Maker Story Times: Getting Started

When I was looking for a preschool for my daughter, I always looked at the student art. When I saw a row of projects that looked the exact same, I knew that wasn't where I wanted her to be. I wanted her to be where the children were encouraged to create their own messy, imperfect, beautiful work. Perhaps not surprisingly, she ended up at a Reggio Emilia school.

A Maker Story Time is built upon this idea. Essentially it's the same idea as the librarian mainstay of a story time and craft, but there is an explicit focus on choosing books and projects that allow student choice, experimentation, and creativity.

My plan for my first Maker Story Time was to work with third graders and to use Chris Van Dusen's If I Built a Car. I had a whole lesson planned around students using easy to find supplies to design their own cars. I gathered paper, markers, sticky notes, pipe cleaners, paper cups, and plates, and thought I was ready to go. But when I came into the library in the morning, the book was not on the shelf. I still wanted to work on the project, though, so instead of a book, I used the Kid President video about inventing.

Then I challenged the kids to design something new. An interesting thing happened. .The kids who typically were reticent, dove right in and started building.

In the collage, the top left is a moving traffic sign, in the center is adjustable glasses fram, and the right corner is a piece of playground equipment that allows for climbing as well as fort building. The bottom, larger pictuer shows the students at work.

This actually worked out well as an introduction to the idea of making. Now we are in the process of a longer more in-depth making experience, which I will share in future blog posts.