About Our Tinkering Class

CLICK HERE TO VIEW A KID-FRIENDLY SLIDESHOW ABOUT TINKERING!

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP!

Class Description

Tinkering is a class for children ages 4 through 8 who love to create! This workshop-style class will offer children three different components to explore at their own pace using an easy-to-navigate Google Slide.

• Read Aloud – During the read aloud, children will view Mrs. Price reading a high-interest illustrated story out loud that will engage them in exploring a conflict and resolution.
• Tinkering Challenge – During the Tinkering Challenge, children will view a video of Mrs. Price posing an Engineering Challenge tied to the story and offering some direct instruction. Keeping our focus small, the Challenge will contain two parts:
  • the explicit teaching of concepts relating to Physics and Engineering, that will provide the children a context with which to thoroughly explore the principle,
  • an invitation to apply that principle and freely create using materials provided in a “Tinker Tray” the child will receive when he or she registers for the class
• Extension – During the Extension, children will be invited to think about the ideas from the class in a new way. This will range from a different Tinkering challenge, to an art

Class Structure and Costs

Introductory Class and Tinkering Tray – $60

When you sign up for Tinkering, you’ll receive both your first class and your Tinkering tray. If you live locally to Lynnfield, you’ll be contacted to arrange pick-up of the tray. If you do not live locally to Lynnfield, you’ll be contacted to arrange and pay for shipping of the tray. All Tinkering classes use a tray of materials the child taking the class creates with. These materials are non-consumable, meaning that like Legos, at the end of the class, the child would put the parts away and re-use them.

Monthly Class Subscription – $60-75

Each month, you can sign up for that month’s class series. The cost of each class is $15, so depending on how many Mondays are in the month (classes will be emailed out on Mondays), there will be either 4 or 5 classes included in your subscription. If you decide to join mid-month, you can select a pro-rated cost of however many classes remain in the month.

Class Philosophy and Learning Content

The premise for this class comes out of the “Maker Movement,” but with early childhood principles applied. This class is loosely structured on Nicholson’s (1972) theory that “in any environment, both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kind of variables in it.”

As a learning opportunity, Tinkering meets children where they are and provides them with exposure to lots of variables and materials with which to create and learn. Tinkering also creates a platform for children to learn about concepts in Engineering and Physics because they will experience these principles in real time as they create, being encouraged to ask themselves questions and seek their own answers as they work. These learning experiences target content in Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Science and Technology/Engineering Frameworks (2017) and in the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care’s Guidelines for Preschool Learning Experiences (2003) and the Social-Emotional Learning and Approaches to Play and Learning (2015) documents.

Through participating in Tinkering, children will avoid ever having the inhibition to create that so many adults have because they lacked the opportunity, as children, to just create! Instead, this opportunity will foster the “creativity mindset” by giving children enrolled in the program a chance to explore, invent, design, experiment, make mistakes, revise and grow!

Contact Us

To learn more about Curious Kids Lynnfield’s Offsite Enrichment Class Offerings and Professional Development Seminars, please use our web form or give us a call at 617-680-2728.