It’s time again, for the Global Cardboard Challenge! The Imagination Foundation describes the Challenge: “The Global Cardboard Challenge is an annual challenge that invites kids around the world to design and build awesome creations using cardboard, recycled materials and imagination. The challenge culminates in a Global Day of Play on October 5th, marking the 2nd … Continue reading
It’s almost time for International Dot Day, September 15-ish. Anyone who celebrates the creativity of Peter Reynold’s The Dot will love International Dot Day (and if you haven’t read it yet, you really must). The Dot Day website relates International Dot Day, a global celebration of creativity, courage and collaboration, began when teacher Terry Shay … Continue reading
Every summer has some days when it is too rainy, or too hot, to spend all day outside. For days like that, exploring ways to be an inventor can be just the ticket for creative summer fun. 1. Introduce your family to Rube Goldberg inventions. Rube Goldberg’s cartoons of amazing fantasy machines have inspired budding … Continue reading
It is 95 degrees with sweltering humidity, which can mean only one thing in Ann Arbor. It’s Art Fair week! It is time to brave the crowds and the heat, to be rewarded with first-class people watching, over-priced delicious lemonade, and art of every imaginable (and some unimaginable) variety. Last year I had so much … Continue reading
When I was a kid, camp entailed tents, backpacks, burnt marshmallows, mosquitoes. Today, it’s not necessarily so. Enter free virtual summer camp for teens–with rockets, animation, and (last year) electric origami! Maker Camp, a collaboration between Maker Media (publisher of Maker magazine) and Google, takes camp in a whole new direction. Instead of swimming and … Continue reading
Have you ever wandered through an antique shop, intrigued by the strange machinery and wondering what it all did? Do you know a young person fascinated by gadgets? Or do you teach about inventions and inventing? If so, Jim Murphy’s books Weird and Wacky Inventions and Bizarre and Baffling Inventions, are for you. Set up … Continue reading
It is June in Michigan, which means the world is finally green again and the school year is ending. Sometimes, near the end of the school year, you need something that is just fun. If it meets a curriculum goal, that’s great, but there are those moments when we all just need a moment of … Continue reading
One of my favorite small education blogs is called “v. to put on one’s thinking cap: A reflection on social constructivism in the elementary classroom.” It recounts the learning and thinking of a class of elementary students who are consistently challenged to make sense of their world. Recently, the author described students’ representations responding to … Continue reading
I recently read Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins’ Essential Questions: Opening the Doors to Student Understanding, and thought, “How wonderful to have a book so totally supportive of creativity, while focusing all the while on understanding.” The Creativity in the Classroom Model links creativity, learning for understanding, and motivation for learning. This book provides a … Continue reading
This month’s family fun ideas are dedicated to all things maker. A maker, of course, is anyone who makes something, and they are on the rise. From maker spaces, where collaborators young and old share equipment and expertise, to Hacker Scouts dedicated to solving problems through making, there are lots of opportunities for creative building … Continue reading
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