Blue-bots in First Grade

STEAM Task Force member, Salimah Valiani, bravely invited us to her first grade classroom at Rosemary. I mentioned at our last meeting that I was looking for a few teachers to pilot a few of our new STEAM Resources (before they are available to all CUSD teachers next month) and Salimah was the first to volunteer! I prepared the Blue-bot centers similarly to the Bee-bot centers, but I payed even closer attention to aligning them with K - 2 Common Core Math and Literacy Standards. Luckily my fellow elementary TOSAS, Amanda Haughs and Eve Lindsey, were around to make sure I was reinforcing the standards with rigor. 
Amanda even came with me to test out the math number line center! We carefully aligned that center with the Doubles +1 Eureka Math Lesson that the first graders are currently learning. Students selected a number and read it aloud, then their partner doubled it and added one. Another student then programmed this algorithm for Blue-bot to perform. Some students also took on the challenge of subtracting one instead. This truly made the number line concepts physically come to life!
The students are learning basic programming with the Blue-bots and having fun practicing the math and ELA skills they are learning in class. I will share more about the other centers next time!

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