Happy Campers Makerspace

Happy Campers Makerspace aligns closely with Alice Baggett’s (2016) concept of developing
“young makers” using open and sustainable makerspaces. Unstructured “pure play” time at each
station will be vital, essential for developing a tinker mindset, discovering, and being engaged in
flow state (p. 34). The stations will also be sustainable over time by providing “challenge cards”
of increasing difficulty for each activity. By adding challenges, we encourage students to make
more discoveries about the materials and activities through varied experiences (p. 34).

Naughty Knots
Students will experiment with rope and learn how to tie various knots. There will be three different
wooden boards with attached strings. The first board will focus on “pure play” while the second
and third boards will have different knot demos for students to use as a reference when taking part
in the activity. Different string textures, sizes, and materials will be used for children to explore
and interact with. This variety will aim to increase the difficulty level throughout the activity.
Competency focus: To perform sensorimotor actions effectively in different contexts
 Students engaged in this activity will demonstrate the broadening of his/her repertoire of
actions through experimenting with fine motor skills. They will also use materials and tools
for a specific purpose (tying knots), and experiment with sequences of actions (attempting
the various types of knots).

Backpack Pack
During this activity students will learn to classify and select different objects according to various
scenarios. Using prompt cards with different weather conditions and destinations, students will
select the objects that would be most useful according to their conditions. Students will have a
variety of everyday life objects at their disposal such as, hats, mittens, rain coat, goggles,
sunscreen, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc. They will have to fill their bag with the best suited
items for the selected card. Some objects can be used in more than one scenario. The aim of this
activity is to help students create a link between environment and the tools or material we use.
Competency focus:
To affirm his/her personality
 The student will demonstrate the key feature of expressing autonomy by selecting
materials/items to put in his/her backpack. To make this activity sustainable and
increasingly challenging for students, they will be required to pack their bags for different
landscapes and weather conditions. Through the adaptation of this activity, students will
also fulfill the key feature of making choices based on themselves and their environment.

More S’mores
In this activity, students will demonstrate their ability to count and match different representations
of a number. Included in the match game are a number word, numeral, finger representation, and
number of objects. One half of the cards will be for one player, and the other half for the second
player. Together, students will work in pairs to match groups from one to ten, creating a s’more.
This is a creative and collaborative way in which students can make associations, improve literacy,
gain confidence in emerging math skills, and demonstrate cooperation.
Competency focus:
To interact harmoniously with others

References
Making in the K‐3 Classroom: Why, How, and Wow! Alice Baggett, 2016. Constructing Modern Knowledge Press
(cmkpress.com) ISBN: 978‐0‐9891511‐7‐7
  Student will demonstrate the key features of cooperating with others and shows interest in
others. Students will be required to take part in the decision-making process; express their
opinions appropriately and listen to others’ responses; share the games pieces; identify
factors that help or hinder cooperation and abide by those factors; and encourage others for
the game to go smoothly. Should things not go smoothly, however, students should be able
to implement conflict-resolution procedures to ensure that the situation does not escalate.

Camp S-P-E-L-L
This activity contains four increasingly difficult levels. In the first level, students can practice
tracing letters with the help of the app Letter Quiz Lite. This will ensure letter familiarity before
moving to the next level. For the second level, students will have cards with an image and a word
written on it. They will also have rocks on which individual letters have been written. Students
will need to recreate the word on the card using the rocks. Next, students will switch to cards with
only the image on it. They will have to spell out the words independently. Finally, students will
match image and written word cards and spell out words that rhyme. For example, if on the card
it is written the word fire, they can spell out the word tire or hire.
Competency focus:
To communicate using the resources of language
 Students will satisfy this competency in that they explore concepts, conventions, and
symbols of spoken and written language. Students will be exposed to themed sight words,
uppercase and lowercase letters, pictures of the sight words, the sound of the words and
letters, and encouraged to experiment with rhyming words during this activity.

Build-A-Camp
Students will be provided nature based loose parts and a clear plastic pan. They will be given time
to design their own campground and will have access to “challenge cards” that will ask the students
to build specific structures of increasing difficulty.
Competency focus:
To construct his/her understanding of the world
 Students will satisfy this competency in that they will be given the opportunity to observe,
explore, and manipulate any objects/materials in this environment they wish. They will be
given time to familiarize themselves with the materials at the station before they begin to
question, predict and test strategies for how they will be setting up their campground
designs. They will also have peers at this station from whom they can seek feedback,
exchange information, and apply their findings.

All Happy Camper Activities:

Competency focus:
To complete an activity or project
→ Through informal teacher-student interactions and conversations, observations of student-
student conversations and through formal documentation (photographs and audiotaping) of student
work, the child will be asked to express themselves and their experience with the activity. They
will be asked to communicate what they found challenging about this station, explain what they
are doing at the station, explain the methods they are employing and how they concluded that this
would be the best method to use. These formal and informal conversations will serve to satisfy the
competency to complete an activity/project, as well as multiple of its key features.

References
Making in the K‐3 Classroom: Why, How, and Wow! Alice Baggett, 2016. Constructing Modern Knowledge Press
(cmkpress.com) ISBN: 978‐0‐9891511‐7‐7