Over the past two weeks, The Saturday Light Brigade and CREATE Lab have been working with teacher Melissa Butler's kindergarten class at Pittsburgh Allegheny K-5 on a Can Pals project. On March 30th, students recorded stories in the SLB studios at the Children's Museum. After returning to school, they listened and responded to cans containing school success tips as recorded by teens from Elizabeth Forward High School. After listening to the stories and creating responses to the teens, each kindergartener began to “recycle” a can by creating a new wrapper illustrating the new story he or she recorded on March 30th.
Then, on April 13th, SLB and CREATE Lab visited the school with the kindergarteners stories – each on its own computer chip – and we worked together to install the stories in each child’s can. Ms. Butler organized her class such that each student approached a work table where they learned to install the chips in their cans. Students then went to another work station to assemble the batteries, speaker and ear-piece. Upon completion, students proudly listened to their cans, sharing the epiphany of having created something truly unique. Finally, students celebrated as a group by sitting in a circle and passing their cans from child to child. This process went through twenty cycles (one per student), with each child listening to each other's cans, conveying their enjoyment and appreciation to others across the room, all the while following the journey of their can as it made it around the circle.
For more pictures and to hear the stories, visit http://neighborhoodvoices.org/canpals-1.
-- The Saturday Light Brigade