Thursday, February 2, 2017

Heinz History Center Visit!

We had a wonderful time at ALEC this past Monday when Nathan Rodda came to visit from the Heinz History Center. He taught us all about the history of toys, and it was a great engagement for both classrooms.

From their website, they state "The mission of the History Center is to educate, engage, and inspire with links to the past, understanding in the present, and guidance for the future by preserving regional history and presenting the American experience with a Western Pennsylvania connection".

In each classroom, we looked back in time to toys of the past. Photographs of children and how they lived and played were accompanied by toys of the past! As our student split off into groups to study the toys, they were asked questions such as- "Why would someone be interested in this toy?" "What is this toys functionality?" and "When do you think this toy was created, and do you think it is still being manufactured?". We gained a lot of insight through this!

Our final task was to have the students, in groups, create and explain their own toy and game! We saw some really fantastic stuff come out of this exercise. Future toy and game developers, anyone?

 Some of our students explore toys through a historical lens 

 Students continue to interact with toy relics!


Students from Ms. Anna's class explore toys!


Our students, inspired by the lesson, become engaged in the creative process!

Students in Ms. Anna's classroom make and test out their games.
Students in Ms. Alyce's classroom enjoyed getting industrious!

It was great to see Brashear Kids utilizing their ever-changing creative abilities!  They are industrious kids with a vast imagination.  Stay tuned for our Heinz History Center field trip in the coming months.


Best,
Alyce & Anna





No comments:

Post a Comment

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...