I am going to start this post by saying that I learned a lot doing this unit study!! It was really interesting and with our schedule it took us about 2 weeks to do it all instead of the 5 days. Here is what we started with:
We downloaded this unit study from the Amanda Bennett site. This is the same place that we bought the “Sunny Seashells” unit. To see that post, go here. This unit had so many awesome videos that Nadia loved. She would crack up laughing at some of the stuff the robots could do. The cow milking robot grossed her out becuase “those udders look messy.” She was fascinated by the underwater robot Jason who has a 6 mile tether. It suggested that you drive 6 miles to give the kids an idea of how long that was. So the next morning when we drove to the gym I told her to pay attention because that is how long Jason’s tether is. She has talked about Jason a lot since then. There were quite a few areas we didn’t delve into because she can’t read yet and I think older kids would get more out of it. That is the great thing about these unit studies, you can do a lot or a little based on your child.
Here is the breakdown of the days:
Day 1: What Is a Robot?
Day 2: The History of Robots
Day 3: People and Places of Robots
Day 4: Science Secrets of Robots
Day 5: Goodies and Gadgets of Robots
Silly Nadia and her robot dot-to-dot.
How is a robot like a person? (notice Sparks from Toy Story 3 is watching her do school)
We learned about CiD – an ice cream serving robot. Can I get one for our house?
Nadia with her completed lapbook and her robot craft. If you look in the bottom left of the lapbook you will see her “water clock.” This was the first robot ever invented and it was revolutionary because you didn’t need the sun to tell the time. She has brought up the water clock a lot since we talked about how thousands of years ago people didn’t have electricity or batteries and all the technology we enjoy now.
Nadia and Wall-E. After taking this photo we celebrated the end of Robot School by watching Wall-E.