Legos are great. They are classic and never go out of style. I remember as a child digging through a giant bin of mismatched lego pieces at my grandmother’s house and being entertained for hours. The challenge for girls is to make them more appealing. I have a bin of legos in my classroom, and when the kids have choice time, the boys gravitate right towards them. I really want the girls in my class to be just as excited about legos.
Girls do enjoy building, but they like to story-tell along the way. My challenge for this club was to build upon strengths girls already have. In general, girls at the age of 8 and 9 tend to surpass the boys in their class in reading , writing, and language. I have a girl at home myself, and she is never at a loss for what to say. I wanted to take what I already know about girls and then use it as a foundation for my STEM club.
We started with the most inspiring, girl-power story I know. It is called The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch. I read the story to the girls first. It is a great story about how Princess Elizabeth’s castle was destroyed by a fire-breathing dragon. The dragon stole her one true love, Prince Ronald. Well, Princess Elizabeth was much too smart for the dragon and tricked him into falling asleep. She managed to save the prince, but he was so ungrateful that she called him a bum and decided not to marry him after all.
The girls were given the task of finishing the story and creating a new kingdom for princess Elizabeth. They selected their own princess and began to finish the story. It was so exciting to see just how serious they took this task. They came up with their own plan and design and got to work.
Here is what they came up with!
Elizabeth built a wonderful castle with an elevator and made sure her princess had plenty of guards
Maddy’s castle had many windows and the princess had her own car
Olivia’s castle had it’s own loft with staircase and a bedroom. She also worked to make sure her princess had a flatscreen tv!
Margot’s castle was simple but secure. She made sure her castle had a bedroom for the princess and a storage place for her treasure.
The girls worked well together and had a lot of fun. The last few minutes of STEM club, we took the time to share what we did. Each girl had a chance to speak and finish the story. I think Princess Elizabeth will go on to live a very happy life in her new home!
Recent Comments