Tinkering Camp 2014

We started off the week (July 14-18) with just a bunch of "junk." The children enjoyed dumping it out, scavenging around and... well... tinkering. 

A pirate ship complete with ladder and cannons

Lock-picking 101?

On Tuesday (July 15), we created "controllers." First we brainstormed all the things at home that have controllers: toys, tv, dvd player, mom's car, fans, and more. They even came up with some things that I hadn't thought of. 

Then we thought about some things we wished we had controllers for: dogs, weather, anything we wanted to appear and baking.  They were then able to use collage materials and boxes to create their own controllers. 

Some of the finished products. 

For the last days of Tinkering Camp we worked together to create an imaginary robot.

Using a real hot glue gun was part of the appeal of this activity.

Most tinkering projects require you to return to them over and over again. It seems that will be the case with our robot. His limbs keep falling off and we have yet to give him a face, but "we'll get to it."

Special of the Day: Lego Building

We have several different "Specials of the Day" that we rotate through (writing, math, art, movement, music, and messy hands). I recently added "Lego Building" to the rotation. This group is very into building with Lego (even before the movie). I know how much learning takes place through Lego Building, so I decided to give it more focus once in awhile, to really expand their planning skills. 

Our "Special" always takes place directly after circle time and is one of the few times a day where I choose the activity and we all focus on the same activity at the same time.  

When they left circle time they were given a three step direction.

1) Choose 4 wheels from the Lego Table

2) Make sure they are attached to the pieces that allow them to spin.

3) Bring them back to the big table

Back at the table they found yellow Lego bricks and basic accessories. Now their job was to build a car. They really enjoyed the focus and all being together working on a similar (not identical) task. Their cars were all very unique and there was a lot of conversation about types of cars, how it moved and other details they wanted to share. We had everything from jet ski cars, to turtle cars and even a flying car with wings. 

Tinkering Camp

This is the second year we have done Tinkering Camp. Originally inspired by Austin Tinkering School and other ideas I had seen on pinterest. I also gained some inspiration from an amazing book called Beautiful Stuff: Learning with Found Materials that I acquired years ago at a conference. Both years our Tinkering Camp has been rather laid back and full of exploring materials. I dream about someday disassembling larger items and investigating the insides, but for now its very open-ended. 

They were creating a house for the dog.

A machine...or engine... it changed several times.

A rocket ship.

An instrument.

Another instrument

Here is a video of all the instruments we made using tubes, rubber bands, and plastic coffee cans/lids

Reduce and Reuse :)

I renewed our membership this year to a local Recycle/Resource Center. This is a non-profit organization for schools and educators to benefit from the stuff business would normally be throwing away.  After paying a yearly membership fee, teachers/schools are able to go collect hands-on items, paper, office supplies, etc, for "free."  It is a bit of drive so I am only able to go about once a month, but there is no limit on your visits. Some items have limits of how many you can take per visit.  Sometimes I grab things knowing exactly what I am going to do with them. Other times they just look interesting and I will let the kids figure it out. Of course there are a few staple items that I make sure to restock each time I go.  Yesterdays "purchases" were quite a hit this morning.

This morning I just laid everything out on the table to sort through and see the kids reactions.

Not sure how to use these cards, but they looks like they could be used for MANY things.

The three colored stress balls are an example of a limited item.
We now have a total of six from my two visits this school year.

These pegs were a tighter fit in our Chinese checkerboard than I had hoped.

Free Labels + Weird Little Black Things = Name Plates

I didn't even realize how much transparent stuff I had collected this visit. Naturally we had to take out the light table.

Preschool Tinkering Camp