Maker Time Love

Maker Time.  Maker Space.  A year ago I hadn't even heard of it.  A colleague mentioned it one day and I distinctly remember having absolutely no idea of what he was talking about.  I actually thought he may have been making it up.  Wow.  The difference a year makes.  Maker Time is awesome!  I actually think I prefer Genius Hour or Squidwrench (haha it's an actual name!), but the name does not matter.

For years now our Junior School classes have been doing Maker Time under the disguise of 'Developmental'.  A designated hour on a Friday where the students are let loose out on the courts or in the sandpit and are immersed in free play and creative pursuits.  The kids love it.  There are sword fights with pieces of wood, towers built of interlocking pieces, hammers and nails (with very few sore thumbs I might add - interesting the skill of children when you actually let them go with it).  There are mazes built with long plastic rods and a lot of splashing and excitement around the water table.  It's beautiful to watch.  Then something used to happen at our school.  The child moves into Year Four.  Senior School.  Suddenly 'Developmental' is no longer allowed, not in that form anyway.  Far too old apparently for creative play and time to discover.  Hmmmmmm.

Enter our discovery with Maker Time.  We started small, it's still small actually.  Lego.  Glue guns and cardboard.  Paint.  Basic coding using Scratch Junior.  Brain Box.  Enviro.  The students love it.  Suddenly there is a time set aside for them to be a kid.  With stuff to play with even!  In my latest Syndicate newsletter I have asked for stuff to take apart - old telephones, computers; and old lego or anything else they might have lying around - wool, construction materials.  It doesn't have to cost the Earth.  The students are going to be in Heaven.

I saw a really cute tweet the other day - a photo of Mr Potato Head.  It said something like 'who says Maker Time has to be complicated?'.  And it got me thinking about Miss Four, the queen of Maker Space at my house.  Creating and manipulating things comes so naturally at that age.  She will spend hours and hours patiently cutting up magazines or old cards into tiny little pieces for her 'cake'.  This cake is amazing.  You should see it (actually you will, I'll upload a pic of a cake in progress at the end of this post)!  Nestled amongst the thousands of shards of coloured confetti are flowers, grass, rocks, sand, the odd dead beetle, perhaps some spider web carefully gathered.  The cake is lovingly stirred, and added to over days.  Usually until Miss Two discovers the colourful creation and dumps it out onto the grass (enter hysteria... both of them).  Now if that isn't Maker Time I don't know what is.  

That's the beautiful thing about Maker Time.  Children have such fantastic imaginations that they see beauty and creation in everything around them.  You don't need to fork out hundreds of dollars for the latest in tech equipment or more highly priced blocks.  Wood, a few nails, some cardboard, blocks, bricks, paper, old equipment that they are allowed to take apart, glue guns, glitter and paste (if you dare, that stuff gets everywhere!), some trees and planks of wood...  the list is endless and it can be ridiculously inexpensive if you can be creative with your thinking.  

If we asked our students to choose their favourite time of the week?  Maker Time.  Without.  A.  Doubt.  Don't we owe it to our kids to give them an education that is exciting and that nurtures their already-present creative skills?  Maker Time.  Let them be kids.  The learning that falls out of their passions is worth more than any textbook can teach them.

And now for the splendid cake-in-progress...  Isn't it beautiful?