Fall Colors and Talking Leaves with Preschool

 The school I teach at starts in junior kindergarten, or preschool. Students are four years old when they start the school year. This presents many challenges for designing projects. Students are so young when they start. The beginning of the school year is focused on students adjusting to the structure of school, transitioning to different spaces and learning about the library space. For the first several weeks of school, the library is a more traditional storytime and time for the students to find books to check out. Once the junior kindergarteners are more settled into the school year, I introduce projects connected to what we are reading and learning that take several class sessions to complete. This year, I started with a project connected to fall colors, seasons changing and talking leaves!

The project started with reading several books that talk about the changing seasons. We read: Leaves by David Ezra Stein, Hocus Pocus It’s Fall by Anne Sibley O’Brien and Old Bear by Kevin Henkes. With each book students shared what connections they made with the story including noticing the leaves changing colors around the city, activities they do with their families during fall like apple picking and pumpkin carving and what they know about how animals start to prepare for the winter. Junior kindergarteners also made connections with the colors and pictures in the books. The illustrations in the book all had the colors red, yellow and orange, all colors that they see around the city and the neighborhood during the fall.

After reading the books and making connections with the topics and what they see in the world around them we moved to the project. In my library program, we focus on weaving technology in and finding ways for students to see technology as a tool to share their voices and knowledge. When students are so young, technology is introduced sparingly and with intention taking their developmental age into consideration. For this project, the app Chatterpix was shared. This app is a simple and fun app that allows users to add a mouth to a picture and then record their voices.

Each student picked the picture of the fall leaf they liked the most, red, yellow or orange. Then they drew a mouth on the leaf and recorded their voice saying “My favorite fall color is _____.” The junior kindergarteners giggled and laughed so much hearing their voices come out of the leaves! After each student recorded their talking leaf, the videos were uploaded and a QR code was generated. The final step was printing out the QR codes and attaching them to a leaf. Then I created a “JR Talking Leaf Tree”! I attached the leaves to a fake light up tree and displayed it in the school hallway so that students, teachers, families and other community members could scan the QR codes and hear all the leaves talk!

This was a great first project from my youngest students. The junior kindergarteners were able to engage in a project and make connections with the information they learned and shared over several weeks. Students were also able to use their own voices with a new piece of technology to start to make connections with the idea of technology as a way to share their ideas and knowledge. The final project share out was a public display that highlighted the youngest students in the school’s work.

Game Building with Scratch, MakeyMakey and AI Images

 Artificial Intelligence is such a big topic in education right now. Should students or educators use it at all, what are the guidelines and rules that should be instituted? How do you talk to students about AI, when should you start? As the technology becomes more accessible it feels more and more important to start talking about and sharing the positives and negatives of AI with younger students as well. When students are in middle and high school they will have a better understanding and foundation on how AI works and how it can be a tool for them to use and when it is the appropriate time to use it if they have a foundational understanding of AI. With my fifth grade students I found a way to weave AI into a current project and give students the opportunity to play around with the tool and have some experience using AI.

In the past I have done a design and coding project with students using Scratch and Makey/Makey to make a video game and working game controller. There have been different themes that students have been given over the years, based on the big overnight camping trip they go on every year, designing a game for first graders connected to SEL topics and more. This year, I decided to make the connection to using the AI tool in Canva.

I started out the project asking students what they know about artificial intelligence and how it works. Many of the students had a basic understanding that AI is machine learning, that the program learns more as it collects data. We talked about the benefits of AI and using it, how it is a tool that can be helpful with planning, understanding materials and structures. We also talked about the limitations and negative aspects of AI, how it can be biased and racist. When computers learn from humans the program can learn positive aspects of humanity and all the ugliness of humanity as well. Then I introduced the project and how we would be using an AI tool to help with our project.

I shared that students would be making and designing video games using Scratch coding. The theme for the games would be random picks! In one basket I had an animal or object and in the second basket I had a location or place. They would randomly pick from each basket and that would determine the ideas that would need to be included in their video game design. Each student picked from each basket and had themes that include mushrooms and Paris and hotdogs on the rings of Saturn and elephants at the pyramids. Then I introduced the Canva AI tool. My school has an institution subscription to Canva, students are able to login with their school email accounts and use the Canva AI image generation tool.

The Canva tool allows you to input different words and descriptions for the image you want to generate. Students played around and tested it first, seeing that the more descriptive words the more detail was added. They also noticed that no matter how many times or how many different ways they tried to describe what they wanted the image just did not come out the way they wanted, this helped them to better understand some of the limitations of AI. Students used their keywords and the Canva AI tool to generate images for their backgrounds and characters for their Scratch coding games.

Next, students logged into Scratch and started a new program. We walked through the different types of games they could code, including a chase and avoid video game or a capture video game. I shared with students how to upload their AI images and edit them in Scratch to be their backgrounds or their characters. Students had some Scratch coding experience, as the project progressed, they learned more code blocks and built their knowledge of how to make their games work. Students had several class sessions to make their games work, adding code, testing and debugging their code to make their games.

The next step was to connect the Makey/Makey and build their game controllers. Students were reminded how a Makey/Makey works, that they need to complete a circuit by using conductive materials, wire, alligator clips and a human to make their controls work. Students then designed and built their game controllers. Some students designed their controllers to connect to the theme of their games, others were inspired to make theirs look like real game controllers. Fifth graders tested the controllers, made sure their wires and connections worked and made any corrections they needed to get their game controllers up and running.

The final step was the whole class sharing out! Students set up their games and connected their controllers and they were ready for the 5th grade video game share out extravaganza. Students went around the room playing their classmates games and offering positive feedback on each other’s games.

Overall this was a wonderful experience and project. Fifth graders were able to use AI in a setting and experience that allowed them to explore the technology in an authentic way and use the work that was created within a project that was their creation and creativity. They also continued to grow and expand their coding skills and reinforce the idea of ideation, prototyping, testing, and then if something does not work going back to ideation, prototyping, testing again.

Chicago Architecture: Collaboration with Research, 3D Printing and NFC tags!

One thing that can be challenging as a school librarian is rethinking projects that have been successful. There are times when you have a project that was a great success with students, incorporates learning goals and collaboration with classroom teachers. All of that is wonderful and what we are hoping for when designing curriculum but after a couple of years that wonderfully successful project can start to feel stale. The challenge is to keep some of the wonderful aspects of the project but find ways to refresh it. Looking at new technologies can be just the thing to make an old project feel new!

At my school each grade level has a central topic. This topic flows through their literature, social studies and other studies. In third grade the central topic is Chicago. Students look at the history of the city, the neighborhoods and cultural and public spaces. The city of Chicago is known for many things including its Architecture. Chicago is the birthplace of the skyscraper and the home of many famous structures. Over the years I have done different projects that connect with the central topic, one of my favorites is a 3D printing project about buildings and spaces in Chicago that has evolved over the years. The most recent iteration involves new technologies that have made it a really cool and fun interactive share out of students’ ideas and knowledge.

The project started with reading some picture books about the innovative history of Chicago. We read the book Prairie Boy: Frank Lloyd Wright. We talked about the style of architecture that Wright created and how his home and studio is now a museum in Oak Park, IL (just outside the city of Chicago). Next, we discussed Chicago as a place that is known for its architecture. I shared the Chicago Architecture Foundation database. This is a website curated by the foundation to share information about buildings and architecture in Chicago. We explored some of the different articles together. Then I introduced the project.

Third graders did research on a building or space in Chicago. I created a list of options for each class and every student was able to pick the one they were most interested in researching. Several students picked the same topic. Then students did research using the Chicago Architecture Foundation database. This database is not designed for elementary school students so teachers worked with students to read and comprehend the facts and information shared in the database. Each student was asked to find information on the address and what neighborhood their building was in, the architect or firm that designed the building, and two to three interesting facts about their building or space. I then showed students how to use Google sites to make and create a website about their building or space. Students found pictures doing a Google image search and then learned how to create text and picture boxes on Google sites to build their website.

After students finished up their information websites, I moved to the next step: 3D printing. We have several Makerbot printers in our library makerspace. In second grade, students were introduced to a 3D design program Tinkercad. This is a web based cad software that uses different shapes and objects to create three dimensional objects. In the past students used the squiggle tool to draw their simple designs. For this project we asked them to use not only the squiggle tool but the different shape options to create a 3D object that connected to their building or space. Students spent several classes looking at the different shape options and the pictures and information they learned about their topic. Some students choose to recreate the building, for example the Hancock building has distinctive x shapes along the side. Some students created mini replicas of that building using the rectangle shape and created x marks and placed them along the building. For other students they focused on something special or unique about their space. One student had Maggie Daley Park and learned about the ice skating ribbon the park has every winter, she created a 3D print illustrating that feature.

The final step was putting these two pieces together! Using an app called NFC Tools and NFC stickers we were able to make their 3D prints interactive. With the app you can link a website to an NFC tag. Then when someone taps the tag on the top of a smartphone or a NFC reader the website pops up on the device. Now each student’s project was an interactive display that connected their 3D print to their website. We created a display in the library with the 3D prints and a computer connected to the NFC reader so students from throughout the school could come and see the designs and websites that third graders created. Students were also able to take their 3D prints home and share their creations and websites with their families and friends.

Learning about the use of NFC tags added an element to this project that made it new and fresh. In the past, I did the 3D printing element but with the addition of the NFC tags I was able to add instruction on how to make a Google site and connect the pieces together to make a really cool interactive display. Students were also able to take their projects home and have an interactive project to share. The project continues to be a great collaboration with the third grade classroom teachers and their curriculum. It also continued to meet the library curriculum goals for research and connecting with information they learn in books. With the addition of the NFC technology I have been able to illustrate some new ways to share their learning and how technology can help share their ideas and what they create.

Making Beautiful Coded Music with Kindergarteners: Connections with books, music, coding and MakeyMakey

 With my younger students I am working on making connections with books, what we are reading and connections to their lives as well as a way to make connections with technology and introducing new types of  technology. I have always loved the Makey/Makey piano. It is such a fun and exciting way to share the concept of physical computing and young students love it and are filled with such joy when they use it. This sparked an idea to connect books, physical computing, a real piano and some collaborative making!

We started out this three weeks long project with reading books that featured a piano. We read two picture books “The Bear and the Piano” by David Litchfield and “Khalinda and the Most Beautiful Song” by Amanda Moechel. Students made connections with similarities between the books, the characters and the role of music and the piano in each of the stories. We then talked about how a piano works. We read the nonfiction book “Musical Instruments” by Claude Delafosse. We also looked at pictures of a piano and talked about how the instrument works. Kindergarteners learned that when you press on a key that a hammer hits the string and makes the sound, the length of the string determines the note that the piano plays.

During our next class, we took a field trip to the public piano in the main lobby of the school. The piano is open and available for students to use during breaks and free time. Kindergarteners were able to see the keys, strings and hammers move and create the music and sounds. Each student was able to press the keys and see the hammers move to hit the strings. This hands-on experience helped them to see and better understand how the piano works.

Then we made connections with the idea of how when you touch the key it triggers the hammer to make the sound and the idea of physical computing. Students have lots of experience with Scratch Jr coding app, they learned how to code different characters to move in the program. With this project, I wanted to make deeper connections with the idea of connecting a physical object with code to make it do something. Students made connections with the instructions they give to the characters in Scratch. For example, add the green flag code block and a move forward code block, when the green flag is pressed the character moves forward one space.

After making the connections with the work they had already done, I introduced the  Makey/Makey, a circuit board that connects everyday objects to the computer keyboard. The Makey/Makey was connected to the plug and play piano app. The Makey/Makey connects to conductive materials that trigger code connected to the up, down, right, left and space bar on the computer. For example if you have an alligator clip connected to the up arrow, a user can press the alligator clip connected to the home key and the up arrow and that triggers the code to play the sound connected to the up arrow in the code.

During our next class together, students tested different objects and everyday items to figure out what was conductive. Fun things like fruit, vegetables and water are conductive but stuffed animals, books, and plastic toys are not. Students learned that metal is a conductive material including tinfoil. Now it was time to make their own conductive piano. KIndergarteners were put into groups of four and each group was given a long pieces of cardboard and a sheet of tinfoil, They were able to decorate their piano key anyway they wanted with paper, stickers, markers, tissue paper etc, making sure they had a tinfoil key as part of their design.

The final celebration was a whole class piano recital. Each group was set up with a computer, a MakeyMakey, their tinfoil piano keys were connected to the plug and play piano, and they each had a home key to complete the circuit. KIndergarteners made beautiful tinfoil, physical computing coded piano music! 

This project made many connections for kindergarten students. They made connections with the picture books they read and the real instrument that they see and use in school and at home. Kindergarteners also advanced their thinking and understanding about coding and how it works in an app but also the foundations of how it is used to make objects move and work. Students worked together in small groups to make fun, creative and unique pianos and then had a great time working together to make beautiful music!

Gingerbread Man Loose in Junior Kindergarten: A Collaboration between literacy and technology

 When I think about collaboration at my school library it is collaboration between teacher or students. For this project, I thought about collaboration between literacy and technology and between students and the classic tale of the gingerbread man.

Several years ago the librarians and the technology teachers advocated for the creation of one department where literacy and library skills were merged and taught with technology education skills in a project based environment. We have created a curriculum that weaves different concepts of literacy and introducing technology and making.

One of the grade levels I work with is junior kindergarten, four year olds. When they first start the school year in September it is a big adjustment. A new classroom, teachers, friends as well as being in a huge building with older students. I always start the school year easing into the library space and how JK students use it. We start with storytime and story sharing and giving students plenty of time to explore the space and find a book for the week. We read lots of different types of picture books and nonfiction books to explore and talk about. As the school year moves into November, I start to do a short project connected to a book we read. Then we expand to reading a book or two one week and then doing a project connected to the book the next week. For the first big junior kindergarten project of this year, I developed a three week long gingerbread themed project!

The project started with reading and exploring different versions of the story of the Gingerbread Man. We read the Gingerbread Man by JIm Aylesworth, a more traditional version of the book. Students talked about the sequence of the events of the story and made connections with the characters and setting. The next version we read was Gingerbread Man Loose in the School by Laura Murray. This is a funny version of the gingerbread man searching the school to find his class. Again, students made connections with the sequence of events and the characters. They then made connections with the places in the story and our own school. We talked about the different spaces they go to for art and PE, the nurse when they need help and the library.

The next week when students came to the library I introduced our robot gingerbread activity. I talked about how we give code or instructions to robots to make them move. I showed them our Ozobot robots. Ozobot robots read marker paths to follow directions and paths. For their activity, I covered our tables with white butcher paper and printed out sets of pictures from the different places in the story The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School. Students worked together to put the pictures from the book in order of the events of the story. Then they drew lines from the different pictures. I made copies of pictures of the main character and taped them to the top of the Ozobot robots. Students then had the gingerbread man robots travel to the places while retelling the story. Junior kindergarteners worked with each other to remember the details of the story, make their gingerbread robots move and have fun retelling the story.

The next week, we introduced the laser cutter we have in the library. Our glowforge laser cutter reads files and then uses the laser robotic arm to follow the design and cut into the materials. I set the laser cutter working to cut gingerbread shapes out of the draft board. Each student received their own laser cut gingerbread person to decorate with pom pom balls, stickers, markers and googly eyes. Junior kindergarten students were able to take their gingerbread person characters home to retell the story of the Gingerbread Man Loose in the School or make their own gingerbread person stories.

This project was fun to do with my junior kindergarteners as a longer project. It was a good connection with literacy and technology concepts and ideas. Students made some connections with their own school experiences and what they read in the book. Students also worked together to recall details from the story and program and code their gingerbread man robots to move and finally they were able to take what they had learned and create something new to share with their families.