Teaching Recycling

In my first grade class this year, I have added a Makerspace area so the students would be able to get creative.  I was asked this week to define what my Makerspace area actually is and so I decided to look for different definitions.  Rendina (2017) mentions that "A makerspace is a place where students can gather to create, invent, tinker, explore and discover using a variety of tools and materials."  This is what I want the students to have the opportunities to have in my class.  I have had many people just give me things (and I buy things too) over the year and I usually keep them in my closet.  I also have gone to a place called The Welman Project.  This is a cool place that people can donate things for teachers and non-profit organizations and can pick up things for free!  They are into reusing things...
So this past week in Science, we are studying recycling, reducing, and reusing.  For their exploring part of teaching, I decided that the students could make a project out of things in the Makerspace area and things that they brought from home.  The projects that they came up with were so cool!  The pictures are just a few from the week.
For the explaining part of the week, I had the students explain their project and recycling (or reducing or reusing) in ChatterPix.  I love their projects and how I am hearing that they are understanding what they are learning in class. Click the button to see the example.

References
Rendina, D. (2017, October 09). Defining Makerspaces: What the Research Says. Retrieved from http://renovatedlearning.com/2015/04/02/defining-makerspaces-part-1/