Cardboard Challenge

MaKey MaKey building

Baking Soda and Vinegar Volcanoes

Scratch Starter Projects

Here is a selection of good starter projects in Scratch. Look at the code, figure out what it does, then change it to make it different!

1. Paint with Gobo
2. Wizard Spells
3. Spiral Maker

CS First and Pythonroom Coding Choices

Google's CS First computer science club materials are great places to get started with coding for students in grade 4 and up. Pythonroom.com is a good interactive website to learn the basics of python coding.

Choose from one of the following five projects from Google's CS First or pythonroom.com:

1. High Seas Animation and Story
2. Gumball's Coding Adventure
3. Musical Art
4. Platform Jump Game
5. Pythonroom

Computer Science First

Google has created an excellent resource for learning Scratch, with lots of ideas and helpful videos to assist students with independent learning.

Check out this link below to see the different options available:

Computer Science First

You will need a Scratch username and password to be able to complete the activities.

Caine's Arcade and the Global Cardboard Challenge 2017

Here is an amazing video that tells the story of what one nine-year-old boy can do with some cardboard, spare time, an imagination:

Caine's Arcade

There is in fact a whole web page dedicated to Caine's continuing story:

cainesarcade.com

Here is an inspirational video showing how some elementary students in Bermuda celebrated Global Cardboard Challenge Day in 2014:

Global Cardboard Challenge Day 2014 Bermuda

And here are some students in France:

Global Cardboard Challenge Day 2014 France

To see more videos of other cardboard challenge days, go to:

More Cardboard Challenge Videos

To learn more about Global Cardboard Challenge Day, go to:

Global Cardboard Challenge Day

Learning About Our Eyes

During their current unit, the grade 1/2/3 class is learning all about their bodies. Here are some interesting stories and experiments about our eyes:

• Experiment: Are Two Eyes Better than One?
• Experiment: The Red, White and Blue
• Experiment: Catch the Penny

• Really Cool Optical Illusions 

• I was born blind, Julia's story

Solar Oven S'mores

We are starting the STEM year off with some sweet memories of summer. We are going to build solar ovens to melt s'mores.

Here are some websites that provide ideas:

• Adding Chocolate and Marshmallows to Your Creations
• Solar Oven Plans

We will use one class to plan, then the next class to build and bake. Here's hoping for sun on Wednesday!

Inventions that Were Mistakes

Did you know that many useful (or sometimes just fun) things that we use and see every day were invented by mistake? Check out this great article from Amazing Kids Magazine:

• Inventions that Were Mistakes