OTT 247: Beyond the Page: 3 Simple STEM Challenges That Make Books Come Alive

Reading becomes an adventure when students get to build, design, and create alongside their favorite stories. For too many children, books remain distant collections of words rather than doorways to imagination – but that changes when we introduce makerspace elements into our literacy instruction.

The magic happens when we invite students to physically recreate story settings using simple materials like cardboard, pipe cleaners, and recyclables. Suddenly, Mr. McGregor's garden from "Peter Rabbit" or the shifting homes in "The Three Little Pigs" become tangible spaces students can explore with their hands. This transformation from abstract text to concrete creation helps struggling visualizers connect with literature in ways traditional reading approaches simply can't match.

Beyond settings, challenging students to solve character problems through design thinking creates powerful story connections. When faced with designing a way for Jack to safely descend from the giant's castle, students aren't just passive observers – they become active participants in the narrative. These open-ended challenges foster empathy, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills while making reading a collaborative, engaging experience. The third approach – extending stories by redesigning endings – ensures engagement doesn't end with the final page, encouraging students to see themselves as co-creators rather than just consumers of stories.

What makes these approaches so valuable is their accessibility. Using simple materials already found in most classrooms, these projects transform reading from a potentially intimidating experience into a joyful adventure that meets diverse learning needs. For reluctant readers especially, this hands-on connection creates pathways to comprehension and enjoyment that traditional approaches might never unlock. Ready to bring this magic to your classroom? Grab my free list of story-stem book ideas perfect for makerspace extensions in the show notes, and let's transform reading instruction one creative project at a time!

🎁 Grab my FREE Story STEM Book List here 👉 https://www.trinadeboreeteachingandlearning.com/elabooksformakerspace

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome Back to One Tired Teacher
• 8:13 Returning to Teacher-Focused Content
• 13:11 Project 1: Recreating Story Settings
• 16:17 Project 2: Solving Character Problems
• 16:59 Books Plus Makerspace Equals Magic
• 17:53 Project 3: Changing Endings Through Design

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to One Tired Teacher, episode 247. Books plus makerspace equals magic. So today I'm going to do something a little bit different. So I have, I have a new YouTube channel Raiders in the Making and that is what the content that I've been using for One Tired Teacher. But I you know, I'm thinking maybe I I don't know I'm having a really hard time deciding exactly what I want to do.

Speaker 1: 0:29

I took a hiatus from this podcast. If you are a longtime listener, thank you. Thank you for sticking around through my ups and downs and all arounds. It's been definitely a journey. I will say.

Speaker 1: 0:43

I started this podcast oh my goodness, so long ago. I feel like it was 2018, maybe, maybe even 2017. I mean, it's been a while. I mean, I have 247 episodes, so that is insane.

Speaker 1: 1:00

And I really started it because I felt like my voice as a teacher, as an educator, was stifled and I often felt like there were things that we needed to talk about in education and we weren't talking about them or we were just beginning to talk about them and I felt like it was important to put it out there into the world with other teachers. And you kind of went through that journey with me if you were here from the beginning and I did some interviews, I did some solo sessions, I had some angry conversations. I had some happy, wonderful, enlightening I can't think of the word inspiring, let's go with that An inspiring conversation. And and then I kind of like got overwhelmed because I I was I had so many podcasts at one time. I mean, there was a time when I had three podcasts going on. That is crazy. And I had a teacherpreneur podcast and I was, you know, dedicated to that as well. This was always still my main focus.

Speaker 1: 2:10

But as time went on, I started to like shift a little bit about exactly what I wanted to create and I started to feel myself being pulled away from teachers and feeling like I wasn't relevant anymore myself, because it's been quite a while since I have taught in a classroom. The last teaching thing that I did was as the media specialist in a school. It was before COVID, it was actually during COVID, it was like the year of COVID and then in the year after COVID and you know, and everything has changed so much. So I started to feel like you know, what do I have to say? What do I have to offer? You know, but I think we do that sometimes. I think we do that as educators. I think we doubt ourselves and I think I kind of feel like the system is set up to make us doubt ourselves. You know, we're constantly being evaluated in this way. That sometimes doesn't necessarily feel fair, and we're often looked at as less than, or what can we improve, and never like celebrating what we were really good at, and and so I fell into that trap of feeling like, you know, oh, my 25 years of teaching doesn't mean anything. That is so not true. That is so not true. It's so not true.

Speaker 1: 3:27

There's so many ways in which the skills that I developed in the classroom, out of the classroom, in the role of administration, and then as the media specialist, and then all the different jobs that I've done and all the different ways that I have tried to continue to support education all of that's still relevant and matters. And if you're still here, then I think I think you're still here for a reason, and if you're new to me, well then welcome. So I'm thinking that I I will do. I will do some some of the content that I've been doing on Readers in the Making, but you, the content that I've been doing on readers in the making. But you can get that on readers in the making. You can, um, you know, you don't even have to watch the video, you can just listen. You can, you know, play it through YouTube and you can just listen. Um, but I think that I think I'm going to tailor this conversation to teachers. I was thinking about changing this podcast's name to Readers in the Making, but I I I'm not ready to let go of teachers. I'm not.

Speaker 1: 4:39

That relates to teachers. That still gets really super angry when teachers are treated poorly or when I read things like it's not the system that's failing, it's the sabotage of teachers, it's a sabotage of the system. That's the part that's so upsetting. And when I hear you know things that have come on the horizon or come you know that are new, that I didn't actually experience Sorry about that but that are new to teachers, I think the way that we speak to teachers as if, like you're so dumb for doing it this old way, that is not. That's not the way to talk to educated adults. It's not the way to talk to any adults. It's not the way to talk to people. So if we want people to do something new and exciting and innovative, or something that we think might be better than something that was happening in the past. Why don't we lead with love instead of criticism and manipulation? Lead with love instead of criticism and manipulation, and so I think those are the kinds of things that I want to focus on in One Tired Teacher.

Speaker 1: 5:51

And, yeah, and so sometimes, yes, I will have similar content to what you can get on Readers in the Making, but it will be geared towards teachers and it won't be things that we do as, or what that we can do as parents and a lot of teachers are parents, but if they're not, then that's okay too. So I think that I think that it's going to be more about teaching here, and there will be I am going to take a break in July, and there will be. I am going to take a break in July. I think I'm. I think I may take the whole month and like and not have a new episode for the whole month of July, but I'm going to kind of play it by year. So the only way you're going to know is if you subscribe, you follow and you subscribe, and then you will get an update when we get, when there's a new podcast episode.

Speaker 1: 6:45

And if you're missing me at all, then I have another podcast, mind your Heart, that I do with my daughter and it's all about like mindfulness, about mental health and mothers and daughters and and you know things that we think and go through in life and it's it's really fun. I'm really enjoying doing it with her. It's a you know, it's a little baby podcast. We only do it every other week and actually there's going to be a two week span because we didn't get our, we didn't coordinate our schedules correctly, so and my sweet baby is flying to Peru today when I'm recording this, but this episode won't come out until June. So by the time she yeah, she'll be back, she'll be home safe and sound by the time this episode comes out. But anyway, we've been having a lot of fun doing that podcast and if you're interested, then I would love for you to join us on Mind your Heart.

Speaker 1: 7:47

But for today we are going to focus on books, makerspace, equaling magic. So this is one of the longest introductions I've ever done. I actually think I'm going to skip the little intro that I do and we're kind of kind of just going to jump right in. So how about that? So we're not going to have a little intro. That I do, and we're kind of kind of just going to jump right in. So how about that? So we're not going to have a little intro, we're just going to get right to it, okay, so how do you feel about your kids, your students, falling in love with reading?

Speaker 1: 8:18

I think this is one of the most important aspects of teaching for me and I think I have grown really frustrated with the fact that I don't see that anymore. Like I don't see that being a priority and I know that teachers care about this, but I think it gets pushed down, pushed down, push down, push down, push down with the sabotaging of education. Like I witnessed all of these posts about people putting their classroom libraries away, when all of a sudden, the stupidity of having to tell every book in your library, write it down and have parents know every book in your library, that is the most. It's like telling someone they have to record every time they cut their toenails and they have to account for every one of their toenails Like it just is insane.

Speaker 1: 9:16

When you have a huge classroom library like I did, like many teachers do, it's it's such busy work. Like who's really going to read through that. That's the one thing I ask. And for those few people that feel like every single thing should be micromanaged in that way, then I think they need to come in and do it, or they need to be the ones that monitor it for their own kids. But that doesn't mean it has to be monitored for everyone in the world. Like I just think that's absolutely outrageous and I I just and I also think it's ridiculous to ask a grown person to do that.

Speaker 1: 9:55

So I think that it's easy for things like the love of reading to get pushed down when we have ridiculous, loud nonsense like that going on. And that is that's Crazy, because the real tragedy here is not that one child gets to see a book that that their parents may not like. The real tragedy is it impacts so many other kids, all the kids, because it takes away from teachers having the time to cultivate a deep love for reading. And sadly, like I really thought, okay, if teachers can't do it, parents can do it, parents can do it. But I kept running into parents basically telling me that they cared about how their child does in school and how they pass tests so they can move on to the next thing and go to college and this, this real apathy about a deep love of reading and what that ultimately means and brings to kids as time goes on, they don't see the end picture, they don't see the bigger picture. I should say they're really short-sighted in seeing just the quick what looks like a win, even though it's not really a win. It's all just such nonsense. First of all, these tests that they, where they proclaim all these students are below grade level. They're it's by a specific company, and then the company, go figure, has some solutions for that. I mean, that seems a little bit biased in my opinion, but I won't go down on that rabbit hole. What I will say is that somebody, anybody, has to care about this. I just believe that we have to care about this. I think it makes all the difference, because when kids love something, they will keep doing it. So, all right.

Speaker 1: 11:51

One of the ways that I really believe that kids can love reading is combining stories with hands on fun, and so that is what I want to talk about today. It's really talking about three simple makerspace activities that bring books to life, from building a character's invention or crafting a story setting or any kind of literacy rich project that boosts reading comprehension, creativity and engagement, and it's perfect for our reluctant readers in our classrooms. All right, so let's set, let's break it down. So today we're going to talk about how to pair any book with a creative STEM challenge. We're going to talk about easy materials and set up ideas, and then we're going to talk about why hands-on learning builds reading confidence. So it's not going to be super long. As you've noticed, these episodes have gotten much shorter than they used to be. Again, if you're a longtime listener, thank you for being here. You know I'm a bit of a rambler, which hello? I mean, I'm already at 12 minutes and it's we're just now getting into the content. So if you're still with me, thanks again. All right, so let's get to it.

Speaker 1: 13:03

So, first of all, one of the things that we can do, the first project that I want to talk about, is recreating the story setting. So some kids have a hard time visualizing what they're reading. So stories feel abstract and forgettable or, you know, because the words feel difficult and hard, they're very detached from the story. I think the makerspace shift really brings the world of the book into the real world. It allows kids to possibly build the setting. Using blocks or cardboard or recycled materials, we can actually recreate the world that the character lives in. We can recreate it with our hands-on, tangible ways, with kids, which makes it, you know, hands-on learning, makes it creative, makes it they're thinking critically about the aspects of the setting and what are included and what needs to be included, and how we're going to recreate that with the materials that we have. We can ask guided questions like what does this place look like? Would you want to visit it? I mean, think about.

Speaker 1: 14:17

I think about some books that come to mind, like this is one of my favorites from childhood. We don't have this in our classrooms very often the Tale of Peter Rabbit. I haven't seen the Tale of Peter Rabbit in a classroom in a long time, but what a fun book that would be to do with Mr McGregor's garden. Like how cool would that be to recreate Mr Gregor's garden, mr McGregor's garden, and allow Peter to, like you know, try to get through the garden and get out of there, like I think that is. That could be really cool. Another one that would be really cool. This is not my favorite book, but it's called when the Wild Wild Things Are. I think recreating the setting in that book could be really, really cool. Again, that's not my favorite, so I I don't know why people love that book, I just don't. But you know, it would be a cool thing for a setting. Even the Three Little Pigs would work really well, which is a simple, easy book that they could do because the setting changes, and so that could be really cool as well, to look at the setting and how it changes from one you know aspect of the story to the next.

Speaker 1: 15:25

And we can use simple materials. We don't have to go crazy. We we've got Play-Doh in our classroom, we've got pipe cleaners, we've got cardboard. If we don't have cardboard, get it from the media. Specialist books come in. Boxes come in on a regular basis. Custodians are happy to just bring the boxes to you. There's some really cool scissors that cut cardboard. That make it easy to like cut squares of cardboard for kids. You can even use recyclables from the trash, so those kind of things can be really helpful. Why does this work? It helps deepen comprehension through visualization. It turns passive reading into an interactive experience and it gives kids something to do with the story, which is perfect for our active learners. All right, so another project that we can do.

Speaker 1: 16:17

Another makerspace project we can do is we can solve a character's problem with like a challenge, like we challenge them. It's an open ended response which definitely brings more critical thinking. Many kids don't connect emotionally with characters, they just move through the plot. And that's where the makerspace shift comes in. We let them help the character solve a problem, for example, with Jack and the beanstalk. What would Jack, what would help Jack? You know, what could we build for Jack to get him down safely? Maybe they would come up with a beanstalk, maybe they would come up with an elevator, maybe they would come up with a set of wings or you know something. Anything, it's up to them. We're not all saying everyone must create a beanstalk. We're saying this is the challenge, this is Jack's problem. He's trying to get from, you know, the giant's castle up in the clouds back down to the ground. How is he going to do that? And we let them come up with solutions. That's the beauty of like open ended challenges. So they're thinking they're not all doing the same thing. That's a craft. They're thinking All right, that's just one idea. And again, where can you use simple supplies, straws, tape, pipe cleaners, cardboard scraps, legos. Why does this work? It fosters empathy by inviting kids to think like the character. It encourages critical thinking and problem solving and it builds a creative bridge between fiction and real world thinking.

Speaker 1: 17:48

And then, finally, project number three we can change the ending through design. This is another aspect that happens sometimes. Kids often disengage once the book is over. They're done, they want to move on. But our makerspace shift is to extend the story with a redesign twist. So how could we rewrite or redesign the ending? You know, I love that idea of taking something and and like going beyond the story, letting kids think beyond the story. What's going to happen next? How could we recreate this? How could we, you know? How could we take the character on a continued journey?

Speaker 1: 18:28

Why does this work? Well, it helps kids re-engage with the story after reading. It encourages flexibility and ownership of their ideas. It strengthens comprehension through imaginative revision. Ah see, and this is just the beginning of kids loving to read, and we can do this in our classroom. We can do all of these in our classrooms. We can take back the most important thing that we can do for kids, and that is to help them fall in love with reading and thinking. All right.

Speaker 1: 19:01

So my final thought is reading doesn't have to end when the book closes. With a few simple makerspace prompts, you can help your child explore stories, solve problems and, most importantly, connect with books in a joyful way. So I do have a list of a free list of story stem book ideas, like they kind of go along with standards and then, but they also make really good makerspace extensions. You can grab them in that list in my show notes and I um, yeah, I hope that you will, because they are. They're a really helpful, curated list that I have created over the years.

Speaker 1: 19:38

Make sure that you subscribe to this podcast, that you like this podcast. I'd even I would love some comments. I would love for you to let me know what you want me to keep doing. Like, I want to hear things about teaching, I want to hear ideas for teaching, or I want to hear about the trials and treasures, like anything that you're interested in. I want to hear from you. All right, my friend, thank you for sticking around and until next time, sweet dreams and sweet tight sleep tight.