7/11 isn’t just a lucky day, but it’s also free slurpee day which makes it extra lucky.
#freeslurpeeday
Tag: Enrichment
Press Advisory: Glide & Play-Well Are Building An 8 Ft LEGO Heart
WHAT: GLIDE & Play-Well Are Building An 8 Ft LEGO Heart
WHEN: Sunday, July 12th, 11 AM – 3:30 PM
WHERE: In front of GLIDE’s Family, Youth and Childcare Center, Ellis Street between Jones and Leavenworth Streets
This Sunday, July 12th, GLIDE and Play-Well TEKnologies will be collaborating together to build an 8 Ft LEGO Heart for Sunday Streets. It will be one of the largest LEGO hearts ever built by families in the United States.
“Sunday Streets is a time to celebrate the vibrant, colorful and culturally rich Tenderloin neighborhood where so many families and children call home,” added Janice Mirikitani, GLIDE Founding President of GLIDE. The LEGO Heart represents the unconditional love and acceptance that embodies Glide Church.
For more information about the Glide/Play-Well LEGO Heart Build, please contact Dori Caminong, Manager – Special Events, Civic and Social Innovation at 415-674-6001 or at dcaminong@glide.org.
About Play-Well TEKnologies
For the past 15 years, Play-Well TEKnologies has taught over 500,000 kids about the engineering world using LEGO. They currently teach over 100,000 students/year across the country with the goal of inspiring them to pursue careers in STEM fields. For more information about Play-Well, visit www.play-well.org.
Play- Well TEKnologies programs are not authorized, sponsored or endorsed by the LEGO® Group.
About GLIDE
For over 50 years, GLIDE has worked to create a radically inclusive, just and loving community mobilized to alleviate suffering and to break the cycles of poverty and marginalization. Located in the culturally rich Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, GLIDE serves a diverse cross-section of homeless, low-income and disenfranchised clients, providing a wrap-around array of programs including: free meals; HIV/HEPC testing and counseling; housing assistance; domestic violence counseling and abatement; substance abuse recovery; licensed childcare, after-school and summer programs for youth; a resource center for families; free legal services; and access to free primary and psychiatric health care. GLIDE has founded and sustained visionary programming, and achieved tangible results for tens of thousands of individuals and families on the margins, all once thought to be beyond the possible. Please visit us at www.glide.org.
Medtronic Plays
One of Medtronic Departments were having their annual retreat and decided to have our Play-Well Team Building with LEGO workshop as part of the event. The projects created tried to mimic some of the challenges of the constantly evolving and competitive medical industry.
Here is what they had to say about the Play-Well Team Building workshop.
“It was fun and at the same time our specific requests to build team work in certain ways were met as well.”
“I liked the playful nature of it and the clear flexibility of the facilitators.”
“It was fun! It also brought out aspects of people’s personalities I had not seen before. We got to work closely with some functions we don’t interact with except occasionally.”
“Fun way to learn big things about leadership and team dynamics.”
Check out some of what they did here:
Collaboration already starting to happen.
Some people were even getting on the table to build.
Finding a role for each person in the group was essential for the success of this team.
There were some moments when it got pretty difficult.
Of course, there was some racing involved.
And some sportsmanship before the race.
Getting close to getting the device to work.
Constantly having to adapt with new priorities placed in front of them.
One of the projects is completed and being transferred.
Time to connect them all.
Testing it out.
Slight adjustments need to be made after a few minor failures.
They think they got it.
Success. A job well done!
Great group of people to work with and overall a great team. Thanks for having us Medtronic!
Happy PI Day: 3.141592653589793238
In commemoration of this historic PI day, 3.14.15, we created a video to honor this awesome day. And we get to celebrate Albert Einstein’s birthday too today. Yippee! The best way to recognize PI Day is with some LEGO.
What Is It Like Working At Play-Well?
What Is It Like Working at Play-Well? We asked our managers and instructors from across the country what it was like working for Play-Well TEKnologies and this is what they had to say.
If you are looking a fun, challenging, dynamic job teaching kids engineering with 20,000 pieces of LEGO, find out more information here: http://bit.ly/play-well-jobs.
A CNN Contributor Wrote That LEGO Kills Creativity In Children…Here Is Our Response.
CNN Contributor, Jake Wallis Simons, recently wrote a opinion piece, Why Is LEGO Ruining Our Kids’ Imagination. Here is our response.
Hi Jake,
I recently read your opinion piece on CNN about Why LEGO Is Ruining Our Kids’ Imagination.
As an adult who plays with LEGO, an uncle of kids who play with LEGO and as someone who is part of an organization that teaches engineering concepts to kids using LEGO as the primary teaching medium, I completely disagree with you. In my experience, LEGO continues to expand the imaginations of kids all around the world.
Tablets, TV shows, and video games are constantly competing for a child’s attention. Surrounded by all this technology, we somehow have more children than ever before choosing to play with small pieces of plastic in a pretty similar way to what kids did back in the 1950’s. I’d consider that a win.
Sure, kids these days now have themed sets, from Lord of the Rings to Star Wars. But when I watch my 8-year-old nephew flying Harry Potter on a Ninjago Dragon to Hobbiton, I realize that he is still using his imagination. He just asked his grandfather to buy him a 2000-piece LEGO Simpsons House for Christmas, even though he has never watched The Simpsons. Why? Because the LEGO kit looks cool and seems challenging to build. Completing such a complex, big build will not only boost his building confidence, but teach him subtle building tricks like how to build an angled roof, which I never learned with my 80’s LEGO sets.
Like a writer who needs inspiration by writing someone’s else words before starting to write their own, these kids are simply starting their creative process, and these sets help them get there. These themed sets are bringing in more kids that otherwise may not have gotten involved with LEGO before, as they feel a connection to Harry Potter, Bilbo Baggins, and Spiderman.
It’s true that, for a certain kind of kid, a bin of bricks by itself can be an amazing springboard for creativity. But that’s kind of like assuming that the Mona Lisa can be painted with a box of twelve crayons by any child with no prior experience in the arts. Sure, someone can do it. But there is more than one path to finding out just how creative you can be. For some kids, continuing down that path is easier when you have something really cool to show for all that hard work.
As adults and educators we know the skills, experiences and values that we want to share with children but part of what creates a life-long learner and a well-rounded child is empowering them to discover those things on their own. That means that to a certain degree, we have to meet kids where they’re at and not send the message that the things they like are somehow wrong or bad. The truth is that kids love Super Heroes and Harry Potter and if we can use that love to foster an appreciation for science, engineering or learning in general, we absolutely should.
When you speak of kids having their creativity stifled, it ignores the fact that kids come to building with LEGO in a variety of ways. If you are trying to help them find their creative confidence to build, you need to know and embrace where they are coming from.
In our engineering classes, we get kids of all building persuasions. There are some kids who love to build a set and are adamant about leaving it on the shelf never to be touched. There are the kids who choose to build based on whatever pops into their heads. And we have seen kids who aren’t confident building at all. For all of these kids, as they build increasingly sophisticated projects over a 5-day camp, you can see their confidence and creativity getting stronger simply through the sheer act of building.
I’ve watched students in our classes start by simply making the projects we ask them to do. As soon as they have accomplished that task, they can get into the good stuff, where we provide open-ended building challenges for them to solve. Because of the small wins of building the easier projects, they are more willing to take on more difficult builds.
LEGO Sumerian Ziggurat built by students.
It’s easy to say that this or that thing just isn’t as good as it used to be. All the fear-driven articles we saw last year about the evolution of LEGO faces is a good example of that. I, like many, have a tendency to use the “kids these days…” argument when talking about popular toys. I really shouldn’t judge though, since I grew up in the 80’s, when some of the most popular toys were He-Man and My Little Pony. Talk about gender stereotypes. It’s gotten better. It’s far from perfect, but overall you have more kids building and playing. Isn’t that what we want?
A letter to parents included in 70’s LEGO sets. Here is the story of the person who found it: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jobarrow/its-the-imagination-that-counts
As for LEGO Friends, we have seen kids who love it and kids who shy away from it. We have learned ourselves that we must include the whole rainbow in our teaching kits because despite what “society” tells us, all kids like all colors. This is a complicated issue, but again, you are getting more kids to build who otherwise might not. And where LEGO may have misstepped with some of the less than stellar LEGO sets of the 80’s and 90’s, they made up for it with some encouragement (I.e. LEGO Scientist).
Kids are still kids. Just like previous generations, they still play to create, to express themselves, and to solve problems. And there aren’t many toys out there that allow kids to do that anymore besides LEGO. That’s why I teach with this toy and not with others.
So to answer the questions posed in your article, what sort of adults will today’s children become? What sort of world will they create? And what are their toys actually doing to them?
My answer to that as an educator would be to tell someone who is worried to first just breathe and relax. My confidence in the future is reinforced everyday in the classes I see. Kids amaze me constantly by coming up with solutions to building challenges that I would have never come up with. They are just creative as kids of the past, if not more. They are curious about the world and want to be challenged.
Just like with any of us, that palpable, creative energy that children have for building just needs to be encouraged more. And LEGO plays a crucial role in helping to cultivate that. We witness kids building their futures worlds in our classes on a daily basis. If what they create in class is any indication of what the future may hold, the future is going to be pretty awesome.
Respectfully,
Jeffrey Harry
We Built LEGO Tongkonan Ancestral Houses
In our Mine, Craft, Build: Art and Architecture Class, we built a complete Indonesian Village of Tongkonan ancestral houses.
We learned how each house was a symbolic microcosm of the Torajan people!
Our First Ever Program In Wisconsin Got In The News
Our awesome instructor, Ray, taught our first class ever in Wisconsin at the Lake School. The local paper wrote a piece on it.
Source: http://www.lakecountrynow.com/news/lakecountryreporter/inventing-a-focus-at-ulss-lower-school-b99398551z1-284160401.html
Inventing a focus at University Lake School’s Lower School
First school in state to try new program
Students pick out supplies to help construct a gondola at University Lake School. The after-school program at the Lower School uses Legos to help students focus on engineering principles. Photo By Evan Frank
That’s for certain. Although they may not realize it just yet, but a new after-school program at the school is teaching them about engineering and at the same time, getting the students to become critical thinkers.
The program, in its first year, focuses on engineering principles by way of Legos. ULS, according to Jen Costa, communications specialist at the school, is the first and only school in Wisconsin to offer the program to students.
When Hollenbeck met Madeleine Gabor, a Chicago Area manager of Play-Well TEKnologies, she thought the program would fit perfectly with the Lower School’s theme of inventions this year.
So far the response from students in the after-school program is overwhelmingly positive. There are two groups: kindergarten through second grade and third through fourth that will participate in the six-week program.
Second-grader Richie Dallen felt the different projects challenged him at times, while he caught on more easily to others.
“My favorite part is when we play the games after we build,” Richie said.
The students have the chance to play games with their creations after the instruction and building stage is complete.
Having fun while learning
Like most students in the program, Richie has Legos at home and enjoys the process of building different structures and objects.
“Everybody likes Lego,” Lower School Head Adriana Hollenbeck said. “It’s a common language.”
During the program’s second session, students learned from Ray Cisneros, a play-well employee who leads the class, about a gondola lift and how to create one with Legos.
“We want them to get introduced to the basic concepts of engineering,” said Cisneros. “I think the problem is it’s easy to become disconnected with science and math because it’s so abstract, but we take Legos and basically take these concepts and they’re able to learn them while building.”
Cisneros said the goal is to have fun while learning basic concepts of engineering.
“In the back of their mind, they’re going to remember gravity, they’ll remember friction, they’ll play around with torque,” Cisneros said.
According to Gabor, play-well, a California-based company, will be in the Kettle Moraine School District in January 2015.
Hollenbeck was drawn to play-well’s motto “Dream It. Build It. Wreck It. Repeat,” because it matched ULS’s goal to have students be intellectually curious and original thinkers.
“When you talk about intellectual curiosity and original thinking, a lot of that comes from playing and exploring and making mistakes,” Hollenbeck said.
The after-school program has drawn a good amount of interest, according to Hollenbeck.
“We have a waiting list,” she said. “You can see how engaged (the students) are.”
Hollenbeck noted the school, in collaboration with The Hawkins Center, will host a conference in February called Cultivate the Scientist in Every Child.
This is also part of the push to get the students to be more innovative thinkers.
Happy Thanksgiving from Play-Well!
We wish you and your family a fun, food-filled, fantastic Thanksgiving, complete with some LEGO building on the side.
Play-Well’s Halloween Costume Contest
Each year, we are amazed by the creativity of some of the Halloween costumes that we see from our students and their parents. Check out this costume submitted by a parent last year.
How we play well on Halloween: https://playwelltek.wordpress.com/2013/10/31/this-is-how-we-play-well-on-halloween/
This year, we wanted to celebrate that creativity by having a Halloween Costume Contest. Post your Halloween costume on our Twitter Page, Facebook Page, or email it to jeff@play-well.org, and you could possibly win a Play-Well Halloween LEGO Bow Tie or LEGO Monsters Set.
Have a safe, fun, candy-filled Halloween!
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