Open Studio MAKERS!

Young MAKERS take advantage of our STEAM MakerSpace whenever they get the chance - and you wouldn't believe what they CREATE!



This is play-based learning at its core: child-directed creative thinking, planning, problem solving, assembling, and building, all more essential to the developing mind than anything that can be learned in a classroom. 






What's important is that "...art teachers and students welcome silly ideas," says Dr. George Szekely, art educator, author, speaker, and advocate for meaningful, playful art-teaching methodologies.  We do invite silliness here!


So... a cereal box headdress invented by a 5-year-old can be an amazing creative endeavor. For this hat, balance, size, and fit all had to be considered in the design so that it successfully fits and stays on one's head.



Here is a group of Makers with their assistant, Miss Robin. This is their studio, and we (the adult-type people) are their assistants. Notice the seriousness of their work (yes, play is work).




These two makers used cardboard tubes to create. (Cardboard tubes are our most popular crafting item, by the way.) The marble run took a lot of planning and testing, as well as learning how to use folded tabs to create 3-dimensional structures.







Tubes and boxes were used to create this handy-dandy organizer,









this multi-organizer and key-holder,










and this car with moving wheels and removable steering wheel. 

Here we have a magical unicorn marionette...


...and here we have a tiny cookie jar for Oreo Minis and other mini-cookies.









This young maker has invented a pompom machine. It has a number of various components and features, including school bus stickers on pompom the output (input?) section on the top.









She also invented this colorful ridged critter using corrugated cardboard, a tube, duct tape, and paint. 

This little maker attaches selected items to a bubble wrap "canvas" for a very unique mixed media work of art.








MakerSpace projects might range from large and elaborate, such as this South American rain forest with thatched huts,






to small and simple, such as a cardboard tube, decorated with paint, Washi tape, yarn, and string. 


Every piece is the creation of an inventive young mind; and each should be acknowledged and celebrated as such!