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An inventor is someone who comes up with ways to solve problems or make tasks easier. Check out the mini-lesson "How do you become a great inventor?" to learn more about inventions and inventors.
A woman named Josephine Cochran invented the dishwasher so that people could clean their dishes more easily. Discuss: Do you have a chore that a machine could help you do?
Choose a chore you want a machine to help you with. Then act it out — pretend to do the chore.
Think about how a machine could help with your chore. Draw a picture of your machine.
When your picture is done, find a partner. Tell your partner what your invention does and how it works.
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In this Read-Along lesson, twins Mimi and Lulu try different ways to catch a mysterious nighttime visitor…until they hit on just the right solution. The lesson includes a short exercise where students imagine how to design a good monster trap, and then pretend to be sneaky monsters. You can extend the lesson with the optional activity, Be an Inventor, where students draw their own inventions for machines that do chores.
Preview optional activity|
Blank Paper (8.5 x 11")
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30 sheets |
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Crayons
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30 crayons |
As an optional activity, we suggest you have your students explore what it takes to be an inventor. Have them watch the mini-lesson "How do you become a great inventor?" to start them thinking about the inventions all around us.
Then each student will think about and act out a chore they do. You may have to remind them of possible chores, such as making their bed, feeding the cat, walking the dog, setting the table, or picking up their toys. After acting out a chore, students will think up a machine that could help with this chore and draw their machine. Finally, students will share their drawing with a partner and explain how their machine works.
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