With all of the testing going on in classrooms today, school–just plain and simple–isn’t as fun as it used to be. Teachers are worried about their students’ performance and about being evaluated on how well their kids perform, regardless of how “at-risk” they are or the many factors influencing their learning.
A colleague of mine works for Lego Education (which is something in Michigan I had not heard of) and it has opened my eyes to endless possibilities to help us in the 21st-century shift of mathematics instruction through inquiry-based learning.
Just close your eyes and imagine the possibilities. Ask yourself how you learn best…is it by someone teaching you the content, having you doing the rote process with them and then going back to your seat to prove that you know it? Or do you learn better through hands-on exploration, struggle and perseverance? Most of us learn more by doing than by someone auto-correcting on how we should be responding to problems given to us.
I think this quote from Breigh Rhodes, 2nd grade teacher at Rollins Place Elementary, in Zachary, LA says it all…this is what we want for all of our students!~
“I want my students to leave me with the knowledge and skills to think for themselves, to gather evidence, and to be able to stand up to a problem and solve it. I want to cultivate tenacity, skepticism, curiosity, and imagination in my students, and LEGO Education solutions are a tool I use to help do that.”
Language Arts STORY STARTERS PRODUCT DESCRIPTION:
Make literacy tangible with LEGO Education StoryStarter.
The StoryStarter Classroom Packs contain all of the StoryStarter elements needed to teach your students the basic mechanics of a well-composed story, to engage all your students while creating confident and inspired readers and writers.Built on Common Core and state English Language Arts Standards, the unique LEGO set, curriculum, and software help kick-start creativity and boost reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. With StoryStarter students work together to create and build stories with LEGO bricks and figures and then use the unique StoryVisualizer software to photograph, write, and publish their stories.
Conveniently packaged for a variety of class sizes, the StoryStarter Classroom Packs contain:
- One StoryStarter Core Set for every three students (6+yrs)
- The StoryStarter Core Set consists of 1,144 carefully selected LEGO elements, including: characters, animals, accessories, icons, basic bricks and building plates for creating up to five story scenes.
- Also included are the elements to build a Spinner. along with four motive cards that can affect the outcome of a story. Students use the spinner and cards when they are in need of a creative boost. A simple spin on either the setting, time period, or mood card and they are given direction on where to take their story next.
- All of the StoryStarter building materials are delivered in a sturdy storage box along with sorting trays, baseplates, and organizational stickers.
One Core Set contains the LEGO® elements needed for three students.
The StoryStarter Curriculum Pack and StoryVisualizer Software
- The StoryStarter Curriculum Pack contains 24 activities all correlated to English Language Arts Common Core Standards for second through fifth grades. All lessons have been developed to enable students’ skills and understanding in the areas of speaking and listening, reading, language, and writing. Each activity is designed to produce explicit learning outcomes and matches specific grade-related Common Core and state-driven English language arts standards.
- The Curriculum Pack features:
- 24 Language Arts activities
- Learning Grid that aligns activities to key standards and objectives
- Rubric samples to help ongoing student self-evaluation
- Element survey, lesson plans, student worksheets, and tips and tricks
- The detailed Learning Grids found in the pack shows how StoryStarter and the activities included map to the curriculum standards, making it easier to align the key skills you need to teach to the right activity. The collaborative nature of the product also helps students develop essential 21st century skills such as collaboration, problem solving, communication, creativity and imagination.
BUILD ME “EMOTIONS” PRODUCT DESCRIPTION:
Build Me “Emotions” invites preschoolers to explore emotions and physical characteristics in a fun and engaging way. As children collaborate on a range of character building experiences, they recognize feelings and identify similarities and differences. Building cards provide support and inspiration so children can continue to build and rebuild characters again and again!
Check out: http://education.lego.
