For the past three weeks in Design & Technology club, the children’s challenge has been to design and make a scooter. Of course, Dylan decided he wanted to make one that was also a stringed instrument. Apparently it took most of the first session to explain it to the teacher, and convince her that it WOULD fulfil the brief and be a scooter.
It actually looks a bit like a Segway…
Musical transport
June 27, 2014
R.I.P. Primary Whiteboard
July 30, 2013
iPads for Yr 2 learning next school year!
Speed of delivery
June 20, 2013
[On the school Fronter system, when a pop-up asks whether we want to allow an .exe file to run]
Mum: Do we want a program to run?
Boy: No! Press cancel! When you get a message like that, you HAVE to say ‘no’. Otherwise it will run – you know like the Coach tells us to run in PE?
Mum: Yes?
Boy: Well it will run like that – and that’s bad. DON’T let it run.
Related articles
- Welcome (1stfrana.wordpress.com)
- Parental Involvement: The Key to Better Learning (prnewswire.com)
Be active!
June 19, 2013
BE ACTIVE!
All things in moderation…
(It’s a shame Vine video can’t be embedded within a blog post)
Related articles
- 5 Great Brands On Vine (business2community.com)
- Facebook Jealous of Vine? Instagram Might Be Adding Video (latinospost.com)
- Instagram rumored to be adding Vine-like video support on June 20th (bgr.com)
- Instagram might add video on June 20th and Vine could be the reason (phonearena.com)
People v’s technology
April 15, 2013
D: Can I play on Temple Run today?
Me: It’s up to Vikki, if she’s OK with it, then so am I – but remember that people come first.
D: I KNOW people come first… but I don’t know what it means.
Me: It means that, if you’re playing on a game and a real person talks to you, you must LISTEN to that person. And, if they say you have to stop playing, you have to stop playing. Without getting angry. And, if you have a choice between playing with friends or playing by yourself on a game, you should choose playing with your friends.
D: And I know what you can do so you can listen – you can DIE on the game!
Me: Yes – sometimes people choose to lose on purpose – and that’s OK.
D: Yeah, so you don’t do it by accident… You DO lose points though.
[We’re now trialling a week without monster games, following a spate of nightmares about monster creatures and broken nights]
Related articles
- Top Apps You Should Know About (buildmediamarketing.com)
- App deals: Temple Run Brave, Where’s My Water, Where’s My Perry and Wreck It Ralph go free on Android (phonearena.com)
- PAR Article: How ultra-violent arcade games helped me be a better father (penny-arcade.com)
Junior games
March 7, 2013
Angry Birds – Feb 2013
D: Today I have been playing on Angry Birds. I played it on M’s phone!
Related articles
- ‘Angry Birds’ animated web series to debut March 16th (theverge.com)
- Rovio To Launch Angry Birds Cartoons This Spring (geeky-gadgets.com)
Crossing language barriers
November 12, 2012
D: I wish I was in the sky – in space.
Me: Why?
D: I would LOVE to see the spacemans. How do you get back into Earth when you’re in space?
Do you have to stay there if you go into space?
Me: No because you’d go in a rocket – you’d just turn the rocket around and go back to Earth.
D: How can the rocket get back down if the world is just like a big ball and REALLY, REALLY hard and it can’t get through?
Me: What do you mean – it doesn’t need to go through the Earth – just land on it.
D: No, I MEAN… You know how the Earth is hard?
Me: Yes.
D: Well how can the rocket go back into a country if the Earth is a big ball and SO hard?
Me: Do you mean if the rocket is one side of the Earth in space and the country it’s going back to is on the other side? It would just go AROUND – like a bird. It doesn’t need to go through.
D: Really, really close mum, good try. That’s not what I mean!
Me: How about you show me what you mean on your planets poster when we go upstairs?
D: No, I’ll draw you a picture to show you what I mean…
Explanation of meaning – Nov 2012
D: That’s the Earth and they’re all stars around it. That’s the rocket [bottom], and it’s going back down to Earth. How can it go through when the Earth is really hard?
Me: Ahh! Yes, sorry – the rocket must turn around again just before it reaches the Earth and go in backwards, so it lands on its flat bit! Is that what you mean, because there’s a pointy bit on the top of the rocket?
D: Yes!
Related articles
- NASA using selective laser melting to build rockets (slashgear.com)
- Russia may build rocket to destroy Earth-threatening asteroids (spacedaily.com)
- JAXA readies small rocket to break cost, use barriers (japantimes.co.jp)
Wild technology
October 21, 2012
Me: We’ve got to go to the Post Office to pick up a parcel.
D: Is it for me?
Me: No, I think it’ll be for me.
D: How do you know?
Me: Because I ordered some printer cartridges a couple of days ago and they said that they would be delivered in a couple of days.
D: Printer party juice?
Me: Printer CARTRIDGES – but I think ‘printer party juice’ sounds much better – like the printer has a party all over the paper!
D: I wish it was for me.
Robot with bling
September 12, 2012
Metal and robots – May 2012
D: A metal robot in my favourite colour – gold
Do you copy? Over.
July 29, 2012
The following exchange was in separate rooms via Walkie Talkies:
D: What have you been doing today? Over.
Me: I’ve been working on the computer. Over.
D: What have you been DOING on the computer? Over.
Me: I’ve been writing lots of words. Over.
D: Words about what? Over.
Me: Words about videos and exploring. Over.
D: What sort of words about videos and exploring – like ‘dog’ or ‘cat’? Over.
