Engaging Students With Minecraft

Looking to engage your students?  Check out how Ms. Soumis and Ms. Mencarelli-Sobhi are leveraging Minecraft as a vehicle for learning at Catholic Central High School

Students in their NBE class were asked to get into groups to research about a nearby Indigenous reserve.  They learned about the living conditions of their counterparts in relation to their own city and the amenities provided for them there.  Students were asked to use Minecraft to re-create their specific reserve from an undeveloped patch of land using the building materials provided in Minecraft.

Reflecting upon the learning experience, Ms. Soumis shared that after trial and error the accounts were not able to be linked due to not having an Xbox account, thereby making it quite difficult to build the entire reserve, even as a group.

In the future, they will have each student focus on a specific structure such as a longhouse, or a sweat lodge, and more accurately display the features located inside and outside of the structure.

Students were buzzing with excitement at St. Joseph's Elementary

Kindergarten students in Mme. Pearn & Mme. Bondy's class were buzzing with excitement as they recently engaged in a student inquiry focused on bees.

Check out what caused all the excitement as Mme. Pearn describes the activities that took place in their classroom:

Augmented Reality

It all started when a Bee was flying in the classroom.  Some children were scared while others explained how bees help our environment. We continued a discussion and inquiry about Bees.

The children were asked “Qu'est que vous savez?” (What do you know?) As well as “Qu’-est que vous voulez savoir?” (What do you want to know?)

During our investigation, we invited Mrs. Clement to come in and use virtual reality to investigate with iPads and virtual reality goggles.

Build Your Own Beehive

We continued our learning in the class with different centres for the children to explore.  They used loose parts to create their own beehives. Included were flowers, bee erasers, and wooden hexagon shapes.

Create Your Own Bee

They used play dough and pipe cleaners to make their own bees.

Lifecycle of a Bee

The educator displayed a book and replica toys of the Bee Life Cycle.

Virtual Reality

The children were able to fly garden just like a bee using virtual reality goggles.

Art Center

The children created bees in the art center and documented their own learning for the documentation board.

Overall Expectations

As children progress through the Kindergarten program they:

14 demonstrate an awareness of the natural and built environment through hands-on investigations

14.1 ask questions about and describe some natural occurrences, using their own observations and representations

We know we can do this when……

• we share the questions about things we are wondering about
• we research information with our educators using books, videos, iPads and other technology
• we show what we learned using pictures and/or words