The Emperor Penguin Home Run Hitter

I see my developmental kindergarten (DK) classes once every other day for 3o minutes. I am a STEAM teacher, so we do all kinds of things. Currently, I am working in collaboration with both of their teachers on a huge animal project they are doing in their classrooms. Each student has an animal he or she is researching. This project includes many components, and the students are excited about it.

The other day I was reading a book to them called The Ice-Cream Cone Coot and Other Rare Birds. It is an older picture book and the students loved it!

As I was reading, I thought that I needed to capitalize on this excitement. I decided that each student was going to use their animal and create an invention that could make life easier for them or someone they know. We talked about inventions. We talked about what was hard for them, their parents, and their friends.

I then gave them a planning sheet. In their plan they needed to include their animal and some parts for their new invention. These are turning out amazing. My favorite part is just talking to the students and listening to how much they have to say.

Below you will find a little boy's plan. He had a vision in mind and told me all about it.

"Mrs. Waugh, this is called The Emperor Penguin Home Run Hitter."

"Tell me about it."

"I have a hard time hitting home runs. So here is my Emperor Penguin and he has this extra long arm over here so he can hit the balls really far."

"This sounds like a great invention."

"It is!"