My school library was able to purchase a Glowforge laser cutter! I am so excited to use this with my students. I have been following other makerspaces and libraries doing such amazing projects with a laser cutter and I am excited to try it out! The first project opportunity came not too long after we had the laser cutter up and running. A design project with fourth graders that connected to books they were reading with animals as the main character.
I have a fourth grade teacher who has her students do a lot of reading around genres and then really likes them to do a hands on project that connects to the work at the end. In the past the students have read books with animals as main characters and then had the students make the characters out of clay, here was a perfect chance to use the laser cutter and make some connections with technology and design work.
Students picked their books and then documented different aspects of the story including setting, characters, problem and solution. They also wrote up a profile of the main character of their story. Students documented the different characteristics of the main character and wrote a detail of the characters appearance.
Then, we moved into the design stage. Student were introduced to the laser cutter and how it works. Then we talked about how the they were going to create a laser cut project of the main character. The first step was looking at beginning drawing books, how to draw websites and images. Students would focus on how they could create their animal using different shapes similar to how to draw instructions. Fourth graders drew their plans thinking about shapes and following the ideas from the different resources.
Next, we introduced Google Drawing to the students. We showed them the shapes and lines tools. Students then took the base of their drawings and made shapes to create their animal in Google Drawing. They really had to spend time thinking about scale and size as they laid out their designs, thinking about the size of the different shapes and how they could layer the shapes together to give their character a three dimensional look. After students finished their designs, they separated the shapes on the drawing grid and downloaded the files as .svg. The files were uploaded to the Glowforge Laser cutter and cut out of the wood.
After all the pieces were cut, fourth graders used different materials like felt and googly eyes to add more details to their animals. They completed reviews of the books and displayed their writing with their laser cut animals in the library to share with the school.
This project went really well. The students were really excited about using the new laser cutter in the library. This was also a good opportunity to share Google Drawing and some of the different features of the application. It was also great to have the students think in two dimension and how to take shapes and put them together to make a 3D object. It was a different type of thinking for many of the students and an opportunity for them to mix technology, design and art to make their characters.
I've fallen a little behind in my blogging at the start of this school year but I'm committed to sharing more and adding to the blog! Here is my first post for the 2018-2019 school year!
I love the book Press Here by Herve Tullet. It is a wonderful interactive book to read to preschool and kindergarten students. As they read the book, press the different “buttons” and have the next page change it is almost like magic. Over the years the book has become very popular and many of my students have read the book multiple times and have it in their collections at home. This year, I wanted to come up with a plan that added a project or maker connection to the book and the Little Bits simple circuits and button pieces were a perfect fit!
I started by reading the book with my students. I love sharing this book and although many of the students have read the book before they were excited to hear and share the book again. For the first step, students created their own books inspired Press Here books. Using paper folded, students thought about different pages from Press Here and then drew dots on the first page and the action event on the next page. Kindergarteners had so much fun planning, drawing and then sharing their books with their classmates and teachers. They were also excited to take the books home and share them with their families.
The next step was introducing students to the Little Bits circuits (https://littlebits.com/) Little Bits are a great maker tool to use with young students. The circuits are magnetic and color coded so students know how to connect them correctly and in what order. They snap together when lined up correctly. Kindergarteners made connections with the imaginary world of the Press Here book and creating their own press here buttons that did make things move, light up or make sounds. Students worked in small groups to connect the pieces, decide on what they wanted their buttons to do and then adding the red, yellow and blue paper buttons on tops of the different Little Bits circuits. They had a great time testing out different pieces, Little Bits and configurations.
This project turned out great. The kindergarteners loved reading the book and making their own books inspired by the story. Press Here was also a great book to make connections with the Little Bits circuits, collaborative work and experimenting with circuits. It was an informative project, fun, hands on learning for the students and it did not require a lot of setup for the library! This was a good introduction as we advance with our projects and start to introduce more robots, coding and maker projects during the school year.
