I got an invitation to check out a site today in my e-mail from a couple who have retired from public school teaching, and are posting lots of free activities, picture book reviews, and science activities at
http://free-school-activities.com/wordpress/
Looks like a good resource.
Well, it’s clean the house Saturday around here. Kari and I didn’t sleep too well last night, but the Lego team arrives at 10AM. We have finished building all the models that were suggested in our kit, so we have practiced assembling lots of working contraptions. my favorite was the walking bug mobile. Today the two teams have to start modeling the weather monitoring equipment that they saw in their tour of the company that produces them. They also have to add an improvement that uses one of the 6 simple machines.
Better them than me I’m just the coach.
So, it sounds like you have a Lego Club or competition going on today. I hope you post how well it goes.
How do you do it? Is there information at Lego.com to tell you how to start a club? Are the Legos stored by kits, or all in a bin? I've thought about doing this, but just can't yet… Maybe next year.
Did you know there is a way to make links clickable? When posting your entry, look above the entry square for a little chain-link. If you highlight the text you want to link, and then click the chain-link, it gives you a little box where you can enter the name of the link and the actual link. If you have already enterred the name of the link, you can still just enter the link address, and when you are done your link is clickable in your entry. In case you wanted to know…
I'm off to try that free resource link now…
Flybaby
Wow, that was some comment: I have my work cut out for me.
I've fixed the link so it is click-able. I was lazy yesterday, my boys were hovering waiting for their turn to use the computer (weekends are when they are allowed to play computer games).
I've sprinkled F.I.R.S.T LEGO LEAGUE and JR F.I.R.S.T. LEGO LEAGUE posts through the co-oping category, you do need to scroll through oodles of Eagle's Wings and LIFE group stuff though to get to it. The dates are Jan 10, 09, Jan 11, 09, October 5 08, October 1 08, Jul 31 08, June 13,08 and January 15 '08.
Getting started with a FIRST club, go to the F.I.R.S.T. web site (sorry can't make things clickable in a comment) I've heard of other Lego clubs, but I don't know of official programs other than FIRST. You could always purchase one of the kits from Pitsco and follow that, or teach some modeling ideas from the unofficial Lego Building guide.
http://www.usfirst.org/what/fll/default.aspx?id=390
for the USA, you go there to get started for both JR and regular Lego league competitions and expos. The kits you can buy for the competition come from the Pitsco/Lego catalog at
http://www.legoeducation.com/global.aspx
but usually you get into it in the process of registering your club: there is a price break from Pitsco that way. The Pitsco catalogs are as much fun as Timberdoodle.
Running a FIRST club is rewarding, but quiet challenging! Last week I announced that since we were all practicing Christians of various flavors, I was going to open in prayer because my baby kept me up late and I was grouchy. I really needed that. Getting kids as young as 6 to cooperate, listen to each other's ideas, make choices for the good of the group not just insist on their own way: wow, they really take a few months to even tip toe that far. The mechanics, the science research, the presentation, or public speaking part it cake compared to the interpersonal challenges the kids face, and you as a coach face insisting on respect and proper speech.
This time of year I always think I was nuts in October when I started the club. Once those bright faces get to share what they've learned, and built with curious, friendly strangers, I'm always so glad I stuck it out. So right now I'm sticking it out.
Thanks for asking!
Christine