I could not be more excited for next week. It is the culmination of a design project from my classes this week. Yes, I’m an English Teacher, but language isn’t all about books, and a lot can be learned from taking a chance. My favorite conference in recent years has been Constructing Modern Knowledge in Manchester, NH – I’ve been three times, and one of the joys of CMK is working on something that emerges through conversation and “what if we could” questions. Well, that’s what we did.

Our “what if we could…” question was, “what if we could get the students to redesign our County Fair” activity?” County Fair is our fall festival that raises money for the scholarship fund, and every grade plans and executes an activity. Our activity had grown stale, and so we asked teams of students to design elements for an obstacle course.  Their ideas, designs, models and plans are INCREDIBLE! They incorporate the fair theme of Superheroes and they are fun. Some ideas are:

• wall climb
• balance beam
• spider room/laser box
• islands in the lava
• hurdles/army crawl
• dodge the bad guys
• spinning obstacles

We met today to look at the plans to make a shopping list. I’ve never seen so much joy in a room full of teachers as we brainstormed alternate materials to stay within budget. We are so pumped to start building with our students. So here’s my shopping list:

• 12 – carpet squares
• Dimensional Lumber
  • 3  –  2” x 12”x 12ft
  • 2 – 2” x4” x10ft

• 8 cinder blocks
• 3 Large Packing boxes
• PVC Pipe
  • 2+2+12+3 (19 total) 10 foot pipe
  • 10 T joins
  • 10 elbow joints
  • 8 corner joints
• Pipe cutter
  • Wider pipe that a 1” pipe can fit into.
• 8ft pipe wrap
• Thicker pipe wrap? X 8
• Six hinges and wood screws to hold them – for ¾” plywood
• Hook closures – 2
• 24 drawer pulls
• 100 ft of rope
• Wood for base
• 4 sheets of 4×8 ¾” plywood
• 4 pool noodles
• Tissue paper  – lava colors

This is going to be GREAT!