Wow! What a great week we had! Lots of exciting learning surrounding our Toy Shop Unit.
We began the week by making a book detailing our bears’ adventures throughout the school. In Week 1 the students took photos of their bears and we compiled them into small books. The students practiced their emergent writing in the books.
We then received a mysterious package from noneother than The Toymaker Himself! He left of a cryptic note telling us that the best toys are made. So, we created some different toys with found materials. Some people made lightsabers and pirate ships, while others were more open to abstract interpretation.
We also had an exploration of sticks which helped us realize just about anything could be a toy if we tried. We read the book Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis to help guide our learning.
Of course, during all this we’re still working on our phonics and practicing our letter formation.
One day we arrived to find that a little robot The Toymaker had sent to help us keep our classroom tidy had, in fact, done a terrible job. We had to teach it how to tidy up! And then we made some robots of our own using a great math link to 2D shapes and also practicing language around body parts.
Later that day we had a go at programming robots ourselves! We listened to the story Robot Rumpus about a houseful of robots gone amok. We then got out the programmable BeeBots and moved them from room to room in a house we created to do chores. The BeeBots are programmed by simple algorithms – go straight/backwards, turn left/right. The kids had a lot of fun experimenting with those and we’ll certainly be giving them a try again.
The Toymaker never ceases to leave surprises for us. He learned how great we were at creating our own toys and left us the keys to his toy factory! We had a great time in there building and learning. There was some excellent teamwork going on!
Then, when we were least expecting it, Ms. Yujin delivered yet another letter from The Toymaker which had come in the post! This time he had a challenge for us. There were some photos of creations he had made that we had to replicate. What a great time we had practicing our patterning skills and our spacial orientation!
That’s it for this week and we’ve got another great week in store for us in Week 3!