Week Thirty-One Solutions: Houses and Huts

Once again, Snufkin and Moomintroll beat everyone to the punch! You guys should be proud of your creative solutions! They're magnificent. Snufkin drew templates for her house on paper and cut the windows and doors, before assembling it . She used the band-aids and paper-clips to stick the walls together. She used a little of the chewing-gum to stick a little house-sign by the door. She topped it off with a chimney for extra height. We thought hers looked rather like a traditional dolls' house.



Moomintroll used origami sections for his walls (the start of an origami piano). He then connected the walls together using paper-clips. He made the roof using flat sheets of paper laid across the top. He finished it off with a chewing gum and cup tower.




We just had an entire class join us for this one! They did a marvelous job! Big applause to you all!

Check out these houses:


Here is an amazing video from another class that joined us on this one:

click here


If you want to learn more about other cool projects that they have done, go here.

Week Thirty-One - Houses

Build a house that is at least 9 inches long and 9 inches high using: 1 package of chewing gum, 1 paper cup (if you don't have one handy, just do it without the cup), paperclips, 5 8.5 x. 11 sheets of paper, 3 toothpicks, and 3 bandaids. You may use scissors during construction but not in the solution.

Week Thirty Solutions - Precious Puppets

Boo and Zee at Journey into Unschooling made a video of their puppets! Finding the limited amount of tape to be the biggest challenge, Zee and Boo constructed their puppets out of straws, paper, string, paper clips, and the little bit of tape allowed. Boo rolled his paper up and made a 3D dog, attaching each piece as he finished them. The way in which he attached the legs to the body was interesting -- he first looped one end of the clips onto the body and then stuck the other end into the center of the leg rolls. In other words, the legs were held in place by the paper clip-tension. Zee drew out his design on paper first, before cutting it out and attaching the pieces. He made a person whose head and limps were woven together using paperclips. Be sure to watch their video; it's magnificent!

Snufkin decided to make a robot because she had lots of nice silver paper left over from Christmas. She made a box out of the silver paper and joined it together with little paper bolts. She made a box head; attached jointed limbs on with the paper clips; attached string to the limbs and attached these strings to a marionette-style t-shaped bar. Check out her video here.

Week Thirty -- Puppets

Using the following materials, design a puppet that moves in at least two different ways. It may NOT be a hand puppet.

6 straws or pencils
a 12 x 12 square of aluminum foil
6 paper clips
6 inches of tape
paper
string

You may use scissors in construction but not in the solution.

When you are done, check out this.

Cool Crazy Cantilevers -- Week Twenty-Nine Solutions

Jake built a canteliever 45 inches from the counter edge. He used a 1/4 of a packet of spaghetti and a 1/4 of a roll of tape. Cool!


Boo and Zee also joined the fun. Using spaghetti and tape, they constructed cantilevers that were only supported by one end of the dining table. Zee immediately made a bundle of spaghetti "for strength". Their cantilevers were 36 and 27 inches! Magnificent. You can read more about it here.







Moomintroll and Snufkin also created some creative cantilevers! Tremendous. Moomintroll simply taped some spaghetti together as long as it could support itself and then taped one end directly to the table. It could support a roll of sellotape, although as the roll was moved along away from the table, the cantilever was less able to support it.



Snufkin constructed hers with tape supports rather like those on a suspension bridge. Hers was also able to support a roll of tape and extend slightly further.



The Leingangs joined late on this one but did an incredible job -- theirs held a full box of cereal!:

Week Twenty-Nine -- Crazy Cantilevers

Put a box of spaghetti and a roll of scotch tape on the table and tell your students to construct a cantilever that extends as far as possible. The structure must be attached to the top of the table and may not be attached to anything else. Measure the length of the cantilever and send in your pictures! If you want this to be even more challenging, build the longest cantilever that can support a box of cereal.

To learn more about cantilevers, go here.

Nail Structure Solutions

Harrison did a marvelous job with this open-ended challenge. Check out his suspension contraption! Congratulations on your clever solution!


Moomintroll and Snufkin joined us again for this challenge and, as usual, they both did a tremendous job thinking outside of the box! Snufkin concentrated on getting as many straws off the ground as possible. She built a very long platform and pushed the nails through the straws. She then managed to balanced the remainder of 221 straws (4 were used for Daddy's birthday) on top of her construction. Moomintroll made three base tripods using a combination of nails and straws (no tape). Here he is considering his structure so far. He then created a freeform structure on top of his base and reached great heights (and widths). Neither of the children used the tape. Amazing what you can build with a little creativity! See more pics here.

Week Twenty-Eight -- Nails

You will need lots of straws, 5 inches of tape and 15 3-inch nails.

Build a structure with your nails that will hold as many straws as possible and as high off the table as possible. You may not use the tape on the straws!

Tremedous Tool Bridges

Zee did an amazing job with his tool bridge. You can read more about it here.




Here are Ross (10yo), Sadie (8yo), and Marcy (6yo) with their bridge. Ross designed and executed the concept.His sisters were the helpers! They did a magnificent job! Glad to have you join us! Hope to see you again.




Gryphon did a great job with his tool bridge. He made his using a wooden sword and ratchet pieces among some other tools. He should be proud!