This activity is definitely a lot of fun, but it also carries with it important stipulations.  First, be sure that your students understand that this assignment not only deals with tactile inventions, but that a large part of it is writing.  It will be easy for your students to only concentrate on creating a magnificent invention, but forgetting the importance of writing it all up.  Whether your students want to use a newspaper article format to better explain their invention, or use an advertising format to persuade perspective buyers, is irrelevant.  As long as they understand that they are to discuss aspects of their machine in detail and that they should tell a little about the inventors (themselves), and the history behind their machine, then they understand the main points of the lesson.

 The best part of this lesson is that it gives a new and creative insight to writing.  They do not have to describe a place they have never been or invent a new idea all on their own.  With partners they manipulate an object and use their imaginations to come up with all sorts of other ways to use a rather “normal” object.

Helpful Hints:

*Make sure students have enough room in which they can manipulate their objects.  This might require moving the class to the gym or outside of the room if the objects get to be too large.

*Remember that no invention is too ridiculous.  Since the main objective of this lesson is creative writing, no invention should be overruled.  Just be sure that the students adequately explain and describe in detail about their inventions while writing their papers.

*As an example to introduce the lesson, the teacher might want to demonstrate an invention of his or her own to get the students thinking.