Let’s Get Creative!

Let’s Get Creative!

This week’s class was presented by Sylvia Martinez.  I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation…I think!  I say that because it felt like a whirl wind with all the information came at us so fast that I could not absorb it all nor could I keep up with the “chat” conversation going on!

I spent some time exploring the websites:  http://www.inventtolearn.com and I literally got lost!  I discovered so many links to great websites that provided practical, hands-on learning activities for people of all ages!  I also toured around the Maker Faire website and this too, was amazing!  http://makerfaire.com/be-a-maker/

I am a strong proponent of hands-on learning activities.  I found the power of this teaching approach when I was asked to take on the role of Activity Specialist working with children who have significant behavioral challenges.  My job was to go around to 9 different school programs and do activity-based learning.  This could range from arts and crafts to wood-working projects and even included school-based field trips.  Every school group was different and so were the activities.  What worked at one school may not exactly work at another school!  In the end, I would say that any time kids had the opportunity to be hands-on and creative, th

 

ey were very engaged!  In fact, the biggest thing I learned was the strengths that these students had was in the hands-on learning activities compared to the traditional regular pen and paper!

To give you an example of some neat projects we worked on:  (1) we read the book “Stuart Little” and students were asked to build a model scale room based on what they would imagine Stuart Little’s house to be.  Supplies were:  cardboard, construction paper, toothpicks, miniature furniture from toys at home, etc.  I was amazed at their creations. 

Another example was when I took students to the Science Center and we watched a movie based on Tornado chasers.  I went to the Dollar Store and bought these plastic cars which were about 8 inches wide X 3 inches high and we used cardboard, glue, tape and paint to build our very own Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV).  Students had a blast creating their very own TIV’s!