# Little Engineers — Project Log A record of the work done on this folder, from a flat dump of 25 mixed files to a fully organized, lesson-mapped curriculum with teaching decks for every one of the 25 lessons. --- ## Starting state The folder contained a single flat directory of 25 files dropped from a Google Takeout export: - **PPTX blueprints** — `Animal Eyes`, `Basic Car`, `Box Car`, `Cab and Trailer`, `Catapult REVISED (1)`, `Crane Topper (1)`, `Dance Robot`, `Fishing Pole (1)`, `Hockey Player`, `Merry-go-Round Revised`, `Paper Crimper`, `Paper Crimper Robot Friend`, `SeeSaw Revised (2)`, `Top and Spinner (1)`, `Worm Gear Scooter` - **PDFs and templates** — `Boat Sail Templates`, `Computer Version LEGO Activity Cards`, `Copy of butterfly coloring page`, `Copy of minifig printable`, `Copy of 3-inch circle pattern`, `Copy of ConstructionMovementCards`, `Robot Finger Puppet (1)` - **DOCX** — `District 5 Little Engineers Robofun Curriculum (Updated).docx`, `Fish Cut-out Template.docx` - **One reference deck** — `Little Engineers Piece ID.pptx` Filenames included `Copy of `, `(1)`, `UPDATED`, `REVISED` and other version clutter. No subfolders. --- ## Step 1 — Organize the folder I read the curriculum doc, mapped each of the 25 files to the unit/lesson it belongs to, then created subfolders by curriculum unit. Files were renamed with type prefixes (`Blueprint - `, `Handout - `, `Template - `, `Curriculum - `) and lesson-number prefixes for sortable ordering. ### Resulting structure ``` Little Engineers Blueprints & Handouts/ ├── 00 - Curriculum & General/ │ ├── Curriculum - District 5 Little Engineers Robofun.docx │ ├── Handout - Piece ID Reference.pptx │ ├── Handout - LEGO Activity Cards (Fun at Home).pdf │ └── Handout - Butterfly Coloring Page (Extra).pdf │ ├── Unit 1 - Fun with Simple Machines/ │ ├── L1 - Blueprint - Animal Eyes (A Friend for Rosie).pptx │ ├── L1 - Template - 3-inch Circle Pattern.pdf │ ├── L2 - Blueprint - Merry-Go-Round.pptx │ ├── L3 - Blueprint - SeeSaw.pptx │ └── L3 - Template - Robot Finger Puppet.pdf │ ├── Unit 2 - Transportation Go/ │ ├── L7 - Blueprint - Basic Car with Push Sticks.pptx │ ├── L7 - Blueprint - Box Car (Take Home).pptx │ ├── L8 - Template - Boat Sails (Small).pdf │ ├── L10 - Blueprint - Crane Topper.pptx │ ├── L10 - Handout - Construction Movement Cards.pdf │ ├── Bonus - Blueprint - Cab and Trailer.pptx │ └── Bonus - Blueprint - Worm Gear Scooter.pptx │ ├── Unit 3 - Fun and Games/ │ ├── L11 - Blueprint - Top and Spinner.pptx │ ├── L12 - Blueprint - Paper Crimper.pptx │ ├── L12 - Blueprint - Paper Crimper Robot Friend (Option 2).pptx │ ├── L13 - Blueprint - Fishing Pole.pptx │ ├── L13 - Template - Fish Cut-Out.docx │ ├── L14 - Blueprint - Hockey Player.pptx │ └── L15 - Blueprint - Catapult.pptx │ ├── Unit 4 - I'm an Architect/ │ └── L19 - Handout - Minifig Printable.pdf │ └── Unit 5 - I'm an Inventor/ └── L21 - Blueprint - Dance Robot.pptx ``` ### Items flagged for review - **Butterfly coloring page** — not referenced anywhere in the curriculum; placed in `00 - Curriculum & General` as an extra. - **Minifig printable** — best fit is L19 (Roofs, Rain, and Wolves), but could plausibly live in General as a piece-ID supplement. - **Hockey Player Blueprint** — sent to L14 (the gear-based build); L25 (Ice Hockey Hero) covers hockey too but has no blueprint of its own. - **Lessons with no asset files:** L4, L5, L6, L9, L16, L17, L18, L20, L22, L23, L24, L25 — taught from the curriculum doc alone. --- ## Step 2 — Instructional Sequence markdown Created `00 - Curriculum & General/Instructional Sequence.md` as a one-page roadmap of the whole program. Captures: - Program goals (DUPLO fluency, stability/balance, gear meshing, counting/sorting, blueprint reading, etc.) - Standard session structure: Opening Circle → Mini-Lesson → Activity → Rosie's Problem → Building → Closing Circle - All five Lesson Sets with each lesson's number, title, and focus, laid out in tables - Cross-unit resources (Rosie the Robot, Piece ID, Mouse and Cheese, movement breaks) - Asset-availability matrix showing which lessons have blueprint/handout files in this folder and which don't --- ## Step 3 — Unit 1 Teaching Decks (L1–L5) Built one kindergarten-friendly `.pptx` teaching deck per lesson, alongside the existing blueprint decks. ### Design system Pulled the existing blueprint deck's theme colors: - **Palette:** teal `#0097A7` (primary), orange `#FFAB40` (Rosie accent), yellow `#FFE657`, coral `#F96167`, charcoal `#212121`, cream `#FFF8E7`, pale teal `#E0F4F6` - **Fonts:** Arial Black (headers) + Arial (body) - **Slide size:** 13.33 × 7.5 (widescreen 16:9 for projection) - **Branding signature:** thin teal-to-orange band along the bottom of every content slide, plus `Little Engineers • Unit X • Lesson Y • Title` footer ### Slide structure (12 slides per deck) 1. Title slide — big "L#" badge + lesson title 2. Today We Will... — agenda with numbered colored circles 3. Hello, Rosie! — Rosie character + Sing/Story cards 4. Big Idea — central concept with a drawn icon 5. New Words — 3–4 vocab cards with kid-friendly definitions and drawn icons 6. Rosie's Problem of the Day — speech bubble from a mini-Rosie 7. Let's Build! — build prompt + numbered piece list 8. Movement Break — bright colored slide with the activity 9. Big Idea 2 / Extension — secondary concept (some lessons) 10. Free Building — open-ended prompt 11. Closing Circle — Review / Story / Sing cards Every slide has detailed speaker notes for the teacher. ### Iterative visual QA The first render had real problems — emoji rendering as tofu boxes, decorative corner dots overlapping the title and each other, a sad-looking Rosie, mismatched color markers next to piece names, uneven card spacing on the closing slide. I caught these by converting the deck to PDF + JPG images and running a subagent with a "find every issue" prompt, then iterated: - Replaced **all** emoji with custom drawn shapes (brick with studs, gear with teeth, axle cylinder, balance scale, ruler, ramp, etc.) — fixes the tofu rendering completely. - Removed clustered corner dots in favor of a single thin teal-to-orange bottom band. - Made Rosie's smile a true curve-up (ellipse with the top half masked by the face color) instead of a flat line. - Replaced the misleading colored markers in the piece list with numbered orange chips. - Set consistent top-aligned text and consistent heights on the closing cards. ### Files (Unit 1 folder) - `L1 - Teaching Deck - A Friend for Rosie.pptx` - `L2 - Teaching Deck - Cheers for Gears.pptx` - `L3 - Teaching Deck - SeeSaws.pptx` - `L4 - Teaching Deck - Light and Heavy.pptx` - `L5 - Teaching Deck - Slides are Inclined Planes!.pptx` --- ## Step 4 — Unit 2 Teaching Decks (L6–L10) Same design system, extended icon library, transportation theme. ### New drawn icons - `car` — red car body with cabin, windows, two wheels - `boat` — trapezoid hull with mast and triangular sail - `bridge` — two orange pillars + deck + arched opening over water - `crane` — base + tower + jib arm + hanging hook - `wheel` — tire with spokes and hub - `wormgear` — cylindrical spiral with teeth ### Files (Unit 2 folder) - `L6 - Teaching Deck - Getting from Here to There.pptx` - `L7 - Teaching Deck - Cars and Ramps.pptx` - `L8 - Teaching Deck - Boats, Buoyancy, and Balance.pptx` - `L9 - Teaching Deck - Bridges.pptx` - `L10 - Teaching Deck - Cranes.pptx` L7 introduces *hypothesis* (will the long or short push stick win?). L8 includes a water-test extension. L10 uses the Worm Gear vocabulary and ties back to the L7 car as a base for the crane topper. --- ## Step 5 — Units 3, 4, and 5 Teaching Decks (L11–L25) 15 more decks, same design system, theme-appropriate icons added for each unit. ### New drawn icons - **Unit 3 (Fun and Games):** `top` (spinning toy), `paper` (wavy crimped strip), `fishingpole` (pole + line + fish), `hockey` (stick + puck), `catapult` (lever launcher + projectile), `wall` (staggered brick wall in two colors) - **Unit 4 (I'm an Architect):** `house` (walls + pitched roof + door + window), `roof` (pitched roof with raindrops), `chair` (seat + back + legs) - **Unit 5 (I'm an Inventor):** `dancebot` (purple robot with arms angled mid-dance), `bat` (baseball bat + ball), `crutch` (T-shaped crutch), `golf` (club + ball) ### Files **Unit 3 — Fun and Games** - `L11 - Teaching Deck - Top and Spinner.pptx` - `L12 - Teaching Deck - Paper Crimper.pptx` - `L13 - Teaching Deck - Fishing Pole.pptx` - `L14 - Teaching Deck - Hockey Player.pptx` - `L15 - Teaching Deck - Wall and Catapult.pptx` **Unit 4 — I'm an Architect** - `L16 - Teaching Deck - An Invention for Rosie.pptx` - `L17 - Teaching Deck - Walls and Falls.pptx` - `L18 - Teaching Deck - User-Centered Design.pptx` - `L19 - Teaching Deck - Roofs, Rain, and Wolves.pptx` - `L20 - Teaching Deck - Chairs for Bears.pptx` **Unit 5 — I'm an Inventor** - `L21 - Teaching Deck - Let's Dance!.pptx` - `L22 - Teaching Deck - Swing for the Fences!.pptx` - `L23 - Teaching Deck - Standing Tall!.pptx` - `L24 - Teaching Deck - Putt-tastic!.pptx` - `L25 - Teaching Deck - Ice Hockey Hero!.pptx` --- ## Final state The folder now contains: - **25 teaching decks** — one per lesson, kindergarten-appropriate, with full speaker notes - **25 existing assets** — blueprints, handouts, templates (renamed, prefixed, lesson-mapped) - **One curriculum doc** (renamed and moved to the General folder) - **One instructional sequence markdown** (the program roadmap) - **One project log** — this file All organized into 6 subfolders (`00 - Curriculum & General` plus one per unit). Every filename uses the `L# - Type - Name` convention so files sort by lesson within each unit, with types (Blueprint / Handout / Template / Curriculum / Teaching Deck) visible at a glance. ### Things that didn't change - The original curriculum docx content was not modified, only renamed and moved - The original blueprint decks were not edited — the new "Teaching Deck" files sit alongside them as session-flow guides ### Decisions worth flagging - **Bonus builds** (`Cab and Trailer`, `Worm Gear Scooter`) were treated as optional extras, not numbered lessons, so they didn't get their own teaching decks. They sit in the Unit 2 folder with a `Bonus - ` prefix instead of an `L#` prefix. - **Butterfly coloring page** is in `00 - Curriculum & General` as "Extra" because the curriculum doesn't reference it. - **L25 (Ice Hockey Hero)** reuses the Hockey Player Blueprint from L14 — kids who built one in L14 can extend or rebuild for L25. ### Design choices to know about - Drawn shapes instead of emoji throughout — guarantees correct rendering regardless of the system's emoji font. - Rosie the Robot appears on the title slide, the Hello slide (large), and the Problem slide (small inset with a speech bubble). Same orange color and curved-up smile everywhere for character consistency. - Pacing target on the title-slide notes: ~50 minutes per session (5 min opening, 7 min mini-lesson, 3 min problem, 12–15 min build, 4–5 min movement, 5–8 min free build, 5 min closing).