House of Straw, Sticks or Bricks

Construct a basic shelter. Choose walls and roof. Consider what materials are available where. Build a family. Consider the problems your walls will protect them from: rain, snow, heat, fire, winds, floods, mice, bugs or wolves.

Skills: sanding, gluing, hammering (predrilled holes), coloring.

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Block Heads

We build to discover ourselves. Common arms, legs, heads and feet can be shaped, assembled and decorated to create the infinite variety that we are. Blockheads can tell stories, reenact history, represent heroes, display the costumes of distant lands or unleash imagination. A universal tool for learning.

We welcome your ideas for a BlockHead progam: a fable, a hero, a robot, a leader.

Teacher's guide.

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Xylophone

Use eyes and hands to count and sort the wooden bars to build this six note percussion instrument. Build manual dexterity and order memory to string it together with spacers between each bar. Number each bar from 1 to 6, use letters, or use color to code the bars. Then learn to play familiar tunes with the music book that matches the numbering system.

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Weather

Construct a traditional tool for understanding where weather comes from...a weather vane. Use it to understand the modern weather map made current in real time on WTNH, Channel 8's website and forecasts. The project includes a map, an excellent compass and lessons in the geography of the winds.

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