The Sphero Team At Van Meter Learn About "Time, Speed, and Distance" In SPRK Lesson 1

Earlier this week I wrote how we are involved with the SPRK Educational Program with Sphero. 

You can read about the start of our experience with Sphero in my first post, Rolling Out The SPRK "Schools, Parents, Robots, Kids" Program In Our Library With Sphero.  

This week, I gathered together a group of 5th graders so they could help me test out the "Plug-and-Play" lessons that they have on the Sphere SPRK Program Education page. 

After reading Lesson 1: Introduction to Sphero, the team set up our two new Sphero 2.0's and got ready for the MacroLab Lesson: Rate and Time.  

We downloaded all of the lessons from the Sphero website and I had paper copies ready for the team to use as they worked through each lesson.  

For each of the five lessons, there is a "Student Guide" and a "Student Worksheet" for them to use as they work through the lesson.  

There is also a 'Teacher Guide" for each which I found to be very helpful as I prepared to roll this out to the students.  I love how they shows which of the CCSS are connected to the lesson, the objectives, and a detailed outline for each part of the lesson.  Sphere has done a wonderful job laying these out for anyone to follow and use successfully in a variety of settings.  

As the teams worked through the lesson, I loved seeing them collaborating with one another and the other team.  We are all having a great time working together as we learn more and more ways to integrate Sphero into our curriculum, classrooms, and library. 

When one of our teams finished up the lesson and student packet, they captured reflections in this video.  What awesome things they learned!  

All of the young people can't wait to move onto the Lesson 2, 2D Geometry, next week.

And please make sure you check out Sphero Education too.  

"Hey Mrs. Miller....Are The Sphero's Really Waterproof?"

The little SPRK pilot team of fifth graders at Van Meter is having a BLAST running through awesome lessons, trying out all of the different apps that can be used with the Sphero's, and getting to know all the in's and out's of using them within education.

Yesterday, three of them came to me and said...."Hey Mrs. Miller.  It says that the Sphero's are waterproof."

And I said, "Then you better find out if they are."   

Two things I want the Sphero's to bring to our young people is curiosity and wonder....and not to be limited by anything.  It is going to be really fun to see what happens as the pilot team develop more and more questions each week.

You can read all about the program at this post I wrote, Rolling Out The SPRK "Schools, Parents, Robots, Kids" Program In Our Library With Sphero.  

Kicking Off Children's Book Week "Month" With Collaborative "Our Favorite Book" HaikuDecks Created By Our Kindergarteners and 4th Graders

With Children's Book Week from CBW coming up the week of May 12-18, 2014, we have decided to celebrate all month long in the Van Meter Library with all kinds of creative, collaborative, and engaging activities. 

Today we kicked off the month by bringing the kindergarteners and fourth graders together to share their favorite books using one of our favorite digital tools on their iPads.  

  

Everyone grabbed a partner and went on a search for eight to ten of their favorite books.  

As they were finding their favorite books, they were also using the HaikuDeck app on their iPads to create a little presentation to share with their friends and others to celebrate Children Book Week "Month".

Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app

 
Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app

We just love how the HaikuDeck's are turning out and can't wait to share even more next week as the other groups finish and publish them too. 

Happy Children's Book Week "Month" to all of you.....We hope everyone has a special time celebrating within your libraries, schools, and towns too.