5th Grade MakerSpace in Action

The 5th graders have been visiting the MakerSpace once per week for a couple of months now.  After exploring all of our new tools, each student filled out a plan for how they wanted to use their time in the MakerSpace.  It is really interesting to see all of the different activities that are going on,  Some students are working by themselves and some are working with a partner.  The projects range from knitting a hat, working with the Lego WeDo kits, designing a video game on Gamestar Mechanic, making a board game, and learning how to sew with our new sewing machine!

Here are Grace and Celia with their Lego WeDo  creation.

Morgan, Laci and Lauren learning how to use the sewing machine.

                                                                     Eliana helping Kate with her crochet project.

                   Maddie knitting her hat.

What Genius Hour Looks Like in Grades 2/3

Second and third graders have been hard at work two times a week in Genius Hour.  Genius Hour  is

time given during the school day to allow students to follow their passions and learn about topics that interest them.  After exploring our new MakerSpace, the second and third graders were ready to choose a topic to focus on.  They have been hard at work researching their topics and are now showing what they have learned.  We have students studying animals, ancient Egypt, and volcanoes.  We have two students, with the help of one of our parents, using the sewing machine to make pillows.  Three boys are creating a video game using Gamestar Mechanic.  One girl is even writing a song!  These examples are just a sample of what our students are doing.  As students start to finish their projects, we will share some of them here on the blog.  Stay tuned!

5th Graders Participate in a Google Hangout with Author, Kate Messner

Today, 5th graders participated in a Google Hangout sponsored by We Are Teachers.  The hangout was organized to celebrate the National Day on Writing.   Author Kate Messner writes books for children and has written over twenty books!  Kate took the students through her writing process: from her fist idea all the way to the finished book.  She shared that one of her books, Ranger in Time, took two years to get published from start to finish!

Kate told the students that writing is hard because it is a huge responsibility to write for kids!  She never feels like giving up, though.  She loves it too much.  Her favorite author growing up was Beverly Cleary and her favorite books were the Ramona books.


After the hangout, students got together with their reading partners to share their thinking.  What were they surprised to hear?  What can they take from what Kate Messner shared and use it in their own writing?  Here are some of their thoughts.

Brett said  he was surprised that it took so long to make a book.

Davis thought it was interesting that authors share their writing pieces with other authors to get feedback.

Laila didn't know that illustrators have to do research too.

Lee thought it was awesome how a single idea that an author has can be turned into a whole series of books!

We better stock up on Kate Messner books in the library!

5th Grade Gets Started in the MakerSpace

We had an exciting day in the MakerSpace on Tuesday.  The 5th grade came in for the first time followed by our 2nd and 3rd graders.  Just like our 2nd and 3rd grade teachers, Mrs. Luedtke, Mrs. Nettesheim and Mrs. Woyahn, 5th grade teachers Mr. Suhr and Mrs. Behnke came to me wanting their students to have a time every week in our MakerSpace.   I did a presentation on MakerSpace last spring and was hoping staff would be as excited as I was.  We are staring the year with having the 5th graders explore the various new tools we have.  We had students using the MaKey MaKey, Little Bits kits and our Osmos.  A big group of 5th graders were using our three Lego WeDo kits.  All three groups got something built and used the software to make it move.  This group wanted me to film their trial.  Here it is.

Two girls discovered our Sphero and came to me asking if they could use it.  They figured out how it worked all on their own and were even showing other students by the end of our time.  That's what makes this so exciting to me and our teachers.  These students are figuring out how to get these tools to work on their own.  It is so fun to watch!  To find out more about any of these tools, go to the Kettle Moraine School District MakerSpace site.

Eventually Mr. Suhr and Mrs. Behnke are hoping that students find something they are passionate about during this exploration and they use their MakerSpace time fueling their passion.  Mrs. Behnke is hoping to teach some students how to knit.  And, I would love for one of our fifth graders to break in our new sewing machine!  Stay tuned...

A New Resource for our Learners and Teachers!

We are very excited at Magee to bring a new resource to our learners!  We have recently subscribed to the award-winning web-delivered resource, Brain Pop!

BrainPOP creates animated, curriculum-based content that supports educators and engages students. Hundreds of topics within Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Technology, Arts & Music and Health are all brought to life through short, animated movies and related interactive quizzes and features.


BrainPOP Jr. provides educational movies for K-3 learners and addresses a wide range of grade-
appropriate topics. Each animated topic has a movie, leveled quizzes, games, activities, and lesson ideas that develop critical thinking and inquiry skills. All content is read aloud so young students can browse the site on their own.

BrainPOP Español provides BrainPOP content in Spanish. All content is aligned to and searchable by state and Common Core standards.

Because BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. are delivered entirely online, there’s nothing to install or download. You can use BrainPOP resources with PCs and Macs.  You’ll also be able to access all movies and quizzes on your mobile device, via the BrainPOP Featured Movie apps. They’re available for all major platforms.

Your child’s subscription to BrainPOP will remain active for the next 12 months and is accessible in school and at home, through the Magee Library Media Site.  They will have full access to all the movies, quizzes, and interactive resources. Questions?  Please email Kim Jones, Library Media Specialist.

Magee MakerSpace: Week 1!

The school year has started and we are very excited at Magee to implement MakerSpace.  This past Friday our multi-age group of seventy-nine 2nd and 3rd graders met in our new space, The Depot.  I introduced the students to seven stations that they are going to be able to explore starting this week.  I used the MakerSpace website that was created last year with the district's library media team.  Click here to see that site.

 The seven stations are: Lego WeDo, MaKey MaKey, Little Bits, Osmo, Video production using a green screen, Coding and Cardboard Challenge.  (To see a description of each, go to the above website.)  After being introduced to the stations the learners got on their Chromebooks and started to explore the website.  After going back to their classroom, they chose four stations that they were most interested in exploring.  The 2nd and 3rd graders are going to come to The Depot and Information Station for the next four Tuesdays and Fridays to explore a station a week.  I just finished creating the first groups.  I'm so excited to get started on Tuesday!  I hope the learners and teachers are too!

Stop Motion Videos

In my last post I talked about how I'd like the 4th and 5th graders I work with to try creating a stop motion video.  We used the online tool, ABCYa! Animate to get used to what stop motion video is.  To start our stop motion project I first showed the students a simple video I created using a toy bus, a Chromebook and the online video editor WeVideo.  I then put students into groups of two or three and gave each group a story board.  I told them they could use anything in the library as props or they could bring in items from home.  Students got right to work talking about their ideas and sketching out a story.  The following day some groups were ready to start filming.  It was really interesting to see all the different ideas students had come to life.  I've linked most of their videos below.  Enjoy!

Ben, Olivia and Colt

Lauren, Allyson and Caleb

November, William and Dillon

Kaytlyn, Kacey and Brett

Alyssa, Lee and Taylor

David, Luke and A.J.

Go Animate!

One of the many reasons why I love working at Magee school and in the Kettle Moraine School District is the great team of library media specialists (LMS) I get to work with.  They all have great ideas and we share with each other all the time.  Recently, Debbie Thompson, LMS from Dousman Elementary, was telling me about how she was having her 5th graders make stop motion videos using the Chromebook and WeVideo.  I thought that would be a great thing for my 4th and 5th graders to try.  I didn't think that the students had much experience with animation or stop motion video so I wanted to have them try an online tool first.  I had heard a lot about the tool, ABCYa! Animate.  I tried using it and it was a lot of fun and easy to use.  I introduced it to students and they took off!  I was really excited to see all of the different animations they

created.  The tool allows you to save your animation and then students emailed them to themselves so they could share them with others.  Next week we will start the stop motion video.  I can't wait to see what they create then!

Here is an example of one of the animations a student created.  This one is by 5th grader, November.

Why We Love Magee....by 4th and 5th Graders

Magee students love their school, but what do they love about it?  I wanted to expose the 4th and 5th graders to the online tool. Pow Toon.  Pow Toon  allows users to create animated videos.  I also wanted the students to do work collaboratively.  I first introduced Pow Toon to the group and let them each create their own video about anything they wanted.  The students were very excited.  Some even came back the next day with their video done!  The next week I let the students choose their own group of two or three.  Their job was to create a Pow Toon describing one thing about Magee they love.  Students chose things like TEAM time, art class, recess and field trips.  We discussed how our audience is someone we would like to convince to come to our school.  We also talked about how to work in a group.  It's up to the group members to work together to choose a topic and make sure everyone contributes.  It was fun to watch their collaboration.  Here is a link to their videos.