Before the Break

Here are a few of the things we did, the last week before the break.

5 Card Photo Stories

The Tuesday and Thursday classes did 5 Card Photo Stories.  This was the first time doing this with the Tuesday afternoon class and they did a wonderful job!  Students working alone or with a partner have 5 minutes to come up with a story involving 5 photos.  For a more detailed description and sample photos check out this post from a few weeks ago. 

Funny Face

The Wednesday afternoon class played 'Funny Face'; a charades style game.  The class was divided into two teams.  One student from a team would come up and be given a scene or action to act out (for example; "be a dancer", "go for a walk in a windstorm") and their team-mates would try and guess what they are acting out.  This would alternate back and forth between the two teams, with everyone having an opportunity to act out a scene.  This class has many talented actors; they did an excellent job acting and making good guesses.

Passport Please!

The Wednesday afternoon class has been designing their own passports or ID cards.  Last week students decided what to include on their passport / ID cards and this week they finished them up.  Each passport / ID card is unique, not just because they identify unique individuals, but because each individual decided what information to include and how to lay it out.

Our Own Inventions

The morning classes continued to work on designs for their own inventions.  Students spent time researching to see:

• if their invention already exists
• what technology their invention will require
• if their invention is realistic
• what components it will require

 Some of the inventions on the drawing board are:

• mood paint -- paint it on walls and it changes colours when you touch it
• running shoes with jets in the soles -- they help you land safely if you fall from a height
• a variety of robots that can act as pets or do specific tasks for you
• a mousetrap involving a rubber net
• multi-coloured paintballs -- single pellets contain more than one colour of paint
• traceable, re-usable air pellets
• a magnetic zipper

These are just a few of the inventions, and my brief descriptions have not done them justice! 

For Minecraft Fans

Zach and Tyler from the Thursday am class showed their class the Pixel Paper Craft website.  This site has printable plans for a plethora of Minecraft characters, mobs, skins, backgrounds etc.  Zach brought a very detailed and complex character that he made from the site; Bendable Steve.  The Minecraft loving paper crafting people in your house might enjoy making some of the projects from this site over the break.