This week was, again, inspired by my daughters OBSESSION with Curious George. We watched an episode where George builds a robot costume and they talk about all the cool things some robots can do. Zachary thought this was awesome!
So we started to explore robots. Got books, did some worksheets, and LOTS of fun crafts. (My construction paper supply has been severely depleted!)
Monday was just spent getting and reading books, so I’ll talk about that later, but TUESDAY was awesome!
Robot Costume!
It would be completely impossible to do robot week properly, without making a robot costume. Especially if you’re into recycling.
So we made “CrazyBot 523” It was awesome.
We Started out with a recycled box, some construction paper, and a bit of imagination.
We had to make the hole in the top of the box a bit bigger. And we cut up a cereal box to make “arms” that ended up being wings when Zachary added a “peregrine falcon” button that turns him into a peregrine falcon.
Then we worked on our cutting and gluing skills. We added construction paper to make it pink, and big fat orange buttons.
The Functions on the front are
- Pick up Toys (the robot costume actually hinders this action… but it makes it fun)
- Get a Drink (for whomever touches the button)
- Spaghetti Monster (which makes him ask for Spaghetti over and over again)
- Set the Table (One of Zachary’s chores)
- Go Crazy (By far, his favorite button)
- Be Adorable …. (He smiles at you and is adorable!)
He wasn’t done adding buttons and functions, and the back hadn’t been decorated yet, so we stuck some more construction paper to the back and kept going
- Dinosaur Trainer (only used when his cousins are here)
- the OFF button (only able to be activated at bedtime)
- Backward
- Forward
- Mac N Cheese Monster (same as spaghetti monster)
- Peregrine Falcon Turner (Turns you into a peregrine Falcon)
- Dragon Trainer
Then we talked about how robots need a fuel source…. so he decided that his robot would be powered by grape juice and imagination. You can see the grape-juice meter on the front…. it stays full most of the time.
He also took some markers to the wings He added a “Love monster” button. If you push that, you get lots of hugs. And he added an “entry code” button. You have to push 523 to get him to function properly.
It was a GREAT art project. He ended up wearing it around the house and even out to dinner that night. Fortunately, he’s still friggin adorable, so we didn’t get dirty looks, just “awe, how cute” looks. It was awesome.
Building a Robot Toy
Two Christmases (is that the right pluralization?!?) ago, we got Zachary this cool TOMY construction set that lets you build 4 different vehicles. We used it both for Art and Science.
Art: Look at the pictures and make it in 3D with the pieces you have. He did really well with that. I was surprised because up until about 4 months ago, he didn’t want to do anything like that. I couldn’t even get him to draw or play with play-doh, let alone actually BUILD something!
We made all 4 vehicles, and then started branching out into our own designs. Their designs tended to work better, but we made a pretty cool Airplane/Race Car hybrid that worked.
The Science side was about batteries. Most robots use batteries of some sort. I’m sure there are some gas/diesel powered robots out there, but batteries seem to be the standard. We used some of our Solar knowledge from a previous week and coupled that with our battery study to explain how batteries store energy that can be used in toys and other robots.
Robot Worksheets
We have officially started Zachary’s Second Grade Curriculum. Which means everything is getting a little more advanced. SO, my worksheets have to reflect that. Instead of just working on ONE set of facts, I’ve started mixing them up. I still want him to be a little more fluent in knowing his math facts, so for his independent work, I still stick to addition and subtraction without borrowing. Here are the Addition and Subtraction Worksheets we did this week.
I also have been making some fun Reading Comprehension worksheets. This one is about Robots that are used every day. A Lot of the robots we were reading about were fictional and futuristic, so I thought we needed a little bit of “we use robots NOW” reading.
I also did a “What kind of Robot would YOU build” worksheet just for fun. Little bit of writing and drawing practice.
The Next Bit has NOTHING to do with robots…. sorry
Geography!
OK, seriously nothing about robots here, so if you’re here just for robot ideas, just scroll past…. or read it, whichever you want, I’m not your mom.
Our 2nd grade curriculum book had a little USA Map in it, and we tacked it up on our wall. We also have a big world map right around the corner from that. That’s so Zachary can see where things are in the grand scheme of the world too.
We’ve been going over 5 states and their capitals every day. We started on the West Coast with Washington, Oregon, and California; and added in Alaska and Hawaii.
He likes that its down low enough for him to touch the states that we’re studying. We did the same 5 states every day for our 4 day school week, now Zachary can name all the state capitals that we’ve studied. The only thing that really bugged him was that Alaska was in the wrong spot. So I printed out an Alaska Coloring Page, and let him color it. Then we tacked it up in about the right spot. He can find it on our world map too.
I also added a Geography bit to our Morning Work. He has to write the name of the state, color it in on the map, then write the Capital. I let him use the highlighters on the map, so he thinks its the best thing ever. It might get a little difficult on the east coast. But it’s working GREAT right now.
I added a TIME bit too. We switch between These two for our morning work so he’s not doing the SAME THING every day, but still gets to practice what I want him to know by heart. I liked this blank clock because I can add in whatever time I want. When he gets past the hour/half-hour stage, I can add in more difficult times for him to decipher.
Preschool Bit
I was supposed to have my niece for preschool, but her big brother was starting high school and had to go to orientation all day. She went with him, But here’s what I WOULD have done with her. This pic came from THIS BLOG
You basically just cut out shapes and let the kids go crazy making their own robots. You could even add them into the “build a robot” worksheet instead of drawing if your kid isn’t into drawing, like mine was for the first few years of his life.
Book List
Our library didn’t have a great selection of Robot books, but we still found some pretty good ones. I’ll start with my favorite.
Space Probes (Exploring Beyond Earth)
Zachary REALLY liked the Space Robots like the Mars Rover and such, so this book was great.
This book had a lot of great information about robots, how they were developed initially, and how they’re improving today. Perfect all-around informational book.
This was a cute rhyming picture book. It’s perfect for little kids who don’t have a great attention span, or who need some reading confidence. There aren’t a lot of words, so a beginning reader could get through a WHOLE BOOK pretty quickly!
Another great beginning reader or short attention span book. For kids with shorter attention span, you can just read the rhyming part, BUT it also has some information about some real-life robots like the ones described in Robotics
This is a cute futuristic story about a little boy and his older sister. Their helper bot goes a little crazy and they have to fix it…. .oh and they live on Mars!
HAVE FUN TEACHING!!!!
What kind of Robots did your kids dream up? Were they powered by grape juice, or just imagination?
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