I love all of the books by Andrea Beaty (https://www.andreabeaty.com/) ! The books are so fun to read and the illustrations and language grabs kids and pull them right in. One of my favorite books is “Iggy Peck Architect”. In addition to loving the book just as a great read aloud, I also love it for all the learning, projects and building that it inspires. I was inspired by the book to engage in a building project with my kindergarten students.
We started with reading the book and identifying some of the famous structures that were highlighted. We then went on a virtual field trip using Google Earth to travel to some of the famous building in the book, including the Golden Gate Bridge, Taj Mahal and the Sydney Opera House.
During our next sessions, students started with retelling the important parts of the Iggy Peck story. Then they were given the challenge to build models of some of the famous structures we visited during our Google Earth tour with Legos. Students worked in small groups at our Lego table to create some really creative models!
At the next library time students read the short book “dreaming up” by Christy Hale. The book shows buildings made with lots of unique and innovative buildings with different materials and then children building structures using similar creative materials. Students were then given their next challenge, each small group was given 50 2x2 lego squares to design their own building or structure. Students planned their buildings first and then built the structures with their lego supplies.
At the final library class, students were introduced to the 3D building app Blokify (www.blokify.com). This app was suggested by a colleague as a great one to introduce young children to 3D design. In the app you can choose just three shapes to work with including a simple block shape and then students just touch on the space they want to add the block. It was a great way for the students to be independent in their 3D building. We set the students up at several tv screens around the library and mirrored the iPad app up so everyone would be able to see the design building. Students worked together to take the design they had modeled out of legos and build it in the 3D app.
The final step was printing the students’ designs in the library’s 3D printers! I’m so excited for the students to see their final work printed out.
I really liked this project for several reasons. It included some literacy skills with reading the story and having students focus on the beginning, middle and end of the story, the characters and setting. Each week students would retell the Iggy Peck story, a skill we work on in kindergarten. Next, students were able to learn more about building and structures from around the world. We incorporated technology with the Google Earth tour and modeled use of iPads and apps for creation. Using ipads in school and curriculum for specific purpose and creation and helping students understand the difference from school work with a purpose and home ipad time that might be free play is also something we work on with younger students. Also students worked in collaborative groups. They needed to design, plan, communicate, collaborate and compromise with each other. These are skills that we are always working on and cultivating with our students. This project was also a great way to introduce design, ideating and also reworking and redesigning. Students were faced with some challenges in their design plans that did not work out and then had to go back and revisit and rework their ideas. The challenge of rethinking and trying something new are also skills that we are always working on with students.
