Hi again, y'all. The next Art project I'm going to showcase is a little more mathematical, the Paper Polyhedron. I wanted Jack to participate in this one, much to his chagrin, partly because I felt like he could use the fine motor skills, partly because it wouldn't hurt any of the kids to think a little more mathematically now and then ;), and partly because I wanted a set of three colorful balls to decorate our space. Hello, ulterior motives, much? Hee!
This post over at Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational explains the project a little more in-depth than I plan to, maybe, but we'll see where it goes. It's where I got the template, anyway, for the 30 pieces needed to assemble this particular polyhedron, so if you plan on doing that, you'll need to head over there to download the PDF.
Chloë actually started cutting out her 30 pieces first, but Sophia was finished first and got right to assembling when she was ready. There is so much competition between these two girls sometimes, it's ridiculous, for everything from schoolwork quality and speed to music interests, to parental attention and time. It's frustrating, but you should know this, if you plan on doing this project with more than one kiddo: cutting the pieces is extremely time-consuming. It took them each a few days to find the time between other activities to cut their pieces out. Just don't make the same mistake I did and go out and buy 30 sheets of paper for EACH kid. DUH! I can read, I swear, but right now my logicker is broken while I work through whatever this mystery illness is that I have! It's only 10 sheets per kid, because each sheet will have three pieces on it. What was I thinking?! Oh well, now we have enough for two more if Rob and I want to get in on the immense amount of work fun, too.
Since my children are decidedly older than the kiddos at Deceptively, I wanted them to be a little more independent with this task. I gave them a few bits of information and then just let them go and do. Once Sophia played around with the first few joins, after learning that each join would have either 3 or 5 pieces involved with it, she was good to go.
Sophia, who is not a fan of brushing her hair these days(!), was finished before I blinked twice. It looks so cool, doesn't it?! They're really pretty when joined up with a few polyhedral friends, too.
Chloë finished her polyhedron next, with as little involvement from me as Sophia had received. Love her color choices, too (bottom ball)! Chloë, by the way, is very specific about having favorite this, favorite that for everything. Or "best this" or "that," or whatever. So for this project, she had her favorite and second-favorite joins, including that 5-point wheel with the dark blue at the middle bottom of her ball in the photo. Kid cracks me up!
Jack, on the other hand - and maybe you can tell from his "angry eyebrows" - struggled quite a bit with this project. He's not great at cutting out such fine, detailed shapes as the scroll-y corners on these pieces, nor was he willing to just work and try to start connecting the pieces on his own. My patience grew a little thin after a while of trying to assist him, so his older sister kindly took over that task for me. She's really going to be a great mom someday I think, by the by...
When he was finished, I think all of us were relieved - but he did it! So go, Jack!
And voilà! Here are the three of my babes, happy to have completed what turned out to be a pretty cool project after all. Now, where shall I hang them...?
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Thanks for stopping by!
Fin.
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