The carnival was only a few weeks away, so we had to work quickly. Parameters were set for the kids…who were AWESOME!…and a schedule was set. In just three hours of afterschool work, our “production group” wrote the script, made props and filmed some of the scenes. “The Weird Alien Day” was off and running.  Later, I went around to the classrooms to ensure every kid in the school had a chance to be in the film, if  possible.

Pre-planning, organization and a supportive school staff were essential to this fun and successful production! Here’s what we did, and how you can implement a similar project.

BRAIN BLAST

• Identify three days when your movie “production crew” can meet after school. Make a flier announcing the project and parent permission slips. Recruit a few parent volunteers to help keep things on task.

• Come up with a basic storyline that the kids can build on – ours was “aliens land at the school”. After the kids shared ideas during script writing, that nugget of an idea evolved into: “Aliens are unhappy with their child’s grades and decide to send him/her to school on Earth. The alien kid doesn’t always do things the way the other kids do. Unhappy, Mom and Dad decide to destroy the Earth, but the alien kid talks them out of it. The End. ….um. Well, almost the end….we still had to make it.

• Day 1: Scriptwriting — Prepare three sets of questions and bring them to the first session, along with scratch paper and pencils.
• Kindergartners and first graders were asked simple questions like the name of the alien and descriptions of the alien planet.
• Second- and third-graders helped decide the alien “weapon” and cool things about our planet that make it worth saving.
• Fourth- and fifth-graders helped write an actual scene (aliens register the kid for school). They also helped decide how the movie ends.
• All the kids helped identify classroom routines and silly ways an alien might misinterpret them.

• Day 2: Prop-making – K-1 students had decided our alien kid would be named Silly Pepperoni CiCi from the “Pizza Planet.” For props, we had groups of kids make pizza-faced masks for Mom, Dad and Silly Pepperoni. Another group made the aliens’ weapon: the SPATULA OF DOOM”…woohahaha!  The last few groups made posters and pictures of the alien family (for the movie intro), their planet and Earth.

• Day 3: Filming – Based on the kids’ ideas, I scripted a few of the general scenes:
• The alien spaceship landing at the school, using one of those cheap RC toys as the space ship. The kids pointed, screamed and yes….fainted.
• The alien CiCi family “persuading” our school principal to register their little Silly Pepperoni.
• The alien control room where the aliens plot the destruction of Earth. But then Silly Pepperoni tells her parents about all the cool things on Earth. (lava made the original list 13 times; chocolate…22 times). The scene ends with a group hug.

• More filming – After scheduling time with the teachers, I went to each classroom and filmed them doing their special classroom routine with a teacher-picked “Silly Pepperoni” acting silly. Admittedly, some of the suggestions for silliness had to be tossed out. They typically involved puking, gluing and destroying the classroom. At the end of the routine, I took a class video-pic for the movie credits.

• Secret ending – With the teacher’s help, I filmed a surprise ending to further entice our movie production group and other students to the premiere.  (psssst. The principal gets turned into a pizza and eaten by some of the teachers!)

• In production – I scripted the editing and enlisted my loving husband’s help to edit the footage. I found a few movie sounds and theme music on iStock.

• The debut – We finished the final editing the day of the school carnival. Talk about cutting it close! It all ended well, though, and kids loved it. I’ll try to get a “trailer” posted here soon.

Resources – If you attempt your own movie – as a grown-up or kid — you might find these resources useful:

• Kids Vid
• Make a Movie Studios
• Amazon Studios
• How are Hollywood films made?
• Magic Theater

Image courtesy of Jonathan Feinberg, Wordle creator

We contacted Jonathan Feinberg to ask him about his work on Wordle. He told us how Wordle came about and had some great advice for would-be developers and inventors:

“The single most important thing I’d tell any child (or grownup) who has an idea is to try the idea as soon as possible, and to waste as little time as possible thinking about it,” he said.

“When you actually make the thing you’re thinking of making, you find out much more about it than you could have by thinking about it. You might find that what seemed like a good idea was actually not so good. On the other hand, you might accidentally discover something even better in the doing. That’s certainly what happened with Wordle.”

Feinberg told us that Wordle came about because he needed to create a tag cloud for a web site he was making as part of his job at IBM Research. If you don’t know, tag clouds are groups of words where the size of the word is proportionate to the number of times it’s used in text.

This concept of a word cloud by Blackbelt Jones helped spark the idea for Wordle, www.wordle.net. Blackbelt Jones image courtesy of Jonathan Feinberg.

“I made a regular tag cloud, but thought it was boring,” Feinberg said. “But then a blogger, who called himself ‘Blackbelt Jones,’ created a very pretty and interesting tag cloud by using a computer drawing program. I thought, ‘Why can’t I write a computer program to do something like that?’”

Feinberg said he spent a couple of weeks thinking about how to do that, asking some friends for their ideas, and writing the actual computer program to do it. He eventually turned that computer program into the Wordle web site.

Learn more about Jonathan Feinberg by visiting his web site and the Wordle blog.

Hula-Hoop for Heifers raised money for Heifer International.

That’s how “Hula-Hoop for Heifers” was born. The hip-swiveling, music-pounding hour at the park raised $270 for Heifer International, which donates farm animals to those in need. 

Our 3^rd-grader learned about Heifer International from a book he read in class. Beatrice’s Goat is based on a true story of a young girl whose life changes when her family receives a donated goat. Our son wanted to help this worthy cause, but knew he couldn’t afford much alone. 

After brainstorming some ideas at dinner, he asked the school administration if he could hold the fund-raiser on the playground. He was told no. Disappointed but not discouraged, he settled on the park next to the school. A day later, schoolmates, teachers and relatives all pitched in for the cause.  When it was over, classmates helped him decide what to buy – a goat, flock of ducks, honeybees and most (5 shares) of a llama. It was a great learning experience. 

BRAIN BLAST – Empower your kids to promote a cause they believe in. They’ll learn leadership skills, organizational abilities, how to handle rejection and the warm, fuzzy  feeling that comes from doing a good deed. 

In addition to ordinary fund-raisers like lemonade stands, bake sales, car washes and recycling drives, try one of these more creative options (or brainstorm one of your own!). 

• Baked dog treats – kids can make, package and sell these tasty treats. Here are some recipes.
• “Best of…” tour maps – have kids decide the “best spots” in their community…best view, best playground, best natural resource, best indoor play area, best attraction, best kid-friendly restaurant….then help them makes maps to sell.  
• Pet art show – let kids make and sell art by their pets. Display the artwork at a pet art show. Allow pet lovers in your community to come and make art with their own pets….for a price, of course. 
• Drive-in movie – find a projector, sell tickets & popcorn. Show the movie on the wall of garage or other building. If you can’t find a large parking lot for cars, have everyone bring lawn chairs over to someone’s house.
•  Read-a-thon – Collect pledges from friends, family and businesses for reading X number of books over a certain period.
•  Calendars – Collect photo submissions for a kids photography calendar. Take advance orders for printing and customization.
• Trivia challenges – Hold your own version of “Are you smarter than a 5^th grader”…uh, sorry, scratch that. My kids want me to say ”smarter than a 3^rd grader” and “smarter than a preschooler”.  Invite business and community leaders to participate. Accept a donated participation fees and admission from spectators. Sponsorships might bring in even more money for your worthy cause.
• Kids cookbook – Collect recipes from kids for their favorite dishes. Use a print-on-demand publisher to publish a cookbook.

Other ideas - penny drives, a fashion show, spelling bee, dance-a-thon, game-a-thons, make & sell terrariums, rent-a-kid for chores. Be sure to check rules on fund-raising events in your community and have fun!

DaVinci demonstrates George Nissen's trampoline.

 A diver and gymnast, Nissen was only 16 when he built the trampoline in his parents’ garage. He stretched a piece of canvas over a rectangular steel frame and demonstrated it around the country. Kids and adults have been happily bouncing ever since.

 If you’d like to put those bouncing young minds to work, ask your kids for some practical uses for the trampoline…. other than exercise, of course. My kids said you can use the trampoline to bounce up and clean spider webs, pick apples and take pictures off the walls.

 You might also ask your young engineers how trampoline-makers can improve on Mr. Nissen’s design. My kids said:

• Connect a fan for extra cooling
• Make it so that every time you jump, it changes color
• Make it so it plays celebration music every time you do a cool trick and “wah-wah-wah” if you do a bad trick.

 BRAIN BLAST

• Gather some paper and pencils, markers or crayons. Have the kids draw pictures of themselves using the trampoline to accomplish a task.
• Have kids draw or write about a use for the trampoline that makes life easier in some way.
• Have older kids write step-by-step instructions on how to build a better or different trampoline.
• Set up a “bounce-tacle” course. Be sure to set some safety rules! Use mini-trampolines, pillows, pogo sticks, Moon Shoes, pile of leaves…anything with some bounce to it.
• You can also use a mini-trampoline to test the “bounciness” or various objects. Again….be careful!
• Make a trampoline craft. Here’s one by Crayola.

Read more about Nissen in the archives of MIT and in The Gazette, Cedar Rapids.

Mother-to-invention visual essay using Wordle

Try it yourself. We’re planning to use Wordle to make some personalized family gifts – framable art or maybe even T-shirts.

ABC news report on the death of the Polish president using Wordle.

For grown-ups, the idea of distilling a topic to a collection of single words should make all you Twitter lovers chirp with glee. And what about applying it to news stories? Check out my Wordle on ABC News’ report of Polish president Kaczynski’s funeral. Can you still tell what the story is about?

As part of our modern inventors series, we’re going to try and bring you and your kids some insight behind the development of Wordle and other cool tools, so stay tuned.

“Innovation is necessary to solve world problems,” says Gates in his 2010 annual letter, which I finally had time to look at.  “Yes!,” says I.

“Society underinvests in innovation,” my pod pal writes. “I agree!” says I.

Of course, when Bill Gates speaks of innovation, it’s about scientists and deep thinkers tackling climate change, new vaccines and intuitive technologies. Me – I embrace something far more elementary…elementary school that is…and the need to start that innovation process at a young age.

Let’s face it. Global change doesn’t happen overnight. If we’re to solve anything, we need to groom future generations of thinkers and innovators. The best way to do that is to encourage creativity and ingenuity at an early age…then try not to crush it as they mature into adults.

Here's what 5-year-old DaVinci thinks the inside of the body looks like. The blue blob is "a fat cell trying to get in." Notice the red and blue veins.

The episode airs at 7 p.m. (Central) on Tuesday, Jan. 12.

The BodyViz technology converts flat images from medical scans into 3-D images that can be easily seen and manipulated with an Xbox game controller. Huh? What? A game controller? That got Einstein’s attention for a moment. Little DaVinci was intrigued enough to illustrate his thoughts.

BRAIN BLAST – What do kids really think the inside of the body looks like? Find out! Ask them to draw or make a 3-D view. We used paper and a few markers, but you can use multi-dimensional alternatives such as a cylinder shape cut in half (Pringles can, milk carton, etc.).

Photography ©2008 by Marco Ciavolino

Ahhh. Kid brain power at its finest! In Iowa and elsewhere across the country, teams are gearing up for First LEGO League state championships.

In Iowa, 72 teams will gather for the state tournament this coming weekend Jan. 16, 2010, at Iowa State University.

What’s great about LEGO League is that it takes math, science, technology and engineering out of the classroom and into a team-run work environment where kids, ages 9-14, work together to creatively solve a real-life problem.

The themes make it more realistic too. Just like today’s scientists and engineers, young LL engineers tackle energy, climate science and now, this year, “Smart Move,” the transportation of people, animals, information and things.

Next year’s theme is equally intriguing. “Body Forward” will introduce students to biomedical engineering and task them with discovering innovative ways to repair injuries, overcome genetic predispositions and maximize the body’s potential. It’s a great theme, and I’m hoping my then 9-year-old will want to participate. 

Congratulations to all of this year’s regional winners and good luck this weekend in the state competition!

The kids were disappointed this garage sale find didn't work. However, it gave us a chance to take apart the Spy Gear video tank to see how it worked. Worth the $5 pricetag afterall!

My kids love to “fix” things, especially the 4-year-old. He knows where we keep the screwdriver in the kitchen and more than once he’s gotten into Dad’s tools. He’s even managed to take the training wheels off his bike after patiently trying every rachet combination in the tool case. We keep an eye on him, of course, but try to give him a little rein to satisfy his curiosity.

BRAIN BLAST – help your kids understand how things work by letting them “fix” broken toys. Practice good safety and most definitely keep an eye on the work. Here are some things they might work on:

• Unscrewing the lid from the battery compartment
• Take apart a broken remote control car (How Stuff Works has a great explanation of how RC toys work)
• And, of course, taking the training wheels off their bike.

BKFK

Looks like they still need “active gaming ideas” for a related contest. Interesting theme – how kids can stay healthier by using video games. Can’t wait to read the entries on that one!