End of Year LEGO Stop-Motion Movies!

Let's face it, when we have two huge bins of LEGO pieces sitting around and access to some cool stop-motion technology, why would we NOT make some awesome stop-motion movies as part of our end-of-year thematic summaries?

But here's the thing: Each grade level was tasked with creating a stop-motion movie that related to our theme for the year. So 5th grade, for example, had to make their film relate to "encounters" between two civilizations or groups; 4th grade's movies had to center around a piece of architecture, and so on...

First we studied some "best practices" for making stop motion with LEGOs, including considering such factors as positioning, background, lighting, movements, etc. Students learned that making a quality stop motion is MUCH harder than they thought, and requires oodles of patience and concentration. That made it an even more important exercise!

At the link below you can access a folder with all the videos. File names are labelled by student first names. Enjoy!

NOTE: We used the app "LEGO Movie Maker" on the iPads. That app is not available on Android but there are other user-friendly stop-motion apps on the Android market.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B2urbvFV8qF1c3lBaHNYNHNDR0k&usp=sharing

Read More

2nd Grade Update: There's a SPRING in Our Step

You know from our last update post that we'd had the LEGOs out to do some attribute sorting and a creative design challenge. Well, we weren't quite ready to put them away so we constructed a little research unit on the history of LEGO. We used the book LEGO Toys by Kris Hirschmann as well as the video below as our primary sources and created research mindmaps.

We then switched gears and focused on another classic toy--the pull back car. In our first lab, we conducted an experiment to see if the distance we pulled them back had a direct relationship with how far they went. Our hypotheses was yes! As a secondary experiment, we also compared the data between the car running on the table vs. carpet.

The next major questions was: Where is the energy coming from to make these simple toy cars move? There was only one way to find out--we dissected them!

The great discovery of our dissection was a very special machine--the spring! So THAT sent us on another research exploration, this time to gather more information about springs.

And springs are where we currently stand. This will lead us into an exploration of potential vs. kinetic energy and to the creation of a very special Thanksgiving-themed project. Stay tuned! : )

Read More

2nd Grade Update: Toys as Tools (for learning!)

You can imagine the excitement the first day of class when I announced our topic this year would be toys! What we soon discovered, however, was that there was a lot more to it than simply "playing." First, we used toys as a tool for exploring the power of brainstorming and practiced FFOE creative thinking skills.

Next, we used the book Tomorrow's Alphabet as inspiration to create our own alphabet called Yesterday's Toy Alphabet. Rather than try to explain the logic of the concept, read some of the student entries below and see if you can infer the methodology:

C is for stuffed animal, yesterday’s Cotton. (Vale) 

C is for puzzle, yesterday’s Cardboard. (Regina) 

E is for painting, yesterday’s Empty paper. (Vale) 

F is Nerf bullet, yesterday’s Foam. (Angelo) 

G is for bunny, yesterday’s Glass. (Vale) 

M is for lunchbox, yesterday’s Metal. (Angelo) 

P is for bread, yesterday’s Plastic. (Regina) 

R is for action figure, yesterday’s Rubber. (Vale) 

S is for horsey, yesterday’s Stick. (Angelo)

W is for blocks, yesterday’s Wood. (Crystal) 

W is for car, yesterday’s Wheel. (Vale) 

W is for doll, yesterday’s Wood. (Vale) 

Y is for kite, yesterday's Yarn. (Regina) 

Y is for sweater, yesterday’s Yarn. (Crystal)

There is a tricky combination of logic and creativity that goes into each entry and the students did quite well!

Next, we got out the LEGOs and used them as a tool to discuss attributes and do some sorting. The peak of that challenge was sorting pieces by attribute on a triple Venn diagram!

 Of course it was also fun to end that class period with a collaborative creative problem solving challenge. They had to build a garage for a sports car!

Next week, we begin a research project on the history of LEGO.

Read More