Welcome to our MakerSpace Class Portfolio! This page will act as your window into the many fantastic things happening in our classroom.

If you are looking for specific pictures of your child or evidence of their work, I encourage you to check out your child's digital portfolio on Seesaw. At the start of the school year, we do our best to connect every family to their child's Seesaw using your Skyward email. If you need a code sent home or emailed to you for your child, please email Ms. Tarr!

In our K-4 makerspace classrooms, we use station-based teaching. Within a single unit, students will rotate through 3-4 different stations, each with a very important learning goal focused on developing STEM thinking in our learners. Station-based teaching allows for students to spend most of their time engaged in play-based learning. Play-based learning is exactly what it sounds like: where we allow our students the time to play and explore in their own time, with their peers, free from explicit adult direction. Through play-based learning, students are given the space and time to explore STEM concepts such as coding, engineering, circuitry, etc. which promotes critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and most importantly, confidence! These explorations build up background knowledge on how the world works, which helps to prepare students for the small-group instruction they get from Ms. Tarr in areas of computer science, engineering, and problem solving. 

Unit 1: 

I am a Maker

Standards Addressed: 

Devices 

K-2.CS.1 Select and operate appropriate software to perform a variety of tasks and recognize that users have different needs and preferences for the technology they use. 

Hardware and Software 

K-2.CS.02 Use appropriate terminology in identifying and describing the function of common physical components of computing systems (hardware). 

Cybersecurity 

K-2.NI.04 Explain what passwords are and why we use them and use strong passwords to protect devices and information from unauthorized access. 

Safety Law and Ethics 

K-2.IC.18 Keep login information private and log off of devices appropriately. 

Standards Addressed: 

Algorithms 

K-2.AP.08 Model daily processes by creating and following algorithms (sets of step-by-step instructions) to complete tasks. 

Variables 

K-2.AP.09 Model the way programs store and manipulate data by using numbers or other symbols to represent information. 

Control 

K-2.AP.10 Develop programs with sequences and simple loops, to express ideas or address a problem. 

Modularity 

K-2.AP.11 Decompose (break down) the steps needed to solve a problem into a precise sequence of instructions. 

Program Development 

K-2.AP.12 Develop plans that describe a program’s sequence of events, goals, and expected outcomes. 

K-2.AP.14 Debug (identify and fix) errors in an algorithm or program that includes sequences and simple loops. 

K-2.AP.15 Using correct terminology, describe steps taken and choices made during the iterative process of program development. 

Unit 3:

STEM Challenges

1st Grade students spend the remainder of Quarter 2 participating in STEM challenges. A STEM challenge is where your child is presented with a specific problem to solve and given a set of constraints within which they are allowed to solve that given problem. STEM challenges are typically 1-2 day activities that place your child in a situation that requires them to use their best STEM Thinking. The goal of a STEM challenge is to promote the 4Cs of engineering design. 

Collaboration: The ability to work together to reach a common goal. I am looking for learners who can actively participate in a group, share, get along, and responsibly divide up roles when appropriate so that the task gets done in the given time. 

Critical Thinking: The ability to look at problems in a new way. I am looking for learners who can take everything they’ve learned both in my classroom and in outside settings, and apply that knowledge to novel situations. 

Communication: The ability to share thoughts, ideas, questions, and solutions. I am looking for learners who can clearly communicate their thoughts to others in ways that can be understood. This applies both within the group they are working with, and the ability to communicate their ideas to an audience (teacher, classroom, parents, etc.) 

Creativity: The ability to “think outside the box.” I am looking for learners who are able to think for themselves and come up with different, unique ideas to effectively solve a problem. 

The 4Cs are something you’ll hear me talk about a lot in makerspace and will see come up in report card narratives time and time again. The 4Cs are the essential makerspace skills that transfer to all aspects of a student’s life, therefore we place great emphasis on them. 

Unit 4:

Civil Engineering

1st Grade students explore civil engineering and construction by learning how to use a variety of age-appropriate tools and exploring structural engineering/architecture. Using a combination of small group instruction and play-based exploration, students experience: 

• • Wooden/plastic hammers & nails

  • Toy power drills & screws

  • Mini-screwdrivers 

  • Mini wrenches 

  • Legos

  • Keva Planks

  • Hammers & Nails

By the end of the unit, students who have their hammer badge create an art piece using wood, nails, and yarn. Students who are not yet badged in hammers will complete an alternative piece using similar skills. I will be assessing students on the 4Cs of engineering (creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication) along with grit throughout the entire unit.