Chain

Dozens of sheets of paper, hundreds of staples, and a pair of scissors can occupy two five-year-olds for a very long time. And they're still at it. Kate is making this for show and tell at school. If they bring something they made, they get a round of applause from the group.
They got the idea from school where they add a link to a chain each day of school. At school, the teaching point is to help the kids learn about patterns. Four black links, one red link, four black links, one red link, and on and on for the entire year. The kids have been updating me on how long the chain at school is getting on about a weekly basis. It's as tall as their teacher right now.

We've got the school chain beat by a long shot. Our chain is about 80 feet long right now (but lacks the pattern element). When the kids finally tell me they are finished, I think I'll have them take it outside and stretch it along the front of the house and take another photo, so there's an update coming to this post. In the mean time, when I need to divert some fighting activity, I'll remind them about the chain. After they walked it around the hallway, kitchen and living room this evening to check the length, they gave each other a high five and shouted something about team work.