"My robot has eyes on the side, and the back and everywhere. You can't outlook it because it has eyes EVERYWHERE!"
"I sit in here so I can blast off!"
This week in our preschool summer camp, construction was our theme. Very early on in the week cardboard boxes were introduced as a material. When the children were asked what they would like to make with them, one of the boys eyes widened as he exclaimed, “LETS MAKE ROBOTS!”… and so it was. Toiling away, adding wires and more wires, the first robot began to take shape, and it quickly inspired the other children in the class to make their own robots.
Our first robot inventor initially declared, “No one can go inside this because it’s electric!” When his friends asked if he was the only one who could go inside he said, “No, not even me… only people that are made of wires.” But after a few moments passed he seemed to realize the benefits of being able to enter his robot, so he decided that he could go in his robot. When I asked him about how this was possible, and reminded him that only people who are made of cables are allowed inside, he tells me, “We have cables inside our bodies.'” When i ask him what they do, he tells me that they help him breathe and then further elaborates this point by showing me some wires on the top of his robot, (that he has been referring to as the smoker) and says, “When I breathe, the smoker, it takes the air and then blows it away from my body…” And the issue is quickly resolved with confidence and imagination. Soon his robot who started off as a happy cooking robot becomes half robot/half spaceship and he’s ready to blast off!
We are eager to watch how all of our robots will evolve and transform in the coming weeks, and to find out a little bit more about the cables inside us.
Charleson Park Children's Centre Atelier Blog 
Wonderful blog entry as always! I like the way you leave the reader thinking about what might come next.
I wonder if some of those robot/rockets might have a robot voice, to say robotish things like, “Ready to blast off from Charleson Park. Countdown beginning on the mark. ”
If so, you can apply the “Old Robot” voice effect to any text (and change pitch and speed) at http://www.cepstral.com/demos/ . There are also other sites with robot voices.
The kids would of course decide on the text.
Might be cool to have a voice emerging from a robot, like the voice that emerged from the Sorting Hat at our Harry Potter retreat. (It was just a cell phone tucked inside the hat.)
Thanks Carl, that’s a great idea- that i’m sure the kids would love!
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Wow, that looks like fun – so creative and imaginative. Is there no end to what can be made from a cardboard box?
One evening this weekend while I was biking home I encountered a huge ship in a park made entirely out of cardboard boxes, with sheets and blankets for sails- it was probably 30 feet long, and such a surprise to see. Sadly, I did not have my camera, and the next day it was gone… but it seems that there really is no end to the fun you can have and the things you can make with a cardboard box.
Earlier today we were out in Charleson Park with the class of the Robins, we were writing a story full of animals and adventure and I thought back to that ship in the park… and i started dreaming about what grand structure the Robins would make if they only had enough boxes… PROJECT: Collect Boxes – begins!