Thursday, January 10, 2019
Winter Holidays Around the World
I was looking for something fun and exciting to do with my 5th grade students in the weeks leading up to Holiday break. We had just completed our Scratch unit and were moving into using the Dash robots. I decided to do a project that incorporated winter holiday, robots, and research.
My Winter Holidays Around the World Project was born!
Students were divided into groups and assigned a different winter holiday. Some of the holidays they were assigned included:
- Hanukkah
- Christmas in Australia
- Advent (Germany Christmas)
- St. Lucia
- Kwanzaa
- La Befana (Italian Christmas)
- Ramadan
- Diwali
Students began by researching their topic. Since I use MackinVIA for my digital resources, I was easily able to put all of the websites they could use in a group. This group URL could easily be shared with students through Google Classroom. Students were given a packet with questions to answer using the websites and databases provided.
Link to Packet I used - Found on Teachers Pay Teachers
Link to Packet I used - Found on Teachers Pay Teachers
Next, students cut apart their packet and made a poster using a piece of oak tag. They could decorate it as desired. They then picked out their five favorite facts and wrote them down.
Lastly, the fun part came. Students used Dash the robot and the Blockly app to record those five facts and incorporate movements. They did this using the block based coding. When I asked students if it was difficult for them, they said "No, it was easy" Spending time on learning the Scratch program, really laid the foundation for this project. One of my students even said "This is my favorite project I have ever done!"
Teaching kids coding is a wonderful thing, but giving them wings to branch out and design with coding is magnificent!
Video I Took of a Completed Project
Video I Took of a Completed Project
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