Make at Home Projects: Week 2

Our library closure has been extended until April 6. I am back at making videos from home. I'm doing my best to reuse supplies to keep waste down. It's been a fun additional challenge. I think I've figured out a good work flow to keep myself from getting overwhelmed. My partner is also working from home right now and our Internet is super slow (I think because a lot of people are working from home right now). It takes forever to download content, get it edited, and then get it posted to YouTube. I record several videos at a time, then work on editing them throughout the week. I love that YouTube allows you to schedule videos, so I can upload a bunch of them during off-hours (like 10 pm) and they will post throughout the week. I'm loading them to the Youtube account linked to my work email.

3/23: Board Game
 I've actually never done this project, but I was inspired by a gift of a blank board game kit. I love the idea of being totally in control of the play, environment, and rules. I actually want to make a full-fledged board game now.

3/24: Offline Coding
A coworker recently replicated an offline coding program we did together a few years ago. One of the activities included building a life-size grid on the floor, printing out basic directions (turn left, turn right, forward, stop, pick up) and then having the kids program each other to retrieve objects on the grid (we used story time puppets). It ended upping a great activity. While working on the board game, I thought about that activity and realized I could scale it down to fit on a piece of cardboard.

3/25: Building Squares
I find myself making these cardboard squares a lot. I first did this project while working at my library in Idaho and then created some for my friend's 4-year-old while visiting a couple of years ago.

3/26: Puppet Theater
A coworker and I created this project for Maker Camp a few years ago. We used miniature pizza boxes, but a soda box worked really well for this project.

3/27: Cardboard Automata
We had a training on cardboard automata at a Staff Day a few years ago, but I'd been too scared to try and make one. After creating the puppet theater, I decided it was time to give it a go. Fun fact, I initially tried to build cams from pop bottle caps, but they did not work for me. Thank goodness these videos aren't live...or maybe it would be good to see me struggle more...

I have plans to continue repurposing my puppet theater design next week!

March 2020: Adapting to Shelter in Place Amid Pandemic

As with most libraries around the country, our library district is closed until our governor gives the ok for non-essential businesses to reopen. Our library district is in Washington State, one of the states hit early with COVID-19 and hit hardest. Conversations about how to handle the crisis began around March  9. By the end of the week, the decision to close our branches was put in place. Initially, we thought staff would be back to work after 3 days (the time it's thought the virus is viable on paper products) but the decision to stay closed until the end of the month followed.

One of our librarians had the great idea of recording some story time snippets to help families who have suddenly found their entire schedule disrupted. Due to copyright concerns, we decided to focus on some of our favorite finger play/songs/flannel stories, instead of reading books on camera for social media. I was asked to provide some easy do-at-home crafts, which are totally my jam.

Initially, we thought we would continue reporting to work during the closure, so had planned to record a lot of videos in the following week. The order to close came before we could get too much organized.

Even at home, it took me 3 days to get myself organized and the right equipment identified before I could start even making videos. I decided to focus on my favorite projects that are easy to replicate at home and to limit myself to common household items (no downloaded software, no copper foil tape, no Internet required, no corrugated cardboard, etc).

I've made my first week's worth of videos and have the feeling I'll be making quality videos by the end of the quarantine. Still working on coordinating posting with our social media team, but for now I'm loading them to the Youtube account linked to my work email.

3/17: Marble Run
3/18: Trash Car
3/19: Musical Instruments (for my favorite story time song: Wiggle, Wiggle, Stop)
3/20: Stop Motion

Girls Who Code Washougal 2020

Today I went to my 2nd...and last...Girls Who Code meeting at our Washougal branch. The library district has decided to cancel all public programs through the end of the month due to the spread of COVID-19 in our state. Hopefully we'll be back at the beginning of April, but who knows.

Two best friends dropped in today and asked if we'll be doing things every week. It was heartbreaking to tell them we're on break until April.
















Today's project:

Interactive art with Makey Makey
We used graphite pencils and markers to create a conductive piece of paper, then wired it up to MakeyMakey and used the apps to interact with our art.

and

Interacting with Art using PencilCode
I think I have standardized my program utilizing PencilCode.
1. We begin with the example (the turtle makes 6 off-set squares)

2. We examine the block-based code.
3. We switch to the text-based code. My basic prompts:
   How many squares does the turtle make?
   Can we change the code so the turtle makes one square?
   Can we change the code so the turtle makes an upright square?
   Can we change the color of the pen?
4. We erase the existing code and pull out the PencilCode Reference Sheet. We try out several pieces of code together to see what they do.
5. We take turns deciding what to draw: house, flower, boat, face, tree, skull, etc

I still find PencilCode to be an effective and fun way to get the kids off block-based code and into text-based coding.