Magical County Fair - Day 1 - Week 2 (Mark Day School)

Some people spend July 4th at the lagoon, waiting for the fireworks to start. But we’re busy with our first day of camp and there’s a lot to do to this week because our theme is…

Magical County Fair!

Today, we talked about our goals for the week: 1. Collaborate and Make Friends, 2. Make Mistakes and Learn from Them, 3. Try Harder than Usual, and 4. Build Something BIGGER than Ourselves.

And created our Group Agreements. These are the ways we agree to treat each other and to work with tools so that everyone works as a team and keeps each other safe in the process.

A big part of our morning is taken up by tool training. Every tinkerer learns how to use our three main tools: clamps, cordless drills, and chop saw (aka compound mitre saw). And then we practice while we work on collaborating. Often, one person holds the wood in place while the other drills and then they switch so everyone gets a turn.

There’s a buzz in the air after lunch because it’s time for the theme reveal (which was revealed above). Tinkerers have a chance to sketch their ideas for each build — we’re making a magical ride and a magical game — and then we guide them through a gallery walk where we hear from each student, appreciate all the creative ideas, and combine similar designs into a single design we can work with for the rest of the week. Of course, if we need to modify things later, we can!

And then it’s time for building! Now that our tinkerers are comfortable using tools, they can start to create things bigger than themselves. See below for more photos from our first day. And to see even more photos from the whole week, visit our Google Photos Album by clicking here.