Jack O’Lantern Carving Fun

Each fall our family looks forward to carving pumpkins into jack o’lanterns in advance of Halloween. This year we did it pretty early in October, and unfortunately the weather was so warm the jack o’lanterns molded before Halloween! These were our creations this year!

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As you can see, lots of fun was had by all.

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This was Alexander’s design, which was a stormtrooper from Star Wars. I thought this was a very creative as well as challenging jack o’lantern!

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Alexander’s first debate tournament at Moore, Oklahoma

These are some photos from Alexander’s first debate tournament at Moore High School, in Oklahoma. He was in novice division as a 7th grader, and faced mostly 9th graders. The Lincoln Douglas debate topic currently is:

Resolved: The abuse of illegal drugs ought to be treated as a matter of public health, not of criminal justice.

Alexander preps for his debate round

Alexander and IB prepare for debate

Classen debate and speech team

These are some of Alexander’s flows of debate rounds he competed in. He did REALLY well, breaking into Octafinals! All the Classen teams dropped in Octafinals, however, and none advanced to quarters.

One of Alexander's Debate Flows

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Rachel, Sarah and Alexander Reflect on Creativity in our Oklahoma Schools

The 2010 Creativity World Forum is coming to Oklahoma City in two weeks. In advance of the event, Creative Oklahoma is sponsoring a Creativity Contest for Students, who are challenged to:

… show us your creative ideas for improving communities, schools and businesses so that Oklahoma remains a creative frontier. We invite all forms of creativity including, but not limited to, essay, video, photography, drawing, or mixed media.

Here are our entries!

Rachel, 1st Grade (Age 7) – The Importance of Art Class at School and Creativity

Sarah, 5th grade (Age 10) – Laptops, Creativity, and Trusting Students

Alexander, 7th grade (Age 12) – Legos, Creativity, and Schools

This was Rachel’s first take, which we are NOT submitting to the contest.

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Lego Building

I think this is the first good lego project that I have done by myself that I am proud of. I first started a clone battle pack  and made a decent ship from a youtube video (which in now taken down). I built that but wasn’t very happy because it looked crappy so I started changing peaces and adding new ones from my collection. After many revisions over it I came out with this. I am now proud of it, I like how I mad the engin and rear, the nice missals and guns, the cockpit, and it is all very stable. This definitely makes me one to stop by The Barn and get a little more serious.

Origami on YouTube

I have for some reason become interested in origami again. I had not done it in a long time but I suddenly searching for new origami figures to make. The first video I found was on how to make a phoenix.  The phoenix is very hard and very fast. It took me three try’s and three hours to make but is good looking. The first part is so hard he made a second video on how to make the bace. The next video I saw was on how to make a dragon. It is a lot slower and he talks about what he is doing an is in five, three minute parts. I recommend doing the dragon first and if you get it to try the phoenix.

Note: that the origami figures I make are kind of hard and you need to at least be able to make crane.

Alexander’s Award Ceremony at Classen SAS today

Alexander received four awards today at Classen SAS in the 6th and 7th grade awards assembly. We were sitting on the second row and I was able to video him receiving his certificates from Mr. Chaffin. He received awards for Beginning Band, Honors Science, Debate, and Social Studies.

Alexander also received a certificate for “Most Promsing Debater!” Congrats Alexander!

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Remembering “Go Green, Go Electric” from Earth Day 2009

Last year on Earth Day for the Film on the Fly digital storytelling contest, my kids and I created the three minute and fifty second video, “Go Green, Go Electric!” My son (who was 11 at the time) did some the editing for this video using iMovie, and I did the rest. In following the rules for “Film on the Fly,” we shot all the video for this movie using a cell phone. Since we wanted different people in different scenes (and my son couldn’t legally drive the car) we alternated being the videographer and being actors in the movie.

We actually won first place in the contest. This Flashlight comparison and was a lot of fun to create together, and certainly got us thinking more about the viability of electric car technology. When you want to cut your electricity bills, you should study Energyadviceline dobusiness electricty prices comparison so that you are aware of the electricity service charges of different companies on your area.

If you’re considering purchasing a Ram truck then be sure to schedule a test drive with a local Ram dealer near you today. Thanks to Miles Electric Vehicles of Tulsa, Oklahoma for helping us with this video!

Do you have a favorite student-created video focused on Earth Day and “going green?” If so, please share the link!

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