„Bee-bot“ and „Blue-bot“

The purpose of the activity is to develop each child’s abilities by organising an innovative and coherent educational process, ensuring children’s creativity.

Tools: floor robots „Bee-bot“ and „Blue-bot“.

Developing skills:

• emotional awareness and expression: expresses positive emotions, enjoys the activity and the result of achieving the goal.
• self-regulation and self-control: tries to follow the rules of the game, concentrates, watches friends, controls own actions.
• relationships with adults and peers: listens and expresses his/her opinions, asks for help, communicates with kindness and cooperates in play.
• learning: interested in the robot, engages in and develops the activity, boldly plans actions, suggests strategies to achieve a goal.
• initiative and perseverance: engages in the proposed activities and develop them over a longer period of time, tries to overcome the task by programming the Bee-bot steps.
• problem solving: recognises challenges and seeks appropriate solutions to overcome them.
• exploration: explores the robot and its capabilities, observes and discuss the results of their observations and discoveries.
• calculation and measurement: counts the robot’s steps, tries to distinguish between left and right, use the terms “forward – back”, “left – right”.
• other skills: develops attentiveness, memory, attention, courage to overcome obstacles and act.

Controlling the bee (robot)

Up to 40 different commands can be entered using the directional buttons to guide the Blue-bot forwards, backwards, left and right. Press the green “GO” button and the robot starts its journey. The robot can also be controlled with mobile devices (tablets and phones). Bee-bot travels exactly 15 cm with each step and can rotate 90 degrees. Bee-bot notifies you with a light and sound signal when it has completed a task.

Progress of the activity (game)

After sitting in a circle, the teacher introduces the children to the floor robot. The children can come up with a name for the Bee-bot, either by organising a naming competition or by voting unanimously for one of the names suggested. Tell them what the robot can do – blink its eyes, “talk”, walk forwards, backwards, turn left and right. Demonstrate the Bee-bot’s capabilities. Let the children feel it, listen to it, watch it move. Point out that the Bee-bot only listens to one finger click at a time. The Bee-Bot only starts travelling when the green button is pressed. Ask them what they think about the tool, what they would like to do with it.

Suggested themes: “The human body”, “Wildlife”, “Transport”, “Recognition of shapes, colours and sizes”, “Recognition of letters”, “Recognition of emotions and feelings”, “Musical instruments” and etc

Observations / suggestions:

• for children aged 3-4 (or more sensitive children), turn the sound down at the beginning (some are scared);
• play in small sub-groups (the younger the children, the smaller the sub-groups, so as not to get bored waiting);
• remind them that the Bee-bot only listens to one finger click at a time;
• delete commands from time to time (blue button with cross).

After the activity, encourage the children to reflect and use the following questions:

• What makes this bee special to you?
• How did you feel when you completed the task?
• What new things did you learn from the activity?
• What was the most difficult part of the task ?