Launching our Social Media Campaign

Today we are using weebly.com to make our own websites for our inventions. It lets you make free websites. We are using it to advertise our inventions.  It is used to inform people about our invention's name, cost, customer service, it's use, and how it works.  We will share the websites on Twitter for everyone to see.

Becoming a Business Owner

We spent the week using Google apps to create a business plan in Google docs.  We had to share information about our product: what it does, how much it costs, and what it is going to look like.  I learned it takes a lot of work to become a business owner.

We also had to create budgets using a spreadsheet in Google drive.  It was very complicated because sometimes all of our work got erased, and we had to start all over. Most of our class didn't care for the budget because it was hard. Some of our class liked it because their Google docs didn't erase. Over all,this project was hard and confusing.  I learned that making a spreadsheet to become a business owner is a lot of work because it is time-consuming and expensive.

Bohemian Guitars

   Last week, 5A had a special visitor come! His name is Shaun Lee and he and his brother invented the Bohemian Guitar. He got inspired by a man at a street market in South Africa. The man was selling guitars made out of recycled oil cans, and Shaun bought one. When he got back from South
Africa, he studied the old guitar and wanted to make one of his own. It is an old oil can, with an old guitar neck. They put on the strings by themselves! Shaun told us that he got started with Kickstarter campaign. One of the people from Shark Tank met Shaun and his brother and invested in their product.
    In class, we are coming up with business plans of our own. During Shaun's presentation, I felt that when he played the guitar it was a very soothing sound that reminds me of the beach. Rabbi Micah tried out the guitar too. He played rise up, and the whole class sang along. It was a really cool experience that I will never forget!!!!

All in a Day's Work

Yesterday we started to brainstorm ideas for our start-up project. We cut out pictures from magazines that represent ourselves and our interests.  We pasted them on a paper head to show the ideas in our heads.  The visuals for the ideas in our head helped us brainstorm the product that we would like to invent.  We know it has to be something we are super interested in because we will be spending a lot of time creating it, advertising it, and planning for its success.

We are also making a movie to show mechina students how to blog and be nice on the Internet.  Some of the tips include be nice, be very creative and have a lot of details to post on a blog so that it is interesting to read.  We are excited to teach the younger students about being good digital citizens.

Lego Candy Machine Anyone?

Yesterday, we reflected on why we made our ScratchJr creations and what inspired us.  We shared how we would make them different next time.  All of my classmates did really well.

Today, we are discovering a new type of design.  We are building a machine of our choice out of Legos.  All of the groups are cooperating together. My group is building a Lego candy machine. Tomorrow, we are going to program our Lego candy machine.   This is going to be a fun project!!!

Reflections by Mrs. Brown

I am looking forward to a great day of sharing and reflecting.  We will be doing a review of each of our ScratchJr. projects as they have now been set to music.  Then, using Padlet.com, we will be sharing our challenges, inspirations, and hopes for those who are interested in our inventions.   Click on this Padlet link to learn from our experiences.

SCRATCH JR. by Brooke

We are learning to program with Scratch Jr.  We each have an iPad to create a project using drag and drop programming.  In the beginning of class, we all start with a warm-up challenge and then share our creations.  Then, we get to program a project of our choice.  Because I love the way the ocean background appears, I am inspired to create a guy diving into the ocean at night.  All of the ocean creatures are trying to find him.  I am really enjoying this. I think everyone is enjoying this too.

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