through Augmented Reality with Google Expedition and iPads.  It had us buzzing with delight!

Placentino Pollinates is a school wide project intended to encourage inquiry and develop an understanding about pollinators and their importance to our community and the world.

About the Sam Placentino Pollinator Garden

Just in time for the start of the 2019-20 school year a 64 foot long raised garden bed was constructed to house over 500 carefully selected plants that will attract and nourish Monarch Caterpillars and Butterflies. The Holliston Agricultural Commission worked together with representatives of the Sam Placentino Wellness Committee and administration to raise funds for a pollinator garden at the front entrance of the elementary school. The goal was to create a living classroom where students, teachers and parents can witness first-hand the complete lifecycle of the Monarch Butterfly. For the 2019-2020 school year integrated curriculum has been developed for pollinator education in science, math, reading, writing, and art.

Many thanks to local businesses and organizations that donated their time and resources, including: Holliston Garden Club, Kamataris Landscape, Official Tree Business, Weston Nurseries, Broad Hill Lavender Farm, and Upswing Farm.

This month PlacenTinkers had tons of fun with coding… and we started by unplugging the computer! 

At first we were delighted by the book How to Code a Sandcastle by Josh Funk.  Sandcastle creation is broken down into clear and concise steps which are connected to fundamental concepts in coding: sequences, loops and algorithms.  We really enjoyed this funny and informative book!

Next we coded each other with a Hop Scotch style game in which students had to follow a sequence of codes on the floor. This unplugged activity reinforced the coding concepts we read in the book.  In the end we were able to transfer all of this knowledge to an online coding game.  The game, Kodable, features age appropriate games and activities which help us to think like  programmers and move our Fuzz buddies through a maze!

“Imagination is the true magic carpet.” Norman Vincent Peale

The Caldecott Honor book, Journey,  by Aaron Becker, swept us away with the exciting adventures of a little girl and her magical red crayon. This wonderfully  illustrated, wordless picture book is about self-determination — and unexpected friendship. Having no words, Journey encouraged us to be the storyteller.  We “read” the story through the beautiful illustrations.

We took out our white planning boards and markers to imagine and design the next adventure in the journey using empathy for the characters in the story.  Our groups worked together to create a prototype of the next adventure with cardboard, tape, foil and paper towel rolls.  We took our inspiration from the little girl and developed fantastically creative sojourns.

Where will your next Journey take you?

In January we kicked off the new year with the book Violet the Pilot by Steve Breen.  Violet is a science-loving girl inventor who creates flying machines and “glorious contraptions” made out of misfit and broken parts from the junkyard next door. What better platform to encourage invention, innovation and creativity!  We followed Violet’s lead by tinkering and inventing in our own “junkyard” of broken electronics and toys. Armed with screwdrivers and determination, our Placentinkers reworked disassembled parts in creative ways.  There was a keyboard controlled microscope, a solar powered robot and the impressive “typer-flyer” to name a few! We love our “Breakerspace” and our inventions!

In addition to the Tinker/Invention table, students also rotated through stations around the room.  Stations included a Lego Wall, a Marble Maze Run, an Exploration Station (with the ever popular electronic typewriter), MagnaTiles, Gears and a K’NEX table.  Thank you Violet for your inspiration!

Placentinkers combined art and technology this month through our exploration of Pixels and Pointillism!  We discovered that the pixels on a computer screen are just like the dots in a Pointillist painting!  It was exciting to see students "connect the dots" between technology and art.  

We started with the book Katie’s Sunday Afternoon by James Mayhew.  Katie visits an art museum where she happens upon a room full of paintings that are made with little dots of color. Soon she steps into the paintings and delights us with her (mis)adventures with the characters in the paintings.  We talked about the artwork of Pointillist artists Georges Seurat and Paul Signac.

On the computer we zoomed in on a picture of a sunflower only to discover the thousands of pixels that made up the image.

Combining our knowledge of pixels and pointillism we created two forms of art. Chromebooks were used to create our own pixel art.  And each class collaborated on creating a beautiful pointillism painting using bingo daubers!  In addition there were other pixel and pointillism activities throughout the makerspace area.

The inclusion of art and technology in our makerspace moves us from STEM to STEAM in a very age-appropriate way. It provides our students with benefits such as promoting self-esteem, motivation, aesthetic awareness, cultural exposure and creativity.

No matter what age you are, thinking about outer space and all the possibilities is always appealing. In our most recent PlacenTinkers we had an absolute blast (pun intended) exploring all things Space related.  Lots of hands-on learning took place which focused on astronauts, the moon, The International Space Station and NASA.

The literacy portion of our Makerspace was from NASA’s  Story Time From Space.  Astronaut Tim Peake, read us the children's book The Incredible Intergalactic Journey Home by David Cadji-Newby and Pedro Serapicos from aboard the International Space Station!  It was great fun to see him float through his capsule in a zero gravity environment!

Next we rotated to different Learning Centers with engaging space activities at each one. We explored moon rocks and wrote down our observations.  At another station we created moons out of clay and used rocks to simulate how craters were formed. We traveled through space with Virtual Reality goggles and made our space themed coloring pages come to life with Augmented Reality.  Second grade students took a selfie from space using Green Screen technology. 

We loved our Space expedition!  It may just inspire a brand new interest in exploring the wonders of the universe and who knows; there may be some future astronauts among us! 

The October PlacenTinker kickoff was out of this world...literally!  Our space-themed event began with the book Moustronaut by Astronaut Mark Kelly.  Meteor, the space loving rodent, is the smallest mouse but the most hard working on his team. This little mouse models perseverance, believing in oneself, and Growth Mindset.

We expanded our conversation about Space to include the International Space Station. We talked about Mark Kelly’s twin brother Scott Kelly who was aboard the ISS for one year! We discussed the International Space Station’s unified work environment, with astronauts from around the globe collaborating and cooperating on their projects. Students were then charged with the task of creating a PlacenTinker Space Station for our favorite astronaut Peppy!  They had to design and build a prototype of a Space Station while demonstrating empathy for Peppy. We used cardboard, aluminum foil, tape and pipe cleaners. As always, each team shared their space stations with the class and discussed their process and how their designs evolved.

Placentinkers worked hard to design, engineer and build bird nests while showing empathy for the baby birds!  This hands-on project gave students the opportunity to develop their creative and analytical thinking while learning about the natural wildlife around them.  After the nests were built, we tested them with our Makerspace "eggs".  We read the book Nest by Jorey Hurley. This book has colorful illustrations that are paired with a single word on each page.  Students were able to use their imaginations and talk about what the birds might do next. Nest design is an intricate and beautiful process!

Back by popular demand  - Breakerspace2! This week Placentinkers took apart old technology, tinkered with broken toys and used our imaginations to invent and create cool things from all the parts.  One class invented a Time Machine! We enjoyed the book I’m Bored by Michael Ian Black and Debbie Ridpath Ohi - although Placentinkers are rarely bored.

In addition to the Breakerspace, students rotated through stations around the room.  There was a Lego Wall, a Marble Maze Run, an Exploration Station, MagnaTiles, Gears and a K’NEX table.  We Placentinkers were definitely NOT bored!

In February we read the book Papa's Mechanical Fish by  Candace Fleming.  It is loosely based on the life of Lodner Phillips, creator of one of the first submarines.  In the story, we read how Papa spends his days:  thinking, tinkering and inventing things.   He asks questions, comes up with ideas, makes mistakes and tries again!  His mechanical fish (all four versions!) was put together by connecting gears to help it move through the water. 

Our Placentinkers love to figure things out and make things move.  There are lots of different ways to put gears together.  In this real-world learning experience we had to use skills such as problem solving, cause and effect, eye-hand coordination, critical thinking and creativity to make our gears work together using one driver gear. 

In January our Placentinkers learned the fundamentals of computer coding in a center based Makerspace session. We read the books Baby Brains and RoboMom by Simon James and Go Otto Go by David Milgrim.  To begin, we had fun "coding" Mrs. Carey by giving her step by step instructions on how to walk to the Library desk.  In our first center activity, students coded friendly little robots to help teach sequencing, estimation and problem solving.  At the second center students used Chromebooks to explore age appropriate coding websites and apps.  Learning to code teaches valuable cognitive skills like critical thinking and problem solving. 

In December we enjoyed a Breakerspace!   Instead of making, we were taking apart. We read  the book  It’s Only Stanley by Jon Agee about a dog who likes to tinker. We gathered at our Tinker Tables armed with screwdrivers and pliers to take apart small¨misfit” electronic items (alphasmarts, laptops, VCRs, cameras, remotes).  We had fun disassembling, investigating, exploring and in some cases attempting to reassemble.  In addition to the Tinker Tables, students had the opportunity check out a Lego Wall, a Marble Maze Run and an Exploration Station equipped with a microscope, an old typewriter and an adding machine to name a few.  Tinkering is fun and informative!

In November we read the book Iggy Peck Architect by Andrea Beaty.  We became architects who were commissioned to collaborate with our peers and design a bridge for the students in the book.  Working in small groups we had to build a bridge over the “river” in our Placentinker space. Kindergarten students used legos and 1st and 2nd grade students used cardboard, string, tape and craft sticks.  Our designs were inspired by the empathy we felt for the students in the book based on what we read about them in the story.  We learned a lot about collaboration, design, patience and perseverance.  Finally we shared our bridge making process with our peers and discussed  topics like what worked and didn’t work, what was hard, what mistakes we made and how we might do it differently next time.  Designing bridges is no easy task!

In October we kicked off our Placentinker space by reading  The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires.  Placentino students were given the charge of making the most magnificent thing for our mascot Peppy the penguin using cardboard, masking tape and pipe cleaners.  We talked about empathy and how we would design something for Peppy based on an interview Mrs. Carey had with him asking about his feelings, his likes and dislikes.  We shared our creations with our classmates and discussed our processes and how we showed empathy in our designs.

Letter From Peppy