My Low-Tech Mobile Makerspace

Now that the Makerspace has been rockin' and rollin' since December, I've had some great feedback from the students as well as my administration!

So what do I mean by "low tech?"  Well, I took a webinar through School Library Journal and realized that I didn't need the 3D printer or laser cutter, chrome books, and all those other nifty things they have at the high school and other makerspaces.  What seemed to be lacking in education today was more "hands-on" crafty and imaginative play!  So with my second rotation of stations, I feel a bit more confident in the direction it's taking.

Now, we are not without technology.  I have 4 desktop computers in the library, as well as 9 iPads and 9 Kindle Fires (we use them for tablets more than for reading).  However, I am finding that some of our "dig in and get your hands dirty" (so to speak) have been the most popular.

I have modeled our stations after "STEAM-R" (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math/Music, and Reading).  In December, the stations were:

Science:  magnet exploration.  I set out different types of magnets, books about magnets, magnetic mazes, a variety of items that students could find if they were magnetic or not, and suggestion cards on other activities they could do with the magnets.

Technology/Engineering:  I did a VERY popular station students are still asking about, so it will need to resurface this year!  This was our "take apart" station, where students took apart a number of items to see how they worked (things I had picked up from Goodwill and other donations) including phones, cameras, and a tape player.  I had students save all the parts so that we could use the station again to make things out of those parts!  Students were fascinated looking inside and of course, just the taking apart itself!  I also offered a "Jenga" station as well for Engineering.

Art:  I offered several in this station, including "stamp your own bookmark", drawing (providing several drawing books we have here in the library), and weaving.  I found the idea on Pinterest to make cardboard looms and ordered plastic needles from Oriental Trading.  The weaving was a HUGE hit and I think I made about 100 different looms!  They're not hard to make and string, so the many went home (and still have not been returned) are not an overall huge concern of mine.  Some students keep me updated on how it's going and others simply return the looms and needles.  (I told students I'd rather have needles back and they could keep the looms!).  I had some yarn and got a huge donation from our art teacher, which was awesome!

Math:  I decided to play with the "M" and some months offer "math" and other months offer "music."  For this first rotation, I put out pattern blocks and tangrams, along with some suggestion cards, for students to play with.  It wasn't so long ago I was a classroom teacher and I know how much fun students had with pattern blocks!  There were several interesting designs and structures I saw out of these during the month!

Reading:  "Create A Character":  I put suggested books out, such as fairy tales, wimpy kid, etc. for students, as well as a huge box of art scraps and toilet paper tubes.  Students were to create a character (using the tube as a base) and boy, did I see some original characters!

You can see a lot of the activity below!

For my January/February rotation (because of weather and our STEM lab, which takes 3 weeks away from our library rotation), I changed stations and students are even more impressed!  I want to find some time in the morning that students can come in, but our day starts so early, I'm not sure if it will be possible!  I'll be sure to take some pictures of our current stations, which includes Legos, Little Bits, Coding/Hour of Code, chess, and viewmasters!

Weather Or Not, Here We Are!

I recently had a chance to work with classes on a flexible schedule where I collaborated with teachers in K-5.  I have mixed feelings about this.  Not about collaboration, mind you!  If you've read my earlier posts, you know that this year, we have a STEM lab that meets 3 weeks during the nine weeks during library resource.  It gives me a chance to have a flexible schedule.  The first week, no one signed up :(  The next two weeks, I had more and more classes sign up so that some days, I could barely fit in lunch!  I was excited to collaborate with the teachers and taught everything from math patterns in K to character traits in 5th!

This post, I'll focus on the weather review I created for second grade.  One of the second grade teachers asked me to help her review for the weather test for her class, which is the collaborative one in second grade. These kids are sweet, but low.  I wanted something to draw their attention.  I had just held a PD on using QR codes in the classroom, so I thought it would be fun to introduce these kiddos as well!

We read the story, Hurricane Hunters, which had the class fascinated.  It's a nonfiction story about how the Air Force works with the National Hurricane Center.


It really had them on the edge of their seats!

So, I followed up with introducing QR Codes to students, how to scan them (we were using android devices), and I kept the cards on the full sheet of paper, but created 9 sets (one for each of our library tables) for students to work together and scan some of the different websites, videos, and pictures.  We followed this up with students completing a fun activity that they were able to draw and create weather scenes.  That was also a big hit!

So, it was a very fun time in the library that day for both me and the kids.  I love to do things like this that show the library is much more than just a place to check out books! (Although I had to include weather bookmarks, mind you!  It's okay - the kids thought they were cool!)

If you're interested in seeing more of my packet, click on the picture below!

Cyber Monday Sales!

Both Teachers Notebook and Teachers Pay Teachers are having "Cyber Monday" sales!  Be sure to check them out.  On TN, products in my store are marked 50% off and TPT has the 28% off as well with the special code.  My TN sale has started if you need to stock up before Monday!

Happy Shopping!

A Little December Diversity

It's a little early, I know.  However, I am taking advantage of the time off for Thanksgiving break to catch up on a few things, including lesson plans!  Well, that and I am still pumped from attending the VAASL conference in Williamsburg last weekend, so it's nice that I have some time off to put some of these fantastic ideas swirling around in my head to work!

First, a little background. Every year, the resource teachers plan and present a "resource day" for our last day of school before winter break.  This year, we're working with our ELL teacher (because we finally got a full time one!) to do a "Celebrations Around the World."  In anticipation of that, I wanted the students to have a little background information on diversity and different cultures the week of our resource day (that Friday).  The world, lately, seems less tolerant of anything different, so I thought it would be a good idea for our kiddos.

So, after "researching" on my favorite site, Pinterest (hey, I'm a visual learner!), I found some great resources as well as ideas for books to use!

For K-2, I'm going to use the book, Whoever You Are, by Mem Fox.


For 3-5, I'll be using The Crayon Box That Talked by Shane DeRolf


I found some great resources to use with each of these books.  For K-2, they'll be completing a matching activity I found at From ABCs to ACTs.  I was also inspired by a blog post by The Inspired Counselor about The Crayon Box That Talked.

As I was writing this post, my brain started whirring about other activities, which led to this:

If you're interested, click on the picture below to take you to see more.  It offers several activities that I'll use as centers on locating the continents/countries we're featuring for our resource day, and identifying the flags as well as some of the traditional dress from the countries. (Since TPT and TN are both having cyber sales soon, take advantage!).

Community Helpers: Firefighters

We had a very busy month in October, so I couldn't do some of my "normal" lessons I love.  However, the Kindergarten classes are currently studying community helpers, so I loved the fact that even though November is not Fire Safety Month (October), I was still able to fit this in with my first and Kindergarten!

This is such a fun and high interest unit for these kids.  I have several that have parents that are volunteer firefighters in our community, as well as paid firefighters, so it really does make a big impact.

Since I was doing this with my PreK, K, and first grade classes, I used the following books:

*Firefighters A to Z by Chris Demarest (1)

*A Visit to the Fire Station by B.A. Hoena (PK)

*Firefighters at Work by Karen Kenny (K)

The students have been loving the printable books we've been doing this year, as well as some of our poems, so I combined our "5 Little Firefighters" chant into our printable coloring book with sight words about firefighters.  I've been getting a good parent response to these books as well!  I plan on making more of them, so don't be surprised to see me making more and maybe adding our featured poem at the end as well (copyright friendly ones)!  The kids love tracing the words over and over and learning to read them with the picture clues.  It also gives me an excuse to keep up my clipart habit to my husband!

If you'd like to see more, here is the link to {Teacher's Notebook} or click on the pictures below for Teachers Pay Teachers.