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Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects

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Re: Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects

#61

Post by sycren »

You could consider doing a mini hackathon with the kids whereby the aim is to create a board game of some kind. Have the kids design the game on paper or card,then at the end use your cnc mill to create the boards, tiles, player pieces etc. You could then use the world cafe (https://toolbox.hyperisland.com/world-cafe) facilitation method for all the teams to explain their games to each other and recommend improvements. You could even show them how to use chatgpt to take their game ideas and flesh them out at a later stage (tutorial, rules etc.)

This idea would allow them to create something fun which is their own, that they can keep in the classroom and play with. It may also make them think of what other games they can create in the future.

Re: Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects

#62

Post by jkestner »

I lead a makerspace at my kids' elementary school. We do no coding or modern making, or whatever it is adult nerds like to play with. Mostly because this age group can't manage it, especially in 40 minute session, and I'm competing with a Lego corner. Mostly we try to get new views on the natural world and get exposed to different tools.

This week, we managed to bang out some bee houses of some scrap lumber I had. We learned about why mason bees are great, and got to use power tools in the library. They had so much fun and we were goal-oriented, so that even the troublemakers among them were helpful.

The most engaging activity (especially for younger grades) was a bunch of light bulbs, batteries and switches, all mounted on wood tiles and connected with alligator clips. So simple but let kids experiment with making huge circuits together, debug unexpected behavior (why did it turn off when the switch closed?), and learn about conductors that could substitute for wire.

About the most complicated thing we've done is paper circuits (with copper tape), lighting up LED skull eyes for a Día de los Muertos card. The debugging was hard, and a lot of kids would've benefitted from doing the light bulb activity first with an eye toward this.

My "worst" activity was digging soil samples (fun) and seeing how the layers separated in water after days to settle in order to classify the soil type (boring, pointless). Luckily I also brought our vermicomposter, and everyone had a great time playing with worms.

Another parent did an ambitious sewing project, which took 2-3 sessions to complete but was great to get kids to get exposed to sewing machines, and they had a gift for a parent.

--

Yes, pick the topics that you're passionate about because your visible enthusiasm is critical to engagement, but don't make it about, say, 3D printing because you want to use your printer (you'll just end up doing a lot of work for indifferent kids). Keep it simple and learn from what the kids respond to.

Re: Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects

#63

Post by notdang »

tasuki wrote: post #46
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #14

What's fun, and very interesting for both children and adults, is going zero tech. In fact, go back to prehistory. You start with the different properties of stones. If you have flint, obsidian, granite, quartzite, gypsum, and calcite in your region -- find them together. If not, buy them. Teach your kids about their different properties, and how they were used to make hand tools. Then, the different properties of wo…

> Beware mushrooms unless you really know what you're doing. If you know what you're doing, you should know that children generally shouldn't eat wild mushrooms - they're hard to digest.

All my childhood I was eating wild picked mushrooms prepared in various ways, they were delicious and I don't remember any digestion problems.

Re: Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects

#64

Post by hluska »

My kid is currently eight. We have been making slime together (and having a great time) since she was four. In the beginning, it was about showing her how different recipes lead to different textures. Now, she measures everything and we talk a bit about the chemistry of what is happening.

I’ve done a lot of things with my kid but never something that they have grown with like making slime. We’ve spent hundreds of hours and we both find it just as much fun now as when we started.

Re: Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects

#65

Post by usgroup »

ljlolel wrote: post #24
usgroup wrote: post #15

I focus on just using stuff with my kids. Things like piloting a remote control car is hard for a 4 year old, but they still want to do it. Playing Tetris on a slow speed, naughts and crosses, simplified chess, making objects out of paper, painting acorns, building train tracks, Lego, and so on. You need engagement first, in order to cause learning, and I guess any process that causes both learning and engagement mak…

You can teach a 4 year old chess I’ve done it many times (patiently)

Doubtless there are some four year olds to whom some people could teach chess. However, I'd say that learning chess, beyond how the pieces move, was an extraordinary level of competence for a 4 year old.

Re: Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects

#66

Post by usgroup »

ddol wrote: post #38
ljlolel wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can teach a 4 year old chess I’ve done it many times (patiently)

I disagree. You can teach a 4-year-old the moves each chess piece can make, but expecting them to absorb strategy, or to visualise 2+ moves into the future is an unfair burden. The following are much better perfect information games for kids. I play each with my kids and have listed the age when they were able to strategise 2+ moves ahead: - Gobblet Gobblers (4) - Onitama (6) - Hive (8)

Perhaps its where I live, or the people I know, but at my kids pre-school, I suspect that few 4 year olds could play naughts and crosses to a draw. I think that sort of awareness started around 5.5-6, where it became more normal.

Gobblet Gobblers -- on a cursory look -- seems to me like a complication on top of naughts and crosses. Namely, adding the ability to mask opponent pieces, and replace existing pieces.

As a side note it seems to me that one could replicate Gobblet Gobblers by using coloured coins of 3 sizes, with the smaller coins trumping the bigger ones thereby implying stacks.

Re: Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects

#68

Post by getwiththeprog »

saulrh wrote: post #9

Minecraft has a mod called ComputerCraft, which adds lua-powered computers to the game. They can read various state from the world, like redstone levels and chest contents, and move things between chests and set redstone outputs and play sound and etc. You can also upgrade them into turtles, which can move around and mine blocks and stuff. It's a nice environment for basic robotics programming with immediate feedback…

Good idea! I prefer Minetest as it is free, open source and requires no logins. Just making things in Minetest is enough for 4-6 year olds, and the mods are extensible if suitable.

Re: Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects

#69

Post by getwiththeprog »

jacknews wrote: post #21

For such young kids, unless they're prodigies, it should be very much hands-on rather than anything too abstract.

I second that, what one can do at home with ones own (hacker) kids is different from a syllabus that all kids in class can access.

Re: Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects

#70

Post by hnthrowaway0328 »

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #14

What's fun, and very interesting for both children and adults, is going zero tech. In fact, go back to prehistory. You start with the different properties of stones. If you have flint, obsidian, granite, quartzite, gypsum, and calcite in your region -- find them together. If not, buy them. Teach your kids about their different properties, and how they were used to make hand tools. Then, the different properties of wo…

And this paves the way to the rabbit hole of fossil collecting. And easily to camping, star gazing, Astronomy, Physics, Math and all sorts of things that humans naturally need in the wilderness.
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