Kindergarten: Coding, MakeyMakey and a Field Trip around the Solar System

My kindergarten schedule is hard. I only see the students once a week for thirty minutes and that includes time for checkout. A couple of years ago we created something called Library Flex days in order to have some more time to do in-depth projects with the students. How flex works is each of the three kindergarten classes have a four week time when half the class comes on Monday afternoons for thirty minutes and the second half of the class comes on Wednesday afternoon. This allows us to do more hands on projects because of the smaller class size and gives me more time with the students to explore topics that they are interested in. Before each flex session I talked to the classroom teachers about what topics the students are interested in, what have they been exploring in the classroom and what areas to they think the students would love to explore more. Over the years we have done some fun projects about mazes, dinosaurs, clouds, coral reefs, peace and monarch butterflies. Flex time is a way to lead “inquiry-based learning opportunities that enhance the information, media, visual, and technical literacies of all members of the school community” (School Library III.A.2). This year one of the kindergarten classes is really into space. They did a huge project in their classroom about the moon, the moon landing and astronauts. In their library flex time we continued exploration of space by studying the planets in our solar system.

We started the project time with research and reading about the different planets in the solar system. We read the book “If Pluto was a Pea” by Gabrielle Prendergast. I really like this nonfiction book because it focuses on the different planets in the solar system and how much they vary in size. The book compares the planets to different objects that students will be familiar with, like Pluto is a pea and Jupiter is a beach ball. This helped the students to make connections with the significant differences in the planets. Next we used the library’s Merge Cubes to explore the solar system using augmented reality. The Merge cube is a really cool device that when you view it through an app on the ipad the objects pop out. SKers explored the solar system AR app with the Merge cube to learn more about the where planets are located in the solar system and how they all rotate around the sun. The solar system AR app also has information boxes to share facts about each of the planets. AR and the Merge Cube are new tools to share with learners and “[models] the use of a variety of communication tools and resources” (School Librarian III.B.1) by highlighting a new technology as a resource for finding information.

Students continued their research during the next session using the library’s PebbleGo database. PebbleGo is a research resource for younger students and is a wonderful entry point for online research.PebbleGo also has a ‘read to me’ function that allows younger students to be more independent information seekers.  SKers worked in small groups to research different planets and collect notes on their topic. Working in small groups to collect and discuss information is a way for learners to “[develop] new understandings through engagement in a learning group” (Learner III.A.2), students listened to the facts, talked to each other about what they learned and decided as a group what information was important to document.

The next session focused on building the planets! Students looked at their research and explored images of their planets and then worked together to build the planets using round paper lanterns and tissue paper. They also used pipe cleaners to add rings and foam balls and wire to include the moons for the different planets. The sun group learned about the solar flares on the giant star and used lots of tissue paper to add flare! The learners were focused on “establishing connections with other learners to build on their own prior knowledge and create new knowledge,”(Learner III.B.2) kindergarteners worked together to make connections with the research they had done and then collaborate to create their own models of the planets that reflected their understanding.

The final step was creating an interactive map with MakeyMakey and Scratch coding! The map was created based on a Instructables project shared by Makerspace Librarian Colleen Graves. I follow Colleen on twitter and have gotten so many ideas and so much inspiration from her. Twitter can be a wonderful professional development resource for librarians! Sharing that ideas were sparked from social media interactions is a great way to “[demonstrate and reinforce] that information is a shared resource.” (School Library III.D.2)

The map included conductive tape, wires, MakeyMakey and students holding hands to complete the circuit to make music and voice recordings play. We created the map using the instructions from Graves and made adjustments to create a path that followed the order of the planets from farthest to closest to the sun. Next students recorded facts they learned about the planets and the recordings were uploaded to Scratch coding and connected to the different inputs on the MakeyMakey. When two students walked on the conductive tape while holding hands space inspired music played, at each planet there is a copper footprint, the student on the yellow path stepped off the conductive tape onto the copper footprint, this triggered the input to play the voice recording sharing facts that students recorded about each planet. All of the planets were put in place on the map, the wires connected, the sun hung up and the final touch the Colonel Francis W. Parker, the founder of our school, put on a spacesuit, ready to explore the solar system!

The students were ready to share! The final day students paired up to explore the solar system map they created, walking the path and completing the circuits to learn more about the solar system. While groups were exploring the interactive map, other students used the library’s virtual reality Google Expeditions goggles to explore the solar system in an immersive 3D field trip. It was a great trip to outer space! The interactive map is up in the library so students can bring their families to share and students in other grades can see this cool project.

This project was so much fun for the students and for me! I loved trying out a new project inspired by my twitter PLN, learning some new tech tools and skills when I was building the interactive map and being able to share this project with students and the larger school community. My students learned so much about the solar system, used some really cool research and building tools and worked together on a really, really amazing visible interactive map.

Junior Kindergarten: fairy tales, non-fiction, & collaboration

During the junior kindergarten (preschool) classes in the library one of the focuses is on early literacy and understanding elements of a story. In the past, I have read different fairy tale stories that the student might be familiar with, Red Riding Hood, 3 Little Pigs, etc, and then talked about the beginning, middle and end of the story, as well as the characters and the setting. This year, I was thinking of making some more connections with some of the other resources in the library and with a student building project. My students have been asking to do a building project for a couple of weeks. I planned a project that included fairy tales, building the setting and nonfiction research with the library’s PebbleGo database and all ending with a dramatic robot retelling of the stories!

The project started with each of the three classes reading a different version of a fairy tale. The first class was the “Three Little Gators” by Helen Ketteman. I started the lesson by asking students if they have heard the story of the three little pigs. They started sharing the story, most remembered all the elements. I then introduced the three little gators, I showed them the cover and asked what they thought would be the same as the three little pigs. Students shared that the gators were the same as the pigs and they predicted that the gators would build houses. Then I asked what they thought the setting of the story was, I explained that the setting was the background, where the story took place. I asked if anyone knew where gators lived, several students said a swamp and then made the connection that the setting of this story would be in a swamp. Before I started the story I asked students to think about what happens in the beginning, middle and the end of the story and to also think about who the characters are in the story. We read the very funny story and then I documented what the junior kindergarteners said about the events that happened in the different parts of the story and the main characters of the three gators and the big bottomed boor.

I followed the same discussion and process for the next two classes. I have all three of my junior kindergarten (JK)  classes in a row on the same day. The next class read the story “Pretty Salma” by Niki Daly, a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set in the grasslands in South Africa and the final class read “The Three Snow Bears” by Jan Brett, a Goldilocks story set in the arctic. This process focused on students making deeper connections with stories they had heard before and seeing the similarities and differences in different versions in the story. This is a way for students to “demonstrate their desire to broaden and deepen understandings” (Learner III.A.1).

The next library session, students started with sharing what they remember about the beginning, middle and end of the story, the characters and the setting. I told the JKers that we would be learning more about the setting of our stories. We used a great online database we subscribe to PebbleGo. PebbleGo is a great introduction to online resources for students. The interface is very accessible, the layout of the articles are easy to navigate and the information is presented in digestible bites for young students. PebbleGo also has a “read to me” function making it a great resource for students to navigate independently. Students were divided up into small groups and worked with a teacher to listen to the article about the setting of their stories, wetlands, grasslands and tundra. As the students listened to the articles, the teachers collected the facts students learned about the ecosystem. We also looked at images of the different areas and students documented what they saw in the pictures, what they noticed about the trees, ground, the water, etc. I explained to the students that this research was going to be important for the building project. This was a way for students to “use a variety of communication tools and resources” (Learner III.B.1), junior kindergarteners made connections with the images in the book, facts from PebbleGo and pictures of the ecosystems to find the information they needed to be able to build their own settings.

Building was the next session. Students were reminded about the story we read and the research they did on the ecosystem where the book was set. The junior kindergarteners were put into small groups of about five students. Each group was given a large section of cardboard to build on and at each table there was a collection of different materials to build wetlands, grasslands and a tundra. For the wetlands there was lots of green moss, rocks, blue table clothes for water, different green papers and small plastic animals including snakes and alligators. The grasslands had lots of different types of grasses and rocks, orange, yellow papers and zebras and giraffes. The tundra had white paper and boxes, blue paper for water and white foam craft balls to build snow drifts, as well as penguins and polar bears. Students worked together to plan out their space, make connections with what they learned about the different ecosystems and use the materials in creative ways to build the settings for the stories. During this part of the project, junior kindergarteners “established connections with other learners to build on their own prior knowledge and create new knowledge” (Learner III.B.2). Students talked and collaborated with each other to use the different materials to build their setting based on what they learned about the setting and ecosystem and making connections with classmates’ understanding about the ecosystem. They were also “actively contributing to group discussions” (Learner III.D.1). Throughout the building process junior kindergarteners were talking to each other, making decisions about what materials to use and how to build with them, they discussed and negotiated how to collaborate on their setting.

The final library session for this project was the dramatic robot retelling! We set all the boards created by the junior kindergarteners in a row. Students all sat on one side of the boards. We decorated some of the library’s Dash robots with pictures of the characters. Then we shared a whole class dramatic retelling of the stories, the robots moved around the setting that JKers built, while students chimed in at different points to share the beginning, middle and end of the story.

This project was a big hit. It was a great way to combine early literacy skills to help students understand story structures, introduce online databases and nonfiction. This was also a way for students to engage in creative building. They were given the opportunity to take a variety of materials and creatively use them to make build the setting for the books based on their fiction and nonfiction research. Students also collaborated during the whole school discussion, small group research and small group building. The whole project ended with a fun way to add the robots into another project with junior kindergarteners.