I had the BEST day in Kindergarten today!
A few months ago our fabulous SBTS (school based technology specialist), Mr. Lachance, and I decided to do monthly #STEM lessons with my Kindergarten class. Last month we did Kodable for the hour of code.
This month we got to play with our set of Sphero balls! The Sphero is an App-controlled ball that can do all kinds of fun things. I’ve even seen some teacher use them to paint!
Mr. Lachance demonstrated how the IPad controlled the Sphero. The kids were amazed.
I broke the kids into groups of 4-5, making a choice to try and spread out my leaders to help facilitate better cooperation within the groups.
It was great! They struggled to work as a team at first, each student starting to build their own maze. I cleared that up quickly! Once they got on the right track they made some amazing mazes. I saw tunnels, bridges, ramps and of course a dead end or two!
They were all so proud of their work! While they were building Mr. Lachance and Mr. Edwards had one student from each team practice “driving” the Sphero. Then they took turn navigating the Sphero balls through their mazes.
Great practice for kids in their kindergarten!! This way they can learn how to play in a team. When I was in kindergarten I had learnt lots of things, which are still with me, and I use them during corporate team building activities at my work place.
Wow, this is just amazing. If you are new to teaching and want to help your preschoolers with different skills, there are many fun activities at http://www.kidsfront.com/coloring-page.html that you can actually use to make education interactive and more effective for the kids.