Cardboard Challenge

What an amazing afternoon!  Today was the culmination of over two weeks of intensive work by the 5th grade students to create with cardboard.  Our inspiration was Caine's Arcade, an arcade built entirely from cardboard boxes by a young boy in East Los Angeles.  His creativity was captured on a YouTube video and broadcast around the world.  Today, students all over the world are inspired by Caine to create whatever they can imagine using cardboard. 

In the CLIC lab, Jen Larussa coached the students in design and engineering.  Students learned first-hand about the engineering process, including the fact that sometimes setbacks lead to alternate designs.  There was certainly more than one team that had to revamp their original concept.  It was also affirming to see how the teams truly worked together to bring their ideas to reality.  There were games ("ski" ball, ping pong), household objects (a refrigerator, a bookshelf), and other creations (cars, boats, a particularly adorable giraffe), too many to list here, all from the heads of your 5th graders. 

Today, the students were able to showcase their work.  Despite the fact that the recent humidity made some of the cardboard wilt a bit, the students ably made 15 minute fix-ups, then let the crowds descend.  The 5th grade enjoyed their arcade first, then the 4th and 6th graders were invited to come in, play games, and check things out.  And all from a pile of "junk".

Ping pong, anyone?

 Anchors away, with games to go inside!

Some new bookshelves for our classroom.

Double decker pinball with scoring on the bottom

The ultimate "hidey-hole"

Olweus Anti-Bullying Kick-Off Assembly...With a Whole Lot of Teamwork

I could not have been prouder of our class this past Thursday!  We had our annual Olweus kick-off at school.  Each class was asked to create a presentation about anti-bullying.  I thought that I would leave it completely up to the students to decide what they wanted to do.  And they did so with aplomb. 


The teamwork began in earnest.  We brainstormed, and they decided that a skit would be fun.  One student suggested that the skit have something to do with aliens.  I admit, I steered them a bit from that point as they all became enthusiastic about an alien spaceship story.  But the direction was definitely subtle.  Another student took on the task of writing the script, making sure that there were enough parts for everyone in the class.  The next day, we all worked on revising the script, making it a true collaboration.  Then it was time to make costumes and props.  Building on our teamwork, a third student brought in a gigantic piece of cardboard to use to make a flying saucer.  Some paint, glitter, and brushes later, we had our craft.  Other students took on the task of creating the alien masks that transformed from plain white to dynamic and unique.



When it came time for us to present, the students knew their parts and delivered them perfectly.  (I think we may have a thespian or two in the ranks.)  The audience even gave a chuckle when they saw the aliens come out front.



Our message?  Simple; we're all unique, with different talents and interests, but our world is a more colorful and wonderful place because of it.  Thank goodness.