Kelli Rado 2nd Grade

Meet the Maker: Kelli Rado

My name is Kelli Rado and I am a second grade teacher at Elmwood Elementary. I get to teach all subject areas along with teaching kids how to be kind, empathetic and inclusive.

Provocation: How can we make our playground at Elmwood better for ALL kids?

Maker Plan: Second Grade (Teaching empathy)

We identified a real need that our building has and we worked creatively to try and solve it.

MAKER PLAN Please view my plan to see how I purposefully tied in skill builders to boost creativity which allowed kids to be successful when building their prototypes. Know that this plan is always evolving as I reflect and learn through this process.

What we are making, Why we are Making, Who we are Making for:

We are making a product to make our playground better.

We are making to include all.

We are making for the students of Elmwood!

Maker Skill Builders & Highlights

Building to Think

With the materials provided, design a product to keep your face warm in the winter.

Developing Creativity within Constraints

Using Extraordinaires, students designed a product for a specific character.

Identifying an Authentic Audience

Designing for us-we are the characters.

See Our Process

Documenting the process so students can see how their ideas evolved.

Learn More/ Try it

Student Product Samples

See the process of our maker project below:

Draw your dream playground

What is OUR playground missing?

Design for us, all kids here at Elmwood. What could you make for our playground?

First draft prototypes. Students designed a structural piece for our playground.

Additional Teacher Resources & Reproducibles:

The Extraordinaires Design Studio Kit (for a skill builder)

Feedback form to use to illicit peer feedback

Must know tips for Teachers:

Plan with the end in mind- what do I want my students to be able to know and do?

Collaborate with a Digital Learning coach

Start small- begin with a few skill builders

Look for ways to incorporate skill builders, making, and creativity into ONE of your science or social studies units.

Think differently about Second Step lessons- how can we identify problems that are occurring in our classroom, playground, school that we can try and solve. These problems are authentic and they are occurring daily.

Purposeful Play

Purposeful Play is a time of day in my classroom that has boosted creativity, collaboration, flexible thinking, and teamwork. For three days a week/20 minutes at a time students are playing, building, creating, solving problems, and working together. If you are interested in learning more about this read the book, Purposeful Play. This has allowed my kids to grow into empathetic students, collaborators, and creative thinkers.

Our own Scholastic Book Fair-imaginative play that ties directly to our curriculum (math).

Teaching strategies to solve problems to practice their social skills.

Imaginative Play- directly ties to social studies- jobs in the community.

Problem solving- helping others make good choices in the hallway.

Google Sites

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