On Friday mornings we remind all kids and adults of a few things:
- We only have 1.5 building sessions left. Priorities!
- Go slow. Working smart and safe is working fast.
A lot happened today. Things started moving around instead of just sitting there looking impressive.
We saw kids carrying on skills they learned earlier in the week to different situations. We also saw some kids relearning lessons from previous days in new situations.
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A part of tinkering that we think is really important is taking time to stop, breathe and think about what you have accomplished, how you accomplished it, and then how you feel about that. We try to incorporate different kinds of reflection through out all of our programs. We reflect as a group on why our plan worked here, but not over there. We reflect with our partner on how we assembled this section, before we move on to that section. We reflect as a whole group on ways to collaborate. We reflect with ourselves on how we handled a mistake in building or a mistake we made talking to a new friend.
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This morning each team started the morning out finishing off the basics of the projects and pretty quickly they were diving into the details with the excitement, teamwork and skills they built up from creating frames together.
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This morning we began practicing tinkering with a group of 10 kids. To put our best feets forward we talk about how to treat each other and the tools safely and respectfully. One of the best parts of our tool trainings is that they offer lots of opportunity to practice collaboration, asking for help and offering help while experiencing the tools.
Read MoreIt was hard to imagine when we started today that a frame and random kangaroo parts would come together in time to join our puppet parade.
Read MoreDay 3 started with a reflection on the amazing progress from the days before and a check-in about the tasks needed to complete our respective goals. We may have even strategized a plan to make it to the park - if we tried harder than normal.
Read MoreWe had a fabulous day! It was sunny and full of helpful collaboration between our teams. Everyone arrived with lots of energy and excitement about the projects for today. After a lively check in, we separated into our teams to continue working on our Kangaroo, Kiwi, Pencil Kitty, and People Box.
Read MoreThe first day of the Tinkering School President's Day camp began with an opening circle to meet each other and discuss group agreements.
Read MoreOn Day Three of the New Year Count Down Winter Break Camp, we started with quite the conundrum! Both projects had been worked on for two previous days with two different groups of humans, and now on day three, we set out to try to finish them both and then make them communicate with one another!
Read MoreToday some tinkerers returned to finish what they started, with the help of some new faces!
After tool practice we visited each project: The Count-down Machine and The Celebration Machine and talked about the goals of each machine and what had been accomplished the day before.
Then the kids started brainstorming how to improve or complete each machine.
Read MoreToday was Day 1 of a 3-Day Winter Break Camp here at Tinkering School. This Break Camp is unique because we will have an entirely new group of humans EACH DAY, but the project for all three days is going to remain the same. The folks who showed up on Day 1 were able to lay the foundation of the project -- they designed and started the whole ordeal, only to leave the rest of the week's Tinkerers to learn about and add on to an existing structure throughout the week.
Read MoreWHOA! What a day. We are exhausted and so pumped about our week. We definitely built some thing (many things, in fact) bigger than ourselves. Here are some of the highlights from the last day of TEAM IDITAROD!
Read MoreMake Mistakes and Learn from Them!
Here at Tinkering School, we have four big goals that keep us motivated to tinker, tinker all week long:
- Collaborate and Make Friends
- Make Mistakes and Learn from Them
- Try Harder than Usual
- Build Something BIGGER than Yourself!
By Wednesday, we've usually hit our stride here at Tinkering School. We've completed bits of our projects and are ready to move on to next steps. There are often cool opportunities for learning new concepts and new tricks once we've gotten a handle on using the tools and working with others.
Read MoreYou always need to make a PLAN!
On Tuesdays, we start our day with a design meeting in our building groups. We brainstorm ideas, develops plans, and make cut lists for the chop saw room. This is an important part of our morning ritual, as it gets all tinkerers on the same page and ready to collaborate for the rest of the day.
Read MoreWinter Beak Camp 2016 has begun!
After goal setting, establishing shared agreements, and making some wacky name tags at the beginning of day one...
Read MoreToday was a day full of great alterations and great successes, the perfect way to end this three day workshop! Our giant's "food cube" got a revamp to the "food cone" and the mouth got some serious accessories. A full spread of thanksgiving food was also created for our giant.
Read MoreIt's another fantastic day of Thanksgiving Break Camp as we resume our epic challenge of building a Thanksgiving feast for giants! (Or rather, just one giant. We have to watch the grocery bill.)
Read MoreDay one of Break Camp! The project for this short three-day week is to build a thanksgiving dinner for giants! To do this, we've decided we need to build both a "mouth" and a "food delivery system."
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