Tinker Time is a drop-in based time, during lunch and after school, when students can freely work on the projects of their choice. The only requirement is that students fill out a simple “Think Sheet” to indicate that they have *some* intent. Students are allowed to bring in iPads and do Minecraft. 3rd-5th graders may eat their lunches in the room. All lunch trash must be disposed of outside of the room. Clean-up time is 10 minutes before the end of lunch.
We do not do any guided projects. This is a time for students to follow their own stars.
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| Students augmenting their safety glasses during a Tinker Time session. |
We limit maximum room occupancy to the number of available chairs. Because the little ones require more attention, kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grades are allotted one day per week and have sign-up sheets. K and 1 have sheets with slots divided equally between classrooms. The teachers fill them out and I pick the sheets up before lunch. 2nd grade signs up on their own sheet, which is posted on the playground side of CREATE during morning recess. K-2nd must eat before coming to Tinker Time. When we first started the program, students would throw their lunches into the trash so they could get to CREATE quicker. The yard duty workers are given copies of the K and 1 sign-up sheets.
3rd-5th can come in on any day, up to the capacity of the room. They have Thursday and Friday to themselves.
A student working on a class project can use the room without regard to signup.
We track all Tinker Time attendance to monitor Title I usage.
