Term 1, 2024

Makerspace is a fun collaborative space. A place to make new friends, try new equipment, a place be creative and curious. Students can come to Makerspace before school and at lunchtime. Each week we have an activity where you can learn, or do your own creating and making.

Week 1 – Giant Colouring

To kick off Term 1, we enjoyed making new friends with collaborative activities, including giant colouring in. This was a great ice breaker for the students, new and old, to meet other students, reconnect with friends, and unwind with some meditative colouring.

Week 2 – Giant windball – Makedo

In Makerspace this week, we made giant Makedo windballs. We had fun designing and decorating each cardboard piece with school spirit or anything out of the students’ imagination. To assemble the pieces, we used the Makedo construction set, which includes screwdrivers and bolts. 

Week 3 – Friendship Bracelets

With a special someone visiting Australia, we thought it was good karma to celebrate with some friendship bracelets.  It took some fine motor skills to string the small beads onto the various types of string we had. We learned double sliding knots and single sliding knots too. The students made bracelets for themselves, their friends, their teachers and their sisters! This was a popular activity and we had many visitors every lunch period.

Week 4 – Valentines Waterfall Heart

A week of love celebrating Galentine’s Day inspired interactive card making with our love heart waterfall cards. This activity employed some fine motor skills, cutting out each heart, and following instructions on how to assemble the card so the hearts moved in a waterfall. Cards were made for friends, family and teachers!

Week 5 – Creative Critter – Makedo

Lots of creativity, structural designing, planning, problem solving and fun to be had in Makerspace with our Makedo Creative Critter competition. Students used recycled materials and our Makedo tools to assemble their critters, which ranged from animals, to mythical creatures. The only rules were: critters had to be no larger than a shoe box, no glue, staples or tape allowed. Assemblage was with recycled materials or with Makedo screws. There were some creative critters!

Week 6 – Recurring Pattern Making

We made recurring patterns, drawing whatever objects, or things, that inspired the students, onto one sheet of A4 paper, with the pattern continuing off all four edges by folding each of the edges over and into the centre of the page.  The paper was scanned and sent to their school emails. Once students received their scanned files, they could copy and paste into a document many times to create an ongoing pattern and print out onto A3 paper. Some students planned on using their patterns for cards, wrapping paper, or as a background layer for a piece of art. 

Week 7 – Scribble Bots

We created scribble bots using little motors and connecting them to batteries for power, learning about simple circuitry.  The students had to also figure out how much weight to attach to the motor, where to place the motor, and the position of the markers. We tried different types of batteries, and different types of writing tools.

This week was filled with many other activities as we prepared for our annual Open Day and brought out some fun kits for our students to try out, such as Makey Makey and Turing Tumble. Makey Makey encourages people to find creative ways to interact with their computers by using everyday objects, such as a banana or Play-Doh, as a replacement for keyboards and mice. This kit teaches students about conductivity and musical circuitry. Turing Tumble is a logic puzzle solving activity that mimics mechanical computing and challenges students to use bits and gears to figure out pathways for the marbles to move through.

Week 8 – Lego Architecture

Lego Architecture was very popular in Makerspace.  The students enjoyed assembling the Lincoln Memorial, Big Ben and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  We also learned how to make mini origami plants, which were great landscape accompaniments to our buildings! 

Week9 – Easter Egg Sprouts

Preparing for Easter, the students used eggshells, cotton balls and cress seeds to plant their egg heads. Many fun faces and hairstyles were drawn onto the egg shells. The heads were watered so their hair would be reading for the Easter bunny!

Week 10 – Easter Egg Baskets

Students needed something to help carry their egg heads home with them so little baskets made from paper cups were cut and folded using a little bit of hot glue for the handles. Needless to say, their little egg heads looked happy!

For those who made egg heads and still wanted to do an Easter activity, we had bunnies to decorate with patterns and eye glasses. Designing patterns on the bunny was meant to be a relaxing end of year activity, which the students enjoyed.

As always, we like to encourage creativity and are open to various activities throughout Makerspace every week. This week was no different, as we had some birthday card making, puzzling, and sewing going on.