When you think kindergarten, what comes to mind?

Perhaps the alphabet, basic numbers and simple puzzles? While these basics remain the same, they are increasingly integrated with technology. This allows students to almost seamlessly pick up on coding skills that are a growing need for the future.

To that end, Martin County West kindergarten teacher Abbey Smith has utilized several unique learning tools to help her students. One is a Bee-bot, of which Smith has procured four. The Bee-bots are small robots designed to teach sequencing, estimation and problem-solving. On top of that, they’re fun.

“Last week they (students) got to play with them, but this week it will be one step harder,” Smith said. “They practiced their sharing because there’s only four bees and five kids at a time. Today they’re finding letters in their name, and then there’s a sheet that also has numbers on it.

“The Bee-bots are essentially using coding to help them understand where to get to. So they’ll push maybe three arrows up and then one to the left and see where it ends up.

“I used to teach in Australia, and that’s where I used the Bee-bots before so that’s where I heard of them. For the past six years I’ve wanted them, but I just didn’t have the funding, so I did DonorsChoose.org.”

DonorsChoose.org is a website that allows teachers to post classroom project requests. Donors are then allowed to choose what they would like to support.

“Anybody who wants to can donate,” Smith said. “As soon as funding is complete, you can get money to essentially buy the things that you’ve asked for.”

Smith isn’t the only one using DonorsChoose to help her classroom. She says there three MCW High School teachers utilizing the website. One, Autumn Welcome, is looking to obtain microscopes.

“Through DonorsChoose.org, I am working to update our microscope inventory as many of our scopes are in need of repair and/or lack physical features such as mechanical stages that make microscope use more user friendly,” Welcome said. “When microscopes do not function properly, students often become frustrated as they do not know what they should be seeing (or not seeing). A blur, crack or bubble can be very deceiving. I thought by allowing friends, family, parents and community members a chance to show ownership and support for our school it would show that we are all working together to educate our community’s youth.”

Smith noted that the Bee-bots are not the only tool she was able to get thanks to the website.

“The other program I got from DonorsChoose.org was Osmo, an interactive device that they’ll get to play tangrams with. I also asked for STEAM kits to help us build things like planes and cars. It helps them think outside the box, so it’s all about that science, technology and engineering.

“So with Osmo, it’ll bring up a tangram that they have to duplicate. It helps them understand how things look. It’s also perceptive and interactive so they can see if they placed something in the right spot.

“Oftentimes, we’ll find a couple of kids working together and it’s real fun to see that. It’s been a great addition to my classroom. I wanted to give them something that was a little unique, but also made them think and would push them for life.”

Smith appreciates the fact that her students seem to genuinely have fun during their learning time.

“My students have really enjoyed this time, and we’re very intentional. Every Wednesday morning, we explore the Bee-bots and Osmo systems. As time goes on, we’ll start adding in the STEAM kits.”

Those interested may visit www.donorschoose.org and search for topics, teachers and schools near a specific area to see what projects they can support.