Recreation and Family Resources/Makerspace

Recreation and Family Resources/Makerspace Ideas/STEM

Creativity, Imagination and Inspiration can be found in and on these sites. Unleash your inner designer, coder, jeweler, gamer, musician, crafter - - with help from:

CreativeBug is available free if you have an NK Library card. $5.00 for two months and well worth it.

Gottabees Puppeteer Bonnie Duncan and her crew are here to entertain and give you some ideas for puppetry at home. Recommended by Mrs. Connelly.

How to Make Playdough. Claymation, anyone? Or just old fashioned playdough fun.

Instructables is one of the very best sites to find lessons on how to make from almost any materials, as well as cooking and outdoor projects. A personal favorite of mine.

James Dyson Foundation is looking for the next young innovator. In the meanwhile, want to skewer a balloon without popping it or make a raisin dance? Lots to do on this UK based site.

Koji   "Koji (from the makers of Metaverse) is a FREE platform that lets ANYONE create amazing interactive games. You can create custom games without needing to write any code.  We have an easy-to-follow Getting Started Video that can help you create your first game in about 10 minutes."

MakerMaven offers Stem Challenges like "how many drops of water can you fit on a penny" and lots of stem challenges from household items and plain paper.

Museum of Science and Industry Chicago offers STEM challenges From the site:  Among the hands-on activities are the “Egg Drop Challenge,” in which students design a landing craft to get a raw egg safely to ground, and “Sound Sandwich” in which students create music using rubber bands. The website also presents videos to enhance science learning. For example, students can watch baby animals being born, or learn how to build a boat that uses kinetic energy stored in rubber bands to move,

MUSIC RESOURCES

Maybe you'd like to add music to video games or movies - let's make beautiful music together. Try:

Chrome Music Maker  Like garage band on Chrome. Make your own songs and save them. I just made my first one here!! It's fun, try it!

dig.ccMixter Home. "You already have permission. The Music Discovery site used in over one million videos and games".

Virtual Piano. Yes, I just brought a piano into your house! Make your own songs, download music sheets, join a competition.  Practice responsibly. No noise!!

Simple Activities for Children and Adolescents from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network to download or print out.

RESOURCES FOR STOP MOTION

Easy Stop Motion Animation for Beginners is a helpful guide from Tinker Lab. Rachelle Doorley boasts an impressive resume (see about page) and lots of ideas on how to be creative with children from babies to toddlers to youngsters.

How to Create Stop Motion on Chrome by Richard Byrne, Teacher Tech Guru. Most animation apps are on iPads or iPhone, but this video explains how to create the video, and save the file to google drive using Stop Motion Animator, a chrome extension.

If you have access to the various apple accessories, you can download StopMotion or similar apps to create your own video.