Shoes

Use the following materials to create a wearable pair of shoes: 2 12 x 12 inch squares of fabric or aluminum foil, 48 inches of duct tape, 2 12 x 12 inch squares of cardboard. You may also use scissors and hot glue if necesary. Good luck. Send picures!

Summer Challenges

Use the following materials to build a water wall:

a 4 x 4 foot piece of wood
2 feet of pvc piping
10 paper or plastic cups
10 straws
6 index cards (can be laminated if you want)
duct tape
4 nails
2 items of your choice

You may use a hammer and permanent sharpies as well. Be careful. Have fun. Get wet!

Look at this for inspiration:

Good luck! Send pictures.

Another Idea from Toadhaven

Materials: 100 craft sticks, as many dominoes as you can find, string, straws, and paper and 10 items of your choice.

Create a "bomb"

Watch this first for inspiration:

Frenetic Kinetics! from lunatim on Vimeo.

Inspired by Toad Haven

What you need: Imagination. Magnifying glass. Sun. Wood.

Create a magical piece of art using the sun! Send pics and we'll post. Be careful -- playing with fire is dangerous -- be sure to supervise this one!

Blindfold Drawing

I have been very busy with Charlotte Community School for Girls and have been unable to post new challenges. But, this week, we are going to try a new one at school. It is a variation on other challenges we've done, but a fun one. You need a partner, a blank piece of paper or posterboard, a black sharpie, colored markers and a blind fold. Each person should blindfold themselves and use a black sharpie to draw on the paper or board for 3 minutes. You may draw whatever you like. Then, switch papers and do the same thing again. Once the 6 minutes are up, take off the blindfolds. Exchange papers again. Use the colored markers to finish your masterpiece. Send us the pictures!

Check out these awesome pictures!

Duct Tape

Place a roll of duct tape on the table. The challenge: make something 3 dimensional that represents innovation. Good Luck.

Recycled Art

Take 6 items from your trash bin (not recycling bin) and wash them off. Then, use paint and glue to design something that the world did not know it was missing!

Simple Machines

How many simple machines can you make from 10 paper clips and 2 pieces of 8.5 x 11 paper? Show us!

Rope Bridges

Using yarn, rope, or string, construct a bridge that spans 12 inches and holds as much weight as possible. You may attach your bridge with tape or nails. Send in pictures that show the construction details and the weights on the bridge.

Post It Towers

Can you build a tower from a pad of post-it notes? How high? Good luck.

Pencil Puppets

The materials: pencils, paperclips, nails, saw or knife (be careful!), one other item

Create a puppet that moves. Send in your pics. We're eager to see them.

Bricks and blankets

Zee has some awesome answers for you:

Throw the blanket over someone and whack them with the brick.
Tie blanket around brick to make a parachute.
Tie blanket around the brick and use as a hard pillow.
Hollow out brick and cut piece of blanket to use as sailboat.
Tie blanket into a knot and juggle it with the brick.
Dig a hole and cover with the blanket. Put the brick in front of it and make pit fall trap.
Break a shard of brick and use as a pin to wear the blanket.

See his pictures here as well.

Collaborative Drawing Solutions

Check out these phenomenal drawings from Boo and Zee:

Old movies etc.

Find some old CDs, DVDs, tapes, etc and make a person with articulated parts. Good luck!

Glue and flour

The challenge: build something with glue and flour and one other object -- be creative. Think outside of the box! Good luck. Send in your pictures.

Junk Drawer Robots

These are some awesome creations!! Check them out by clicking on the word these.

And, so are these!




Thank you all for your patience with my delay in posting.

Paper and Pencil

The only things that you need for this challenge are a stop watch, paper, and pencil. In 60 seconds, write down all of the things that you can do with a brick and a blanket. If your list is less than 10 items long, give yourself another 60 seconds and add some more. Good luck! Share your lists -- we'll make one big list.

Airplanes

Everyone has made an airplane out of paper, but can you make one out of fabric and one other item? Will it fly?

Good luck.

Junk Drawer

Do not tell children why, just direct them to choose 15 items from your junk drawer. If you don't have a junk drawer, have them choose 15 random items that will fit in a shoe box.

The challenge: to build a robot. Only one adhesive item may be used in construction -- glue, paperclips, tape, string, etc.

Super challenge: build a robot with articulated parts.

Good luck. Don't forget to send pictures.

Rubberbands

I am always trying to figure out what to do with the bags of rubberbands that we have -- not sure where we got them or why --

So the challenge is to make a rubberband puppet -- you may use two items: paper and rubberbands. You may use scissors and markers in construction but not the solution.

Send videos if possible.