Last week at the International Preschool of Raleigh, students did a new activity called The Newest Videogame, which is based off of one of our most used activities, The Newest App. At this session, students were first asked to list topics that they loved that were featured in their favorite videogames. They mentioned many different things, such as space/the planets, princesses, spider webs (like from Spiderman), rocketships, and lunch/food. While students knew the activity was going to be about a videogame, they did not tell them what they would be doing with the list of activities that they created. After this, students were told they would have to work together to create a new videogame, specifically using the words they mentioned before.

Together, students worked to create a videogame that incorporated all of the features they mentioned before, and they did a wonderful job. Students seemed to really begin grasping the concept of synthesizing ideas and building off of someone else’s idea. While one student suggested that the game be to build bricks, the next student added onto that with ease, noting that the game should use spiderwebs to knock down some of the bricks. Students continued to build on this idea, creating a game where you build bricks and stack food ontop of the bricks, while spiderwebs can shoot out and knock down bricks, and planets and princesses can work together to knock down spiderwebs. It was great to see students really understanding and utilizing the concept of combining different ideas/topics into one videogame.

This is also a point where I began to see huge growth in the students. Since working through the Story Pieces activity a few weeks ago, students have greatly improved their ability to synthesize ideas together, and have done a wonderful job of basing their ideas off of a concept that someone else mentioned. It was so wonderful to see this growth after one of our activities, and it is great to see these skills shine through in these students, and at such a young age!