After speaking with some very special parents who were willing and excited to help me get some of these new ideas off of the ground things really started moving.
Our home and school association approved my mini-grant for $900 to allow me to get some supplies so we could get going. My parent committee helped form the vision: We want to encourage and foster creative thinking - an area receiving less and less attention in school yet so vital for success. We will offer a low tech (or limited tech) opportunity for students to come in during recess on Mondays (Maker Mondays!) The students will have the opportunity to choose from a variety of projects.
Our starting list includes Legos, K'Nex, Perler beads, movie making/green screen, iPad exploration (Puppet Pals, ToonTastic, etc,) rotating arts and crafts (origami, bookmarks, gimp, crochet/knitting, etc.) coding stations, research stations, brain challenges, building challenges, straw construction, and a couple of little bits sets.
My parent group wanted to make sure we would reach the kids who might be intimidated by too much free choice, so I will introduce the basic idea during library classes, and assure the students that if they don't know what to do they can come in and choose a challenge in many different areas.
Our home and school association approved my mini-grant for $900 to allow me to get some supplies so we could get going. My parent committee helped form the vision: We want to encourage and foster creative thinking - an area receiving less and less attention in school yet so vital for success. We will offer a low tech (or limited tech) opportunity for students to come in during recess on Mondays (Maker Mondays!) The students will have the opportunity to choose from a variety of projects.
Our starting list includes Legos, K'Nex, Perler beads, movie making/green screen, iPad exploration (Puppet Pals, ToonTastic, etc,) rotating arts and crafts (origami, bookmarks, gimp, crochet/knitting, etc.) coding stations, research stations, brain challenges, building challenges, straw construction, and a couple of little bits sets.
My parent group wanted to make sure we would reach the kids who might be intimidated by too much free choice, so I will introduce the basic idea during library classes, and assure the students that if they don't know what to do they can come in and choose a challenge in many different areas.