Week Eighteen - Kites

Make a kite with the following materials:
10 straws
2 sheets of newspaper
10 paper clips
10 mailing labels or 10 inches of tape
5 wooden sticks (from outside unless you have others)
5 feet of string

Take a picture. And, see if you can get it to fly! If it is too cold outside, use a blow dryer to test it! Send pics and/or video.

If you get really interested in kites, check out this site.

Holiday Challenge

Your challenge is to build a tree using only the materials below. It should support as many birds/ornaments as possible. The jelly beans or pennies will represent the birds/ornaments. The tree must be constructed on a flat surface. The tree must have a trunk, branches and leaves.

2 sheets of paper
4 inches of tape or 4 mailing labels
2 drinking straws
5 noodles (any kind)
3 spaghetti noodles
10 inches of string
1 piece of chewing gum
3 paperclips
1 6” square aluminum foil
And, lots of jelly beans or pennies (these are the birds/ornaments).

As always, send us your results and pictures!

Hands Free Art Solutions

Ok, I have gone back through old emails and hopefully retrieved those that were not posted in a timely manner. Here are the solutions sent for the art challenge in December:

Gerrick did an awesome job!




To read more about the process, click here.



Tyler heard the details and immediately threw out most of the items and decided one cup of watercolor, a straw, and a piece of paper was enough materials for him. He then took the straw and used it to drop the paint on the paper and then used it to blow around the paint into an "explosion"! He made ornaments with these when he was done. Excellent art, Tyler!





Chloe (11), Tessa (8), Teo (6), and Deva (3) created some superb hands free art. You should be proud!

Week Sixteen - Art

Make a piece of art using the following materials: 2 rulers, 2 paperclips, 1 piece of paper, 3 colored markers, 1 cup of paint, 2 straws, crayons. You may not touch the paper, the markers, the paint, or the crayons with your hands. When you send pics, be sure to describe the creation process!

Musical Vegetables -- Solutions

Note: I am a bit under the weather but hope to post some more submissions today. I will try to get things loaded tomorrow.

This was a hard challenge, but Moomintroll and Snufkin came up with some awesome solutions! For their video, go here.

Moomintroll was ambitious and tried several methods of making a wind instrument. First he tried something like a recorder. He found putting a toothpick across the blowing hole helped the sound a little. He then tried making a separate mouth piece which he inserted into a hollowed carrot. This time he didn't have a hole at the end. It was tricky to get a good sound from the carrot though.

Snufkin made a percussion instrument with toothpicks of gradually increasing size for different notes. She called it a 'beezer' after a bee. The toothpicks make a buzzing sound and the toothpick at the base is like the bee's sting.

You guys should be very proud of yourselves for working with a very hard challenge and coming up with great solutions!

Week Fifteen- Vegetables

Put a carrot, a zucchini, some spoons and forks, toothpicks, and another 2-3 fruits or vegetables of your choice on the table. Tell your students to make an instrument and then play it. Send me pics AND video this time!

Students may use knives and drills in construction if parents/teachers approve and supervise.

When you are done but not before, check this out and this.

Week Fourteen -- Radical Rock Solutions

Jessie made a really radical rock tower! Great job Jessie.



Trey and Selena also did an awesome job stacking rocks!



Taylor (13) used lava rocks (all but 2 of them) for rock balancing. There is snow on the ground where he lives so he wasn't too keen on going for a walk to track down other rocks. While working on this he wondered if cave-kids did this sort of a thing as a game way back when. To add to the fun, Taylor also photoshopped his tower onto a background! Magnificent job Taylor!




Georgia, 8, joined us for the first time this week and she did an awesome job! Hope to see you again!








Olivia also joined us for the first time. She is 5 and did an absolutely wonderful job stacking!







Nathan and Christopher did a magnificent job with their rock stacks!





And, Gerrick built a tremendous tower of rocks!



Explore Academy used some small painted Halloween rocks that were on hand. Good job stacking!





The Leingangs did an absolutely maginificent job with their rock towers!





We have more solutions from Tolly, Cal, Levi and their mom. You can read more about them here. You guys should be very proud!