After writing our "If I Were an Explorer" stories, the Navigators broke into small groups according to the type of exploration they had written about and began to work on Exploration Contraptions.
With some big boxes, lots of MakerSpace supplies and tons of imagination, we created three different contraptions--a Wardrobe Teleporter to Narnia, a Sailboat to the ends of the earth, and a Space Craft to the edges of the galaxy and beyond.
Entering into the world of Narnia, one must have snowflakes--just one of the many items found in the MakerSpace.
The Wardrobe has a key card entry system, of course.
This contraption kept growing and growing. Because of the great interest in this hands-on experience, what started as a week long project became a month long project.
It took great engineering skills to get the boat's sail to stand up.
Once the basic ship was built, it needed a bedroom, a kitchen, and a place for all the animals.
The joy of play--such a necessary component of education!
The planning stage of the space ship
The building stage--oh, the things you can do with a big box!
The detail stage
We even thought of (and found in the MakerSpace) headlights!
The play stage--sitting at the helm of the Space Craft and entering data in his computer.
It was a bittersweet day on the last day of 2016 when we took apart our contraptions. But we know that there are tons more things and places to explore and a whole lot of big boxes out there waiting to be transformed into something new and exciting.
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