Hang a Right at the Moon

I had a hard time with Barney. Sir Topham Hat was a little stern.  The Backyardigans, well, they rock! So for the last 6-8  weeks that Sweet Marissa and her team has been preparing for Marsville and infamous link-up day, I have been humming "We're Going to Mars" by the Backyardigans. Just call me Uniqua.

The kids in the 4th grade class were divided into teams and each team was given a system that would need to be addressed if they were to actually live on Mars.  Marissa was part of the communications group, aka the "Cool Communicators". 

They came up with RoBob, a little robot communication pet that would shoot the messages off to earth and then show the return messages on his screen.  A cute and effective use of duct tape I might add.

Sweet Marissa then had to give a presentation to their class about RoBob, and she did a fine job.  So did Kyler.  Marissa and Kyler did a great job presenting - TOGETHER. (wink, wink, cough, cough).

But before any of that could happen, each team had to construct their "pod" or Mars habitat with 6X8 sheets of plastic, a whole lot of duct tape, a couple of box fans, and some furious praying by their parent volunteers.

And, by gump, it worked.  All six of them worked and were successfully linked together with a series of tunnels and doors and a whole lot of hot air.

It was so cool!!  What a great hands-on way to learn! Not only did they learn about Mars, but also time management, public speaking, and working together as a team. 

After each group had given their presentations, they had lunch.  Each team of five could only have 9 ounces of waste.  Let's just say everyone ate their crusts off their PB & J's that day. Then they got to go in this little jobby up above and check out the constellations.

Really, how fun is that?  The Captain was home and loved every minute of it.  He happily crawled into one of the pods and hung out with the kids as they gave their presentations.  Once again, great job 4th grade teachers! Thanks for all your hard work!

Now, I am going to secretly listen to my Backyardigans CD and jam out with Tasha, Uniqua, Tyrone and Pablo and Austin.

We're going to Mars

It's millions of miles away

But if you leave real soon

The shuttle will shuttle you there today.

Just hang a right at the moon.

We're going to Mars

We're going to Mars

Out in space the gravity's gone

So please keep your seat belts on

We're going to Mars...