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.