Makerdays!

Last fall when I was first in charge of coming up with after school programs, I decided to ease into it by doing the same program a few times during the semester. That program was Makerdays! And now I add it to our schedule at least once a semester because it is easy and fun and things can always be added!!

The gist of Makerdays is that it is all makerspace activities. Makerspace activities use materials that kids can make things with. Popular examples are play dough, Perler beads and LEGO (all present at this program).  They don’t always get to take things home but they do get to create while they are here and it keeps their hands AND minds busy!

This program is set up in stations and is completely unstructured. The only thing I consistently have to do is take photos for the website and iron Perler bead projects together. That’s it. Kids can either bounce from station to station or they can pick one and stick with it the whole time. Usually there is little to no arguing and it sort of runs itself!

This program was during the final PTO Meeting of the year, and I had 17 kiddos. They all had a great time and a couple even asked when we would be doing it again!

Some of these stations are new since we started this program last fall, but most have been around since the beginning. I’ll go through station by station so you readers can get a feel for what we do!

Perler Beads

These are always a hit. I have a few kiddos who go straight to this station at the beginning of the program and camp out there until it’s over. I always tell them to let me know when they are almost done so I can plug in the iron. I always do the ironing in the back room, so this station is as close to the back room as possible so the space I have to walk with un-ironed projects is as short as possible.

Playdough

This staple shouldn’t need an explanation! I bought new Playdough at the beginning of the semester, and a coworker brought in a ton of tools to go with it that her grandkids didn’t play with anymore. Its always a smash! (And always smashed into the carpet somehow).

Keva Planks

These are really cool little wooden planks that you can use to build whatever you want! They seem to be more popular with the older kids, and even middle school kids at the other building. There is a booklet with ideas on this table as well!

Squishy Circuits

I found these deep in a cabinet last fall and our director said we got them for free at a conference. They are SO cool and I have a couple of kids who are super into this. Using the conductive dough (essentially playdough) and the provided wires, circuits are made and can light LED lights, sound a REALLY loud and annoying buzzer, or made a propeller spin. The buzzer ended up in my pocket about halfway through the program because they wouldn’t quit sounding it. I really need to order some more of this stuff! The website  is here!

The Epic LEGO Wall

I did a whole blog post on the LEGO wall, found here. The LEGO wall is always open after school, but I encourage it extra during the Makerdays program. Once they are finished with their project, I take a photo for the LEGO Wall of Fame in the hall!

Checkers

I usually try to leave this one out during all unstructured programs because the kiddos love to play! I’m fairly certain this is a set from Cracker Barrel and I need to get a new one because somehow a black checker is lost now.

Coloring Pages

These pages are always out during school but again, they love it!

Blocks Rock!

I won this game at a conference last year! The basic premise is that two kids sit across from each other, each with their set of blocks and a bell in between. Using the cards, they flip one over and the first kiddo to match the pattern using the blocks rings the bell and wins the round!

T-Rex Puzzle

This was the first time I used this puzzle after it was donated by a coworker. It was SO hard but a kiddo and a couple of grown ups finally got it but together!

Its all very unstructured fun! I;m running this program again next semester! Can’t wait!

 

STEM Bookclub #1 & #2

Last year at the Indiana State Library conference, I went to a fantastic seminar about a makerspace book club. I did some digging, and found the link to the presentation, and here it is! I’m sure it had more of an impact in person but there is a lot of really good information there about the overall gist of this program.

So that was a year ago. In August when we were having a big brainstorm about what to do during after school programs, this seminar came to mind. We decided to do 2 STEM Bookclub programs, with different activities at each.

The programs were planned for the Thursday before and after Thanksgiving, so that we would have a good deal of time in between to prep and reevaluate in necessary. But surprise! We had ice the Thursday before Thanksgiving and school was cancelled! Because of that, we added the program back on the next available Thursday and that made them two weeks in a row!

We had a solid handful of kids at each program. It was honestly low as far as our attendance usually goes, but the groups I had were so great and having too many more might have been a mess. So it was perfect!

The overall premise of these programs is this: a picture book is read out loud to the group, and then a problem is identified (it needs to be identified by librarians beforehand so that proper materials can be gathered). Once the students know the problem, they are tasked with fixing it. By using everyday materials, they use STEM thinking to solve the problem. It’s actually really simple! But I found that finding books that have a specific problem can be a little challenging. I will outline the two we did below so you can see them in action!

STEM Bookclub #1

Book: The Bugliest Bug by Carol Diggory Shields

Problem: Create a maze using materials that a Hexbug can maneuver through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay I won’t lie. This book doesn’t *exactly* connect with the STEM challenge, except for the fact that they both involve bugs. But I saw the Hexbug challenge on Pinterest and I thought it was the coolest thing. So I went searching for a book about bugs that I could pair with it. If I had found a book about a bug being lost or finding it’s way or something, that would have been PERFECT but I couldn’t. Hey, if you know of one, leave the title in the comments!

So after I read the story, I explained the challenge. We had 5 kiddos during the program, and they split up into girls vs boys, with 3 and 2 on each team. We didn’t give them a ton of super specific instructions (especially with such a small group) and they did a wonderful job!

Before we got to work, I gave each team a piece of plain paper and a pencil and asked them to sort of sketch out their plan before they got started. I told them it was okay if they changed their plan later, but I wanted them to stop and think for a minute before they started in.

We gave them the following materials to work with:

• Posterboard
• Tape (masking and Scotch)
• Straws of various sizes
• Popsicle sticks
• Toilet paper rolls

By using these materials, they made their mazes!

They did a fantastic job! Unfortunately I am unable to upload video to this blog, but here are the finished mazes both with a Hexbug in them!

It was a really fun activity and now we have Hexbugs to play with forever!

STEM Bookclub #2

Book: Toy Boat by Randall de Seve and Loren Long

Problem: Make a boat that can float in water and withstand wind.

The connection between the story and the problem is a lot stronger in this one! The boy in the story has a boat made out of recycled materials and it’s his very favorite toy. He accidentally lets go of the string when the boat is floating in the water and it gets away! So out kiddos were tasked with creating a boat that would float if it got away from them.

Step 1 for this program was to collect materials over the course of a few weeks. Actually the rescheduling was helpful in this regard because it gave us an extra week to collect materials! Here is a list of materials available to the kids:

• Bottles of various sizes
• Duct Tape and masking tape
• Styrofoam Cups
• Straws
• Popsicle sticks
• Pipe cleaners
• Stickers
• Extra bottle lids
• Hot glue guns (used by librarians only)
• Aluminum foil (cut by librarians only)

After we read the story, they got to work! They worked really hard on their boats and so few looked exactly alike! I was very proud of them and their innovation.

Once everyone was finished with their boats, we go tot work sailing them! I filled a kiddie pool with water so we didn’t have a huge float space. The kids took turns putting their boats in and seeing if they floated! They all did a pretty good job!! And then at the end they wanted to all put their boats in and let me turn on the fan (wind) and see what happened. Bumper boats happened. But they all stayed upright!

I will definitely be thinking of new things to do in the future but these both were really fun and brain building making activities and the kids had a lot of fun!!