Have you read Doll-E 1.0? It's a great picture book to inspire making! Plus, it features Makey Makey in the illustrations. You'll have to read it to find the dog playing a banana piano! Simply GENIUS!

Makey Makey (and banana) are in a new picture book! DOLL- E 1.0 by @ShandaMcCloskey ! Looks like a great book or #makered teachers! #bookrec https://t.co/kbvUWV1TGf pic.twitter.com/j5oFLoADND

— Makey Makey (@makeymakey) July 16, 2018

Our Guide

We enjoyed this book so much, we created a guide for students to craft their own DIY creations. So dig through your pile of spare parts, grab the guide, and have students design DIY dolls or robots. After building, kids can create a program in Scratch to add to the online collection of Doll-E 1.0 projects. (Note: We also have an Instructables for this guide and you can add your own teacher notes and comments at the end of the guide.)

Debbie's Idea

We love seeing how teacher incorporate their own ideas into our how-to guides. One of our favorite ways to get students involved in making is by combining literacy. We love how Debbie Wells challenged her students to design an interactive electronic toy and even gave them a budget for purchasing materials! Check out what her students made:

After reading Doll-E 1.0, 4th grade Ss were challenged to design an interactive electronic toy using ⁦@makeymakey⁩ kits during library class. Ss were given a budget of 6 play dollars for purchasing materials. Loved these creative projects! Videos in the comments. pic.twitter.com/vpn8ufGyHU

— Debbie Wells, M.Ed (@MOdebbiewells) March 27, 2021

More Teaching Ideas

• Check out Helen Kardiasmenos's toy design guide on Instructables! 

• We read Doll-E 1.0 and 4th graders created their doll/robot. They hooked them up to Makey Makey and coded them to speak using Scratch. Looking forward to Tuesday's webinar! @Principal_KM @sacademy268 @makeymakey @ShandaMcCloskey @scratch @gravescolleen #GoScholarsNJ #GoodToGreat pic.twitter.com/jRnI1AlAcC

  — Regina Nadbielny (@reginamck) November 12, 2019

• Check out Naomi Harm's Talking Doll Instructables for building character development and SEL student connections. 

Webinar with Shanda

We also loved this book so much we had a student focused live Q&A with the author and illustrator of this book, Shanda McCloskey. 

1st graders video conference with the author of Doll-E 1.0 who inspired and challenged them to make Makey Makey projects of their own! pic.twitter.com/TWBnLqzujo

— Andrea Nash (@andreanash4) November 19, 2019

This is sooo cool! Today students in Mrs. Flor and Mrs. Barbers class are getting an incredible experience to listen to a live reading and Q&A by Shanda McCloskey, Author of Doll E 1.0, and Colleen Graves and Tom Heck representatives of Makey Makey #edtech #makeymakey #dolle pic.twitter.com/zpkuWs9wnS

— ♥ Amanda Burns ♥ (@AmandaBurnsTech) November 19, 2019

In STEAM, 4th graders participated in a Live Q&A session w/ Makey Makey experts and Doll-E 1.0 author after creating their own robo-dolls, using Makey Makey and Scratch to provide speech@Principal_KM @sacademy268 @gravescolleen @makeymakey @Tom_Heck @ShandaMcCloskey #GoodToGreat pic.twitter.com/fBV6OpLL7S

— Regina Nadbielny (@reginamck) November 20, 2019

You can view this live recording here: