5th year’s the charm?
This will be the 5th year of our Maker Ed program. You’d think I’d have it down now, but every year has felt like I’m starting from scratch. This year in particular feels that way. A major schedule overhaul has led me to grand revisioning of my entire curriculum which is both exciting and scary.
I know that there are many in Maker Ed who feel a set curriculum is an anathema to the spirit of the constructivist pedagogy that drives our work. I struggle with this, but ultimately I am a deeply practical person. Each week, I teach 12 lower school Maker Ed classes, 6 middle school Maker Ed classes, and STEAM blocks for 3rd and 4th grade. I need a game plan.
I see my year as a grand adventure, like an epic road trip, and my curriculum is the map and itinerary we have when we hit the road. I fully expect there will be detours, destinations scrapped, others added. The musical inspiration that accompanies my planning is Moving Right Along by those felted musical geniuses, The Electric Mayhem. “Getting there is half the fun; come share it with me.”
My first year as a Maker Educator, I organized our curriculum into three big themes I’d noticed permeated much of the work. These were building, motion, and color & light. Up until now, we’ve done a whole school deep dive into one of these themes each year. There was much I liked about this model. Siblings in different grades shared similar learning experiences, tweaked for their development level, and parents shared tales of at-home explorations. However, the new schedule has made this model clunky and I’ve now shifted to assigning a focus to each grade.
As such, I am entering this year with following plan:
1st Grade - Building
2nd Grade - Motion
3rd Grade - Color, Light, & Sound
4th Grade - Synthesis (review/expansion of previous themes leading to a large integrated project)
I have a scope and sequence for each of these and plan on creating more detailed lesson plans as I go. I am attaching the scope and sequences in case they help anyone think through their planning. Please note, they are very much a work in progress.
Away we go!
I know that there are many in Maker Ed who feel a set curriculum is an anathema to the spirit of the constructivist pedagogy that drives our work. I struggle with this, but ultimately I am a deeply practical person. Each week, I teach 12 lower school Maker Ed classes, 6 middle school Maker Ed classes, and STEAM blocks for 3rd and 4th grade. I need a game plan.
I see my year as a grand adventure, like an epic road trip, and my curriculum is the map and itinerary we have when we hit the road. I fully expect there will be detours, destinations scrapped, others added. The musical inspiration that accompanies my planning is Moving Right Along by those felted musical geniuses, The Electric Mayhem. “Getting there is half the fun; come share it with me.”
My first year as a Maker Educator, I organized our curriculum into three big themes I’d noticed permeated much of the work. These were building, motion, and color & light. Up until now, we’ve done a whole school deep dive into one of these themes each year. There was much I liked about this model. Siblings in different grades shared similar learning experiences, tweaked for their development level, and parents shared tales of at-home explorations. However, the new schedule has made this model clunky and I’ve now shifted to assigning a focus to each grade.
As such, I am entering this year with following plan:
1st Grade - Building
2nd Grade - Motion
3rd Grade - Color, Light, & Sound
4th Grade - Synthesis (review/expansion of previous themes leading to a large integrated project)
I have a scope and sequence for each of these and plan on creating more detailed lesson plans as I go. I am attaching the scope and sequences in case they help anyone think through their planning. Please note, they are very much a work in progress.
Away we go!

1st_grade_makered_curriculum.pdf | |
File Size: | 75 kb |
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2nd_grader_makered_curriculum.pdf | |
File Size: | 77 kb |
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3rd_grade_makered_curriculum.pdf | |
File Size: | 77 kb |
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4th_grade_makered_curriculum.pdf | |
File Size: | 79 kb |
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