Operation Burglar Alarm

Clayton and his friend, Alex, teamed up on a physics project.  They had to build a "Rube Goldberg" contraption using at least five simple machines.  It also had to be portable - something they could pack up and take to school.  This is a lot harder than it looks.  It took these guys hours to come up with a plan and even more hours to get it to work.  Thankfully we had a lot of great stuff already on hand - legos, marbles, dominoes, marble tracks, hex bugs, blocks, string, and a bell.  They named their contraption "Operation Burglar Alarm" because it begins with a string attached to a door and is triggered when the door opens.  Here's their cool video.

 Their written plan.

And this is the coolest part.  When I checked up on the boys, I asked them if they were making sure to use the six simple machines.  Clayton laughed and said, "Actually most of them are in the very first contraption." and then pointed out the pulley, the wheel and axle, the lever, the wedge, and the inclined plane.

The dominoes proved to be the most frustrating part.  Next, the lever that opens so the hex bugs can get out.  Getting these contraptions right is a lot harder than it looks!

The hero of the day, or I guess the villain, was Isaac.  He played the part perfectly and ad-libbed his lines whenever the alarm went wrong.  He was hilarious.

Isaac's Personal Plane Pack

 Are you tired of those long carpool lines?  Are you tired of walking your child to school in freezing cold weather?  Tire no more!   Isaac's new invention, the P.P.P. (Personal Plane Pack) doubles as your child's school backpack.  It can be programmed from the comfort of your own home using the new P.P.P. app on your cell phone.  Your child will jet home in less than five minutes!  Check out the advanced technology of Isaac's invention in his latest commercial:

Isaac's 4th grade project assignment was to research an inventor, write a research paper, create an invention, make a prototype, keep an inventor's journal of the process, and make a commercial.  This project was intense. But I saw some seriously amazing stuff. 

 Here are the girls modeling this awesome jet pack.

 And when it was time to take the project to school?  Guess who got to wear the pack?

 His project was a big hit.  Especially the commercial.

 One of my favorite inventions was this Block-A-Bro helmet invented by one of Isaac's best friends (and our across the street neighbor). He has head phones, adjustable shield, and a cold drink dispenser in there.  Hilarious.

Great job, Isaac on a great project and a cool invention. We're all dreaming of flying now.

Hedgamin Franklin Goes West

 Brigham just published the third installment in his "Hedgamin Franklin" series and it is my favorite so far.  The 3rd grade project assignment was to research a city. (remember Isaac's "Berlin" project?) But, of course, Brigham found a way, as always, to turn it into hedgehogs.  Here is his newest hedgehog book. It turned out so cute. Can you guess the city he researched? 

 Here is his trilogy.  But I am anticipating more volumes to come (4th grade project. . . . 5th grade. . . college)

 Here is his display board for the 3rd Grade Knowledge Fest.  I love his Salt Lake Temple drawing.  He has such a unique art style.

 Congratulations to my very wonderful, talented, and silly blue-eyed boy!  Your namesake would be proud.

Tipping Practice

I cracked down on typing practice this summer. My kids thought I was really mean. But they are seriously thanking me now (Clayton mostly).  And we are all grateful (me especially) that their homework assignments on the computer don't take hours and hours of single-finger hunting and pecking anymore.

After they finished their online typing course, and while I was procrastinating looking for a second course to fill the summer, they spent the rest of the summer "typing anything" during their designated typing time.  I have finally had time to go through and print some of their saved documents and what a treasure trove I have found!  It was fun (and somewhat of an eye-opener) look into the minds of my children.  And some of them have given me quite a laugh.

Clayton is an atrocious speller.  Even though the auto-spell-check fixes most of his mistakes, it couldn't save him on "Tipping Practice".  I chuckled when I opened up his first document - a nonsense poem entitled, "What More Could There Be?"  His next project was a menu for Gourmet Candies that apparently he planned on selling (always the entrepreneur), and detailed instructions for a computer program called "Scratch".

Next he worked on an origami instruction book and made some cool graphics on Word that I didn't even know were possible.

Isaac started a historical piece entitled, "Isaac's Random Facts from History" where he asks random questions and then answers them.  He's a good writer and, to his credit, knows some pretty interesting random facts.  He had a fun time finding and pasting google images.

Next he started his famous "Isaac's Guide" series. If you want to understand the workings of his brain, read this.  I like how he pulled images from our personal picture file for this.

Brigham took a longer time completing the typing program and didn't have as much time for "free typing".  But these two documents are also very telling of Brigham's personality and interests: "Brigham's Facts About Beluga Whales", and "Brigham's Totally WRONG Facts"

Both Isaac and Brigham have research papers due for school this month and their newly acquired typing skills will come in handy.  Clayton already does most of his work on the computer.  He's even been able to teach me a few things (like how to make Word docs the size of index cards and cool tricks for changing fonts, titles, and backgrounds.)  Here are a few of his recent school projects:

Love all his images on this one.

Rockefeller is one of Clayton's heroes.  He's always been kind of a money-making-schemer.

Hooray for "Tipping Practice"!