Hangouts and Prepping for our Invention Fair

We have been busy this week in our final preparations for our upcoming "Trash to Treasure" Invention Fair (next Thursday).  As you can see display boards are taking shape.  Students will have these on display, along with their invention, at our fair next week.  

Along with our display boards our building librarian / media specialist has began filming all of our fifth grader's infomercials.  Word on the street is they are turning out great this year!  Those will be played on a big screen, in the gym, at our fair.  

As it seems like it year to year, our invention fair is really coming together great.  It is hard to believe that we accomplish the creative part of coming up with an idea, send the idea home for students to work on with friends and family, research a famous inventor, write their own script for an infomercial, film an infomercial, create a display board, and soon present ALL of their items.  Not to mention, we also use the Invention of Hugo Cabret as our literacy piece all month.  We have for sure been busy.  It is great to work with a team of such hard working individuals and professionals!

Today we also had two Google Hangouts!  After attending #edCampMKE (edCamp Milwaukee) I met another educator who does an invention project and fair.  We thought..."HEY...LET'S HANGOUT!"  So we did...today!  It was great.  Each of us had seven students/groups share their ideas with the other class.  The experience was wonderful!

Our second Hangout today was with staff members at Milwaukee's Discovery World.  They spoke to our students about the inventor of the electric guitar (and Wisconsin native) Les Paul.  They also shared with our students some of the cool things they will experience on our field trip there on June 9.  We can't wait!  What a great experience!