Last week we planned our dream rooms and then put in the main surfaces: floors, walls, and ceilings. This week you get to add all those little details that bring the project to life. Please watch the introductory video below.

Here's an optional video on adding a second floor. You don't have to watch it, but it's here if it helps you out.

Use your imagination, any of the materials I gave you, and any art supplies you have at home to add furniture and decoration to your box. The more detail you add, the more real your room will look. I am still working on mine and will post some photos when I have more done.
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I'd love to see your finished rooms. Please email a photo to [email protected] or, if your parent wants to, post to Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #sfbrandeismakes.

Hello 1st graders!

​I sent home some materials for you. The first thing you will need is the big worksheet that looks like this. 

Now go ahead and fill out the planning sheet. Please take your time and really think out the elements you want in your room. Remember to use the checklist and make sure you've included all the required elements.

Now watch the video below for next steps.

Take time to do a good job putting in your floors, walls, and ceilings. We'll do more next week. If you want to share a photo of your work or ask me a question you can email me at [email protected]. You can also leave a comment or questions.

Wishing you all the best,
​Mrs. Bisson

One of the areas I have been trying to improve upon is structuring my curriculum so that every student does not have to begin and end projects at the same time. Students work at different paces on different projects and that is okay. As such, I have lost the ability to track/organize by weeks. 

After the multi-tool project, some students had some time to do a little Hannukah project, many still kept working on their multi-tools. Starting after break, most were ready to move away from our cardboard study and explore fabric.

We start small with needle threading, always a source of frustration, and then on to a couple of simple stitches. With first grade, I focus mainly on the whipstitch and the running stitch. These  are two pretty simple stitches that allow you to make a range of basic projects. In first grade, felt is the material of choice since it in pretty easy to work with. We use embroidery thread and large-eyed needles to further ensure early success.

We begin with a simple patch. Students sew a whipstitch around the 4 sides and then use a running stitch to sew their initial in the center.

When this project is done, student move on to designing and sewing a felt stuffy.

 1st graders continued working their cardboard skills, along with some SEL, as they considered the needs of a favorite character and then created a multi-tool for that character. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to snap examples of student works before they took their projects home, but I assure you that Elsa, Olaf, Harry Potter, Captain Underpants, and many others are heading into 2020 very well equipped. 

This week we, quite literally, flipped last week's activity and turned the dancing character mechanism into into talking characters. We used the same mechanism described in Chuck Stoffle's excellent video and then flipped the orientation so the mouth of the animal moved up and down.

I pre-cut the cardboard and made a basic head template that could be adapted to a variety of characters.
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The thing I never have time to do is tie in our maker projects to classroom work, but I would love to to these as part of storytelling/writing unit. Someday...

We've begun seeing how we can use cardboard to build some basic creations that move. I've shamelessly stolen the idea from fellow Maker, Chuck Stoffle, whose YouTube video does a much better job of explaining the mechanics than I can. 

This round we focused on getting the slide mechanism working and making a simple character dance back and forth.

First graders are continuing their cardboard study and looking at the ways we can use paper tubes. I love doing this as a mini-design thinking project where they make a prototype robot that will perform a task for someone in their life who needs a little help. It helps us to introduce the idea of designing for others and considering their needs instead of our own.

This year we had a mensch-bot, lovey bot, and homework bot. This was also a great way to practice using a pencil tip to poke holes in cardboard, an invaluable skill.

First graders are moving on from yardstick to building with the greatest of all building materials, corrugated cardboard. We began with practicing a few basic attachment techniques from our cardboard attachment chart. 

Once we got comfortable with the l-brace, tabs, and slots we put our newfound skills to work and built little treasure boxes. These rely primarily on using l-braces and are also a great way to begin talking about shapes and construction.

First graders are continuing their study of building and construction fundamentals. Today we looked at how basic shapes can be combined to make more complex objects and creatures. Students were given a background and a sheets of basic shapes that they could color, cut, and combine to build a scene.

This is one of those times I wish I saw my students for more than 40 minutes a week because I would have loved to use these pictures as story starters.

The backgrounds and shape templates are attached below.

First graders took this week to apply all we've learned about how we can attach paper and built some marvelous, magical articulated creatures. Tape, glue sticks, and brass fasteners.

I gave them these templates of simple shapes to encourage them to think about how complex creations can be broken down into their much more simple parts. I printed them on yardstick so that they hold up better.