Many students who just get started with VEX GO are THRILLED once they build their first J.O.S.H. build from the Get Ready, Get VEX, GO! Book and eager to build much bigger, “better” builds. While this simple build introduces them to building strategies and pieces from the Kit, there are so many simple, quick things you can do to really lay a solid foundation for students to build upon as they build bigger creations.
Join @Aimee_DeFoe in the VEX Classroom to get some ideas on how to extend those introductory experiences in a positive way, and the value in doing so. Check out the Next Steps After J.O.S.H. - Conducting a Noticing Exercise video, and see how you can use these strategies with your students.
What do you do to help your students get comfortable with the Kit, with building with VEX GO, and to help support the spatial skills they will need moving forward?
Please share any ideas and activities you’ve done in this thread 
I’ll tag @Danielle_McCoy and @Tina_Dietrich and @Anna_Blake to get the ball rolling!
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I was thinking of an activity where you could put VEX GO pieces into a paper bag. Students could reach in and touch/hold/feel one piece without looking at it…OR…you could just randomly pass out different pieces to each student. They could then try to name and draw the piece they were holding. They could write about a creative build they could make with the piece, and what the function of the piece is within that build. With the build/writing you could ask students to work around a theme. For example…“With your piece, draw/write about a build you could make that has something to do with…back to school; Halloween; a story that was just read in class; etc.” The pieces could then be shown to the class to see how close they were to the actual piece they named, and then physically try to create the build they wrote about. Usually we have them build, then write. This is working backwards!
And I always love Kahoot! Here is the link for an identification of VEX GO pieces I created last school year. We like to revisit this often.
VEX GO Kahoot!
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These are great ideas @Tina_Dietrich! I really like the idea of having students write first, then build, as a way to get them to think more deeply about the functionality of the pieces and how pieces work together in a build.
You could also do the blind feel of pieces in a bag as a game - the student who feels the pieces has to give clues about it, and the rest of the class has to guess which piece is. The student who guesses correctly, then gets a turn to give the clues. A quick and engaging game, that can help with some spatial language development too
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