Global Maker Day / Cardboard Carnival

Global Maker Day / Cardboard Carnival

in Mrs. Sidi's Grade 3 Class

** this blog post has been written by Mrs. Sidi's Grade 3 students**

We were doing genius hour one Friday and we watched Caine’s arcade video.  We thought that was pretty cool. We decided one day in November that if you make a game or toy out of cardboard you could bring it in and everybody would go around and get to try your game.  We set the date for November 24th.

In the meantime Mrs. Clement came in to visit and tell us about Global Maker Day.  Mrs. Clement brought in about a million boxes and we got into groups and made games out of them.  




My game started out to be a creeper but the green paper wouldn't cover it so we made the a random game covered in green paper.  You had a tape ball in the top.  It was three levels and you had to get your ball through 2 holes and if you made it to the third level you would win.  I liked that sometimes if it goes through the first hole it might not always go through the other holes.  If I could improve one idea about that original game I would try and put the hole on the side a little so it would be harder.    (Written by: Eamon, Grade 3 student at St. Rose Catholic Elementary School)

Now back to carnival.

After Global Maker Day we went back to making our own games at home with our families help.  I got my idea from an actual arcade.  They have ball tosses called Skeeball so I decided to make a ring toss.  When my dad showed me a box we could use I thought it was too big because my friends told me how small their boxes were.  The next day me and my dad started making my game.  My dad said that box was good because if you build a big game kids will go crazy.  So we decided to use the big box.  

We cut holes and put toilet paper rolls in to make the ring toss and we taped them down.  Each post was a different colour and a different point value.  My game was so big I could climb inside.  My teacher and five other students could probably fit in there as well.  

After students played my game there was a little slot and I pushed 2 or more tickets out.  The number of tickets depends on where your ring toss landed.

Today we finally got to bring our games in.  Once I set up my game everyone lined up to play.  I could not believe that many people would want to play my game.  People kept coming back to play again and again.  That made me so happy!

This morning when everyone came to school it was so exciting.  We were all going crazy and telling Mrs. Sidi that they were so excited they could not sleep last night.   When I looked around I was really proud of my friends for making such great games.  We all did really good.   The best part of the game was playing each others games.  (Written by: Vanessa, Grade 3 student at St. Rose Catholic Elementary School)




Student Reflections:

1. Do you think the cardboard challenge is a valuable classroom activity? Explain why.

• Yes, it gives kids a chance to be creative and be excited and learn. ~ Neil
• I think the cardboard challenge is valuable because it allows us to do something freely.
• Yes, because it gives every kid a chance to make their mind creative.
• It's a good way t use cardboard instead of recycling you can reuse. You get to be creative and it can give you more ideas. You are also reducing waste. ~ Tate
• I think it's valuable because it's really fun when you get to try other games and other kids who do cardboard carnival will like it. I learned how to problem solve when I was making the game. ~ Eamon

2. What are all the things you learned by doing the cardboard challenge?

• I learned that it might be easy on a piece of paper but it is harder with your hands
• The first thing I learned about doing it was that it looks good in your mind but it is really heard to make in real life. Also it takes a lot of work. ~ Lindsey

3. What reasons would you give to convince another teacher to have a cardboard carnival?

• I would tell them that it's really fun and it gets kids to learn when they don't realize it. ~ Neil
• I would tell him/her that the brains will work more and maybe their students are going to turn genius. ~Fady
• I would tell (him or her) that their having so much fun they don't even no they are learning. ~ Lila