Before we introduced the following project to the children, both Miss Liz and Miss Hope went to a metal dumpster to collect  materials for the classroom. 

Before reading the story, the materials were placed in centers throughout the classroom. The children used s hooks to measure, to link together, to sort, and to count. They explored with the wire pieces twisting it, straightening it, and bending it into newly formed shapes. 

Several days later, the children at the BCC CDC read The Robot and the Bluebird written and illustrated by David Lucas. Inspired by both the book and many metal recyled materials in the classroom the children made the connection between the text and themselves. Instinctively, they started using the materials to create a robot .

The children are watching from a distance with the expectation that a bird will take up residence in their robot's heart.

Miss Liz’s class at the William Paterson University Child Development Center also read The Robot and the Bluebird. They are making a robot too! The children  are using some of the same materials as Miss Hope's class. The children decided that their robot needed to wear a hat. They stuffed the hat with nesting materials because "birds need these materials to build nests, and maybe because another bird is gonna want to build a nest right in the robot's hat!"

The children compared and contrasted robots, looking for similarities and differences between the two robots.

See the resulting book that documents this experience below.

We would like to send a great big thank you to Miss Hope's husband for helping Liz and Hope to collect recycled metal materials at his job site.