Robot Classroom Theme

Posted by Rebecca Haden on Wednesday, June 15, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Meld science, art, and literature into a robot classroom theme this year — or just have fun with a robot themed classroom. Don’t miss the cupcakes at the end of the post!

There’s plenty ready made:

The New Carson Dellosa Robots Classroom Collection includes desk plates, door sign, calendar, and borders.
Also in the set, the Robots Job Assignment is more versatile than the name suggests, since it consists of robots and labels.

Scholastic’s All-About-Me Robot is a graphic organizer kids can fill out with details about themselves. Post these for a great getting-to-know you activity.
A Carson-Dellosa classic, Measure Man is a robot demonstrating measurement of volume, with a gallon for a body, quarts for biceps, etc. You can make a 3-D measure man with various sizes of milk and juice containers.
The Scholastic Giant Learning Robot has a banner saying “Come Learn with Me” as well as a blank banner, and the robot is covered with handy stuff for the youngest students — days of the week, colors, shapes, alphabet, and more.
Gear Up for Great Thinking Bulletin Board from Edupress has colorful gears with critical thinking terms — terrific for testing.
RoomMates Build Your Own Robot Peel & Stick Wall Decals are bright and fun, and great for those new rooms with almost no bulletin board space.
For that occasionally needed reminder, add I Am Not a Robot. To Get My Attention Ask Nicely! – Classroom Motivational Poster.

Robots are also pretty easy to make yourself if you’re a DIY decorator. Learn to draw a robot or use Carson’s Measure Man pattern. Then head to the hardware store for robotic-looking things like vent pipes and gears you can hang from your ceiling.

Since robot designs can be created from simple shapes, it’s fun and easy to have your class build robots from paper shapes, candy, or recyclables. If you like to involve the class in decorating, this is a great theme for you.

More online robot fun:

Family Fun’s cut out robot is fun for scissor skills, dexterity, and following directions. Hang them from your ceiling or put them around the room on shelves.
Blue Mountain has printable cards, decorations, and candy wrappers.
BNute has robot coloring sheets and scavenger hunt cards that’ll have kids looking around for screws, meters, and other mechanical things.
Slightly older students will enjoy Family Fun’s Robot Matching Game.
Printable robot hall passes from Teach Factory.

Learn about robots:

Use engineering lessons, including Think Like an Engineer, to get the right mindset.
NASA has robotics lesson plans.
The Tech Museum has an interesting online exhibit exploring history and ethics in robotics, among other things.
Tree of Knowledge Robotics Science Kit, Snap Circuits SC-300, and Thames & Kosmos Technology and Electronics Electronics Workshop 1 make hands-on electronics and robotics practical for the classroom.
LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 is the most commonly used robotics kit. Carnegie Mellon resources for the kit make it a complete curriculum. Add Microsoft Robotics to program your robots for total classroom domination. Tutorials get you started.
OWI Robotic Arm Edge is more like the robots currently in use in workplaces.
An interesting simulation uses no electronics but helps kids get the idea of the challenges involved in operating a robot.
Robotics competitions are for the serious robotophile classroom.

Fun things for your classroom:

Okay, now it’s time for the cupcakes:

Drawing robots or creating them from recyclables can be a lot of fun, but there’s nothing like making candy robots on cupcakes to bring out the artist in everyone. We think that Licorice Allsorts would be the best materials for this project, but we couldn’t find any locally. It was fun and creative even so.

We’ve seen a lot of paper hallpasses online, designed to be printed out and laminated. While we like the concept, we know that those hallpasses aren’t going to last for any time at all. Try this instead.