Invention Ideas for 1St Grade Project

talk to the teacher and find out what they mean for 'prototype'. My daughter had this project and what they really wanted was for the kids to use their imagination and make a model of it. Her idea was a mechanical bird, her 'prototype' was made of cardboard toiletpaper rolls paper and markers.

Wrap a broom handle with velcro. Decide on a name. Use it to get dirty clothes out from under the bed. This won at my school several years ago.

Ok, N., I have a simple one for you. Both my boys did this for their Invention Convention.It is simple and practical.One called it "The Car Stopper Thinga-ma-Bopper", the other called it "The Ca Stopper Thinga-ma-gig".It is just what the name suggests.A ball you hang in the garage to indicate when you should stop-useful around here as I can never quite figure out where to stop,lol.
We went to michaels and bought a styrofoam ball, spray painted it red and with scrapbooking sticker letters put "STOP" on it. We used some floral wire we had in the house to hang it-you can use any number of things,maybe fishing line.Anyhow, it is a breeze to assemble,transport to school and presents really well. Both their teachers really liked it.
Good luck...don't u just love projects????

Don't go about it trying to make something new - I think that when we did it, we took an existing product and thought about ways to improve it - how can you make this better? I think we did a pot holder holder and sewed velco onto the backs of some potholders, then covered a small piece of wood with fabric (that had the opposite side of the velcro sewed on) and hung it on the wall in the kitchen, so that if you were in need of a pot holder, you could find one easily - with out having to search thru drawers or pull off of a hook somewhere. We like to cook alot - so this was a pretty handy idea to come up with. I would go that route - look for things that you might like to improve and then just do it - then you won't have to create something entirely original - you'll have the place tostart, and you should be able to finish up pretty quickly. :) Good LUck!

We held an Invention convention at my kid's school years ago and it was amazing some of the ideas that were presented. A question you might ask is "What would make this better or easier to use?" Pick a household item or a toy and brainstorm ways to make it better, more fun or more usable! Kids invent things all the time. Is the game too hard to play? They make up their own rules. What problem do you have around your house? the dog knocks the water bowl over--what could you use to keep the bowl standing?? how about tape?? what about string?? what about velcro?? This is actually a very cool project. It gets kids thinking about things and how they were invented.

You might be surprised what kind of things they can come up with to make their ideas come to life. My son uses paper towels and rolls, sticks, cardboard. See if she can take an idea and see what happens. She might really surprise you. I always have my son draw me a picture first then he looks at it and decides what he needs to make it.

Just an idea. Good luck.
H.

I'm sure you've heard the saying that necessity is the mother of all invention!

Since she is so young, maybe you can think of some things she is interested in and wants to improve upon. Another approach is to consider a problem that needs a solution. Once you have some ideas, present them to her. She may get really excited about one or it may help guide her to another idea of her own that is practical and simple enough.

For example, maybe she often loses her pencil and she wants to invent a pencil keeper that attaches from the pencil to her wrist or clipboard or something. The important thing is for her to do something that is relevant to her. You will have to help guide her in order to make it practical and probably help her to keep it fairly simple. At the same time, really encourage her to use her imagination and creativity to design this invention.

If you'd like more help, school projects are one of the things I do to help kids in my business, Accelerate Academic Services. My website it www.acceleratekids.com if you'd like to check it out.

Good luck! Who knows you guys might actually invent something that will help others and make millions!

I don't know exactly what the purpose of the assignment is, but if it is to spark your daughter's imagination maybe making a fantasy-type prototype could be a lot of fun. Toilet paper tubes, paper towel rolls, tape and paper could be put together to make something really silly that she thought up on her own. I am hoping in grade one they are not expecting something that could actually be marketed! Let her imagination go wild. Sounds like it could be a fun activity for both of you.

My son did this in 1st grade last year and the invention did not actually have to work. He just had to make a design of it and describe what it would do. I would stick with you daughter's idea and do the best you can. His idea was a cake machine that you just push the buttons to decide the type of cake you want and it makes a cake. The cutest one in his class was a washing machine (made out of cardboard) that told you if you had too many clothes, you have red in with the white clothes - she had a tape recorded the responses. I would try to figure how you can go with one of your daughter's ideas to make it her own.