While enjoying our new Innovation and Design Studio where the walls are wide and the ceilings are high, I have often felt it begs for music. Coincidentally, two days before the #blogamonth topic was was shared, I started adding music to my classroom with the 5th graders in the Innovation and Design Studio. Students are in their zone creating video games with Bloxels. Because they are working independently, although collaborating when questions arise, it is an atmosphere ripe for music. The students are creating characters and animating them to be integrated into their larger game. I believe adding music to the classroom is giving the students the motivation to add more rhythm and movement to their characters. Perhaps this is not a conscious effort but I imagine it is seeping into their work at some level. While I respect quiet moments of concentration, the music has provided a soothing element to the classroom experience.
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| 4th Graders |
Three weeks after the grand opening of our new spaces at The Davis Academy there has been quite a bit of action occurring throughout our hallways. It feels fairly profound to have the tarp come down to reveal extraordinary new learning opportunities right in your own backyard. The Innovation and Design Studio, which is where I have spent most of my time, has certainly seen a lot of traffic in the last few weeks.
The fourth graders are enjoying being the inaugural regular class in there while the other grades are enjoying the flexibility to explore the space when time permits. We have had 2nd graders create 3D simple machines with Tinkercad in correlation with their simple machines unit. A shark-tank style panel will be voting on the most useful, well designed simple machine. The winning machines will be 3D printed for classroom use. Third graders made interesting inventions with LittleBits and worked in some time with the green screen in the audio visual production studio next door. Fifth graders have been creating their own video games with Bloxels, which has been all the rage. Discovering that they could animate their own game characters has been pretty extraordinary.
What's to come? Well, the PTO will be creating Star Wars-themed circuits the week after next with the help of our 5th, 6th, and 7th grade Network Sherpas. A few of our fourth graders will be learning to sew in order to create new Mo Willems themed pillows for our media center. The 6th graders will also spend time with Bloxels in the Innovation and Design Studio to create their own digital worlds. In fact, we are looking forward to a Skype session with the makers of Bloxels to take our video games to the next level. The possibilities are somewhat limitless.
While we know that the learning that takes place is not about the space in which it occurs, it can certainly help to have a new amazing source of inspiration being surrounded by a space that begs for creativity. The greatest gift is being able to connect, create, and color our world a little brighter in a space that demands it. We look forward to sharing our creativity with the rest of the world.
