One of the science units in our second grade curriculum focuses on insects. Each student becomes an expert on one insect of their choosing. They read up about it, then they create a presentation that features the information they have gathered. The final piece of the project is creating a 3-dimensional model of their insect with their parents. While it has to be anatomically correct (three body parts, six legs, etc.), they have a lot of flexibility in how they make the model. They can use any kind of material from paper mache to Legos. Some families make enormous bugs others make tiny ones. Some look they were more a project of the parent than the student and some look like the parents weren’t involved at all. Either way it’s usually a lot of fun for the kids and even the adults.

Knowing that this project would be coming up in about a month and a half, I decided to offer two open days in the Makerspace over spring break. Families are welcome to stop in any time during the two Saturdays over spring break and use our space and materials. My husband and I will be there to help clean, welcome people, show people around, and provide snacks (snacks are a must in the Makerspace). Sometimes the project can be really overwhelming for parents who are short on time, don’t like mess, or may feel ill-equipped to get creative. And that is a big reason I decided to have these open days.

My point here is not that you should start an insect project in your school (although that would be pretty neat!), but that you should look for those small opportunities to bring in community members and tap into your curriculum. It will make your Makerspace more relevant and can help teachers begin to integrate the freer thinking of the makerspace into their teaching and curriculum. Next up for me, our first grade has free choice play at the end of most days, I want to schedule them to have free choice in the makerspace one or two days. I can set up stations so it ins’t a complete free-for-all, but still highlights some of the activities and things you can do in the makerspace.