The Dragon is Coming! - Day 1 - Week 1 - Mark Day School
Today, we kicked off Tinkering School camp the way we usually do -- making group agreements, doing tool training, and getting to know the space and each other! I learned something new from one of our students: the “Platinum Rule” is to treat others the way they want to be treated.
Our theme for the week is …(drum roll)… “The Dragon is Coming!” Our plan is to build a castle and a dragon. Students sketched their ideas and shared them.
We are fortunate to have our Librarian, ReAnna Gailes, as a Collaborator and she provided us with inspiration in the form of books about castles and dragons.
We had discussions about vocabulary including: turret, portcullis, moat, and catapult.
And since one of our goals for Tinkering School is to “build something bigger than ourselves,” we measured ourselves and then taped out an area that could fit all of the students in the castle.
Every student learned to use clamps, cordless drills, and a chop saw.
The chop saw makes a big noise but it’s a useful tool when we have so much wood to cut!
We may not have made a lot of vertical progress yet but we’ve begun cutting wood lengths and trying to figure out how to assemble the castle walls and dragon frame. We made mistakes and tried really hard and worked together.
And we had fun getting to know each other. We also answered the question, “How many people CAN you fit on a spinning tree?”
I can’t wait to see what gets built tomorrow!