Coding with Bee Bots

The kindergarteners were introduced to Bee-Bots today.

Bee-Bots are easy-to-operate and friendly little robots that are a perfect tool for teaching sequencing, estimation, and problem-solving. (https://www.bee-bot.us/)

Here are the commands the Bee-Bots can follow.

Today, students chose a letter card and then had to create a code for the Bee-Bot to follow to get to a picture on the mat that began with that particular letter.

Here is a video that shows the activity in action.

Now that the students have been introduced to Bee-Bots, they will use these fun coding robots to practice identifying rhyming pairs, reading CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words, solving math equations and more! In a few weeks, the kindergarteners will begin to develop their own Bee-Bot mat with their Third Grade Buddy during out STEM Buddy Program. Stay tuned!

STEM Buddies Update

The third grade and kindergarten STEM Buddies have been meeting weekly for the past month to work on creating Bee-Bot mats. Some of the themes include colors, pet vs. wild animal, living vs. nonliving, and number recognition. The progress is exciting!

The mats and game pieces are almost complete. Students will present their mats when we return from break.

STEM Buddies

Kindergarten and Third Graders had their weekly STEM Buddies meeting yesterday, and boy was it a fun one! Students were introduced to their first buddy challenge of the year: to create a mat for Bee Bots! The students’ eyes were wide with excitement. To make the project more concrete, I created a plan to guide the students through the activity:

We brainstormed the topics and skills together. Here are some of the students’ ideas:

Next, students found their buddy and got right to work thinking, planning, and designing.

Work will continue on these Bee-Bot games over the next few weeks. I can’t wait to see what the students create!

STEM Buddies

New program alert!! This summer, Mrs. Green, our third-grade teacher, Mrs. Downing, our Technology teacher, and I worked together to develop a curriculum we call STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) Buddies. Traditionally, the kindergarten class and the third-grade class are buddies throughout the year. We typically meet once a week or so to read together, play cooperative games, or engage in a thematic craft. Mrs. Green and I wanted to deepen our buddies curriculum this year, and STEM Buddies was born! We will continue to meet weekly, but most meetings will have a STEM focus. For example, in October, students will explore Bee Bots and ultimately work with their buddy to create their very own Bee Bot mat on a topic of their choice. When kindergarten engages in the Gingerbread Man thematic unit in December, STEM Buddies will work together to engineer a bridge to help their gingerbread character cross the river. STEM Buddies delves into our EveryDay Math curriculum as well, with a unit on probability and gaming. Buddies will eventually make their own games, designing game pieces that will come to life through the use of the 3Doodler 3D pens! And of course there’s more….but I have to keep some surprises!

The kindergarteners officially met the third graders yesterday. They played a “get to know you” game. It was so much fun to see the students wandering around the third-grade classroom looking for friends who matched the descriptions on their worksheets. Take a peek: