When I was a classroom teacher, I always incorporated making and tinkering in my classroom, both with and without technology. In fact, thinking about how to combine low-tech arts and making with high-tech, such as classroom robotics, is one of my favorite things - (see recordings of my Makerspaces for Creative Learning Live Sessions for more! 
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Sometimes, I would come up with the projects we would work on, but in other instances, the students would be the catalyst for creating a project. One thing that always inspired my students was having an interesting selection of materials on hand - studentsā creative play with those materials during indoor recess, or when they were finished with other work, would often cause an idea to spark. I could often take that idea and incorporate it into other subjects, such as a project we did combining Greek mythology and robotics.
Of course, organizing those materials, and displaying them so they were inspiring and yet not an annoying classroom management issue was somewhat of a challenge, so I wanted to share a couple of ways I approached this, in the hopes that it is useful to some of you as you start your new school year!
One thing I did was create an āImagination Stationā in my classroom. I would stock it with recycled materials, craft supplies, stickers, yard sale odds and ends - whatever I thought my students would enjoy making with. I always made sure to put like things in the bins, so students would know where to put them. I also spent time making sure my students understood how to take care of it, before they were allowed to use it! Hereās a picture of what that looked like:
You can see that I have a yellow ācautionā sign on it, which likely means my students were getting too messy with it that day! When that would happen, I would ācloseā the Imagination Station for a day or so, until we could practice how to take care of it once again.
I was always amazed at the incredibly creative ideas my students would come up with based on the materials in those bins! Think about all of the creative environments they could come up with for a 123 Robot, or field elements for VEX GO! Iām imagining them creating a whole town for their 123 Robots to visit, or elaborate art ring crowns for the King and Queen of 123. Honestly, the kids would have come up with better ideas than those! And donāt forget about your IQ students - they love to make and tinker as well.
In fact, the kids in my class loved the Imagination Station so much, @Audra_Selkowitz and I ended up creating a whole school version for the K-8 school we taught in together. We used some old cubbies nobody had a use for to create āThe Place with Good Thingsā so named by a Kindergarten class.
Every class in the school took advantage of this fun hodgepodge of maker materials - and it sparked some incredible multi-age collaborations, as well.
Do you incorporate recycled or unconventional materials into your school day? Have you played with combining 23, GO or IQ with making? If so, I definitely want to hear about it! Or, if you are interested in some fun maker ideas incorporating art, making and robotics, let me know, Iām full of them!
