Hi Everyone!
My name is Anna Blake! I’m an Elementary Tech Integrator in Pittsburgh, PA. I teach K-5. I’m using VEX GO with my 3-5 grades this year. I just got my VEX GO Classroom Bundle. I’m starting to unpack and getting familiarized with the different pieces.
What do you do after you open the box?
I started by taking out each and every piece and trying to imagine I’m a 3rd grader and what would I want to do with each piece. I found that I really did want to go through each piece and touch and feel it. So I’m starting there!
I printed out a poster of each piece so that each team could look and find different pieces. I think I’m going to start with this Scavenger Hunt next week when we come back from Spring Break. I think this would be a great way of getting the kids excited and starting to learn different names of the pieces. I’m thinking less than 5-7 minutes. We will be meeting for the first time this year - so I want it to be fun, engaging and just exciting.
This is the first time VEX has been in our school - so my job is to get the teachers excited about it as well. I thought about making a build and putting it in the teacher’s lounge and waiting to see what people say.
What ways to you get your kids pumped for new tech? I’m pumped and I want to share that with my kiddos!
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Anna, I love your idea of bringing the build into the teacher’s lounge and getting the other staff involved with VEX. What a fun way to encourage your whole school to have fun with GO.
There’s also this really cool Get Ready… Get VEX… GO! PDF book that you can use with your students to introduce the pieces and have them create their very first build! Some info on how to facilitate that introduction and using the PDF book in the Kit Introduction lab of the Intro to Building Unit.
@Anna_Blake did you see the GO Scavenger Hunt Activity? You can use the interactive parts poster and the Kits with this Activity as a starting point for your scavenger hunt!
This literally made my day. Please let me know how this goes.
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UPDATE:
Kids are really enjoying VEX GO. I’m rounding out my 9 sections of 3rd - 5th graders with our first lesson. My fourth graders are beyond excited to use the magnet in future lessons - I have gotten notes, cards and side conversations after class about this magnetism excitement. I’m going to have to ride this excitement out next week.
Kids loved J.O.S.H. - and I found that when we were building J.O.S.H. kids just automatically built Jo too. I found this class after class it wasn’t a suggestion from me - but the students felt that this just made sense. I thought well why not share this for other educators!
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Thanks for the update, Anna! So great to hear about the students’ excitement. Can’t wait to see how you ride that magnetism interest.
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@Anna_Blake - Speaking of magnet excitement, have you tried the Egg Relay Activity submitted by @LORI_COLANGELO?
You could use this quick, fun activity to capitalize on your students’ interest in magnets. I’ve made one myself - it’s a fun way to explore magnetism and incorporate free-building.
I’d recommend using plastic eggs if you’re working inside (haha), but I could also see this being a great, outdoor, end-of-the-year, Field Day-type game.
Here’s my little Egg Relay car:
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THIS IS HAPPENING! I love the creativity! We are having Fun to Be a Kid Day! And yes I’m using this! Thank you so much for sharing!
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