I Pity the foos

Week 3 of the Connect: Engineering program

Another week in the books for Connect: Engineering! Week three was certainly a more challenging, but fun night for the kids, and the volunteers too! This week we made our very own foosball tables out of regular household supplies, which was a ton of fun.

To begin the night, we did a bit of a different warm up activity, which was a lego building challenge (because who doesn’t love lego??). The kids were instructed to build an earthquake proof building out of lego, with limited time, so they had to think and work fast! After the time ran out, volunteer Jaidyn or I put the lego buildings to the test - we shook the desk underneath it to see if it would hold out or tumble! This was such a fun warm up activity for the kids, and us volunteers loved it as well.

After the lego engineering concluded, it was time for our main activity: make your own foosball table! The kids were given a "stadium," which consisted of a cardboard gift box, clothes pins, long paper straws, and ping pong balls. The kids had to puncture straws through the sides of the box to create the game, and add on the clothes pin "players" to create teams. Both ends of the cardboard box had an opening for goals. The kids could customize their players and box with some colour if they chose. Most of the group just drew smiley faces on their pins or coded them with a color. This activity was more challenging, but once the stadium was complete, the kids had loads of time to play against each other! They were so excited that they created a well known game of their own out of some basic household supplies.

Along with all the fun building that was taking place, we talked about some great topics! Everyone shared how their Thanksgiving went, which prompted the debate of which is better: turkey or ham. Mostly everyone agreed that they like ham more! The kids also expressed their excitement about the new pool opening in PG – specifically, how there’s a ninja obstacle course over the water! And, of course, there was lots of competitive chatter about the rules of foosball.

Overall, this week was very busy, but also so fun! It’s so great to see the kids working with their hands to create things they may have never thought of before. Fun fact – fine motor activities such as the ones we do in Connect: Engineering can improve independence, hand-eye coordination, and improve cognitive development in children – so many benefits from such fun activities.

Next week’s activity is sure to be a fun one, with an egg drop challenge! Check back next week to see how that goes!

October 11th, 2022
-Amy, BigsNBC Program Coordinator