Invention Convention

On Friday Michael jumped in the car after school spilling with news about their tour of Second Grade's "Invention Convention".  It was thrilling, exciting, interesting, and inspiring to his mind.  He can't wait for second grade!  

And in the mean time an invention he saw, got him thinking about boats and ships.  Sooooo he came home, seeing the large paper on the table from the books Jacob and I were in the middle of making, began his first model boat.  It was his prototype he later told me.  Paper and tape.  He worked like a machine - never stopping, focused, singular in object for over an hour.  Ta-da!  A boat out of paper, complete with mast, sail, rudder.  It was three dimensional and hallow inside.  He went straight to the bathtub to see if it could float.  A SCREAM of jubilation brought all brothers running to see.  It floated!  And then "to give it some excitement - a storm!"  he splashed it with waves.  Now drenched and soggy, he crumpled it up, tossed it in the garbage and immediately went back to the table to work on version 2.0.  This time with twice as much detail:  guns, anchor, flag, guys, decks, and a boat launch.  This one never met water. 

 Version 3.0 was made Sunday afternoon after thinking about it all Saturday.  We used some scrap foam core and white duck tape.  My job was to cut the shapes he drew.  It was fascinating.  From a flat piece of foam core, he drew me an accurate 3 dimensional boat model.  The bottom was hallow to make it float.  He added a rail, benches, mast, sail, and rudder to balance it.  All of it was his idea.  He took it to school today.  His teacher asked to keep it an extra day - back in the car beaming with success, "It was so special mom, I got to decide when people could touch it!".