The 2nd graders at Lighthouse are spending the next few weeks learning about habitats of the Bay area and how animals adapt to live in them. Since we have a weekly making time, we decided to do an integrated curriculum making project. The kids (in groups of two) will build one of the four habitats…
Tour + Program Planning + Making By 9 a.m. a mix of art, science, elementary, high, middle school teachers, educational planners- from schools, both public and charter, had gathered in The Creativity Lab for our first ever Tour + professional development session. It was the ultimate melting pot. A place where new methods of teaching,…
During the holiday break the Creativity Lab decided to take advantage of the student-free time by transforming the already awesome makerspace we’ve built, to an even more student-friendly place. The golden rule in organization is this: in the end everything has a place, within the place it functions. To break this down a little, here…
Over the past two days, I had the pleasure of meeting an inspiring group of educators and financial service providers. Yep – you read right, financial service providers; I was attending the ING Advisor Insight meeting in Las Vegas. The educators in the group were fellow award winners and members of ING’s Educator Advisory Board…
Life Academy recently finished their first round of making projects as part of our collaboration. This project gives students the opportunity to express themselves and create And now, onto soldering
Check out what the Lighthouse Creativity Lab is up to by watching two new videos we have created to more easily share the making at Lighthouse model. The first video is of our 2nd graders, watch as they discuss making hand-sewn puppets and explore Lego WeDo kits. The second video focuses on how our making…
Wednesday, December 18 was not only my birthday, but also the Lighthouse Community Charter School Winter Expo. Parents are required to attend three events each school year and the Winter Expo is one of them. My mind goes to the single parent, exhausted from a 12-hour workday, having then to trek across Bay Area rush…
One of the Creativity Lab’s top priorities is to get our community comfortable with the idea of making things, and perhaps more importantly, to learn to be persistent when things get tough and to learn from mistakes made along the way, whatever the project. Take for example the challenges 2nd graders have faced trying to…
Sewing gives our students so many possibilities to create. This quarter, our Kindergarteners have been learning the basics of sewing using burlap, yarn, and a big plastic needle. Our Kindergarten teachers suggested sewing as the focus for the second quarter because they thought it would be an appropriate challenge for five year-olds and would help…
Families engaged in creative play together – an outcome we want to build as we integrate making into our school’s practices. Recently our fourth grade teachers invited their students and families to engage in creating scribbling machines, circuit boards, and a little bit of tapigami. Scribbling machines are fun – they instantly engage people to…