R is for Racer...building days

I'm always fussing that kids don't ever get a chance to actually make stuff in schools these days, and try to do at least one "making" project every year to "Put my money where my mouth is". This Spring was going to be the Legacy class again building 6-Hour canoes but for some reason the class was canceled at the last minute so I had to come up with a new project.

My wife's pre-kindergarten class learns a new letter each week at school, and I found out that Legacy was cancelled around their "J" week. We'd done rubber band racers a couple of years before and the kids had a great time both building and racing them, so decided to do racers for both pre-k class for "R" week...37 racers in all. A ShopBot web site article on cutting the racers using a purpose-built vacuum jig is in the works, but here are some pictures of the kids building their racers earlier this week. The first morning was spent sanding (with the bonus of having "R"ough sandpaper for R week!) and painting them, and after the paint had dried over night they spent the next morning putting their racers together.