Author Inspiration for Your Makerspace

Just as author Barney Saltzberg of Beautiful Oops! shares, we can find inspiration in surprising places.  What better way to infuse literacy into your makerspaces than to take inspiration from the authors, illustrators, and books themselves!  As your readers engage in hands-on exploration, draw them to related texts with book resources like this Meet-the-Author Recording by Carolyn Crimi on her book Weird Little Robots.  Or, take them from book to makerspace with author-inspired stations — maybe a Beautiful Oops! maker station?

EXPLORE

Browse resources on TeachingBooks for ideas:

• Browse titles, authors, booklists, collections, and more by specific resource type to spark ideas for your makerspaces.
• Try Browsing Meet-the-Author Recordings in our STEAM Collection.

CREATE

Enhance your makerspace stations with QR codes for inspiration:

• Art Station: 
  • Have Meet-the-Author recordings and movies available for students to hear or watch before diving into an art cart. Like these by:
    • Denise Fleming
    • Ashley Bryan
    • Robert Sabuda (you can even include this pop-up template!)
  • Or explore other related resources in our Art Collection.

• Project Stations:
  • Get ideas for new makerspace projects directly from author movies and recordings, or activities connected to specific content/titles.
    • Perhaps this Meet-the-Author Recording with Dan Santat for Drawn Together will inspire a collaborative mural project across all grade levels.
    • Or, this guest blog post by Gareth Hinds on retelling Shakespeare in graphic novels might lead to a text-to-graphics station where students turn their assigned readings into graphic stories.

• Explore this month’s Cut & Paste on Makerspaces for more ideas — including ideas for Recording Stations.  And let us know if you’d like to receive the Cut & Paste monthly!

SHARE

Use TeachingBooks Sharing tools to take your makerspace inspiration beyond your own classroom or library:

• Share resources to collaborate between classrooms and libraries for connecting curriculum with makerspace content.
• Use the TeachingBooks Literary Calendar for daily inspiration to share with others.

What’s working for you?

How do you infuse books and authors into your makerspaces? Leave your ideas in a comment below!