Terrapin Resources

Promoting Literacy With Bee Bots

On her blog, kindergartenlife, Sharon Davison of Allen Brook School in Williston, VT, documents her life as a kindergarten teacher. Thanks to donorschoose.org she recently added Bee-Bots to her classroom and has been using them as a teaching tool to promote learning across the curriculum. “Right away my students were engaged. They were curious about how to get them to move and do things that they wanted to them to do. After we explored the care of our bees, I decided that my students could create their own Bee-Bot out of paper and a ‘how to’ story about how to use and care for our Bee-Bots.”

Sharon goes on to describe how she and the students came up with the essential elements of a “how to” story; a title, steps, pictures that match words, and the need to tell us “how to” do something. Using construction paper the students then created their own Bee-Bots and wrote accompanying stories about how to use them, which they also illustrated. Through this one activity the children were not only learning how to construct a “how to” story, but were also practicing their literacy skills, being creative, and furthering their understanding of how to use and care for their Bee-Bots. Sharon says that the activity “was a hit! Not only did every student write a story, but the stories were all different and they highlighted what they understood. Everyone was engaged, interested and successful in creating their story.” The activity also gave Sharon a clear picture of which of her students might need more help. “This was an opportunity for me also to notice what students understood not only how to care and use Bee-Bots, but did they also understand the features of a “how to” story.”

You can read her full post about weaving together coding and writing on Sharon’s blog, kindergartenlife.


Contact Information

Name Sharon Davison
Position Kindergarten Teacher
School Allen Brook School
Location Williston, Vermont
Address 497 Talcott Rd, Williston, VT 05495
Email sdavison@cssu.org
Website https://kindergartenlife.wordpress.com
Tags Bee-Bot, Literacy, Early Learning, Vermont, Kindergarten
Age Kindergarten