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Caterpillar & Geometry Cube

So today we headed to Lakeshore Learning for their free Saturday craft. I had a burst of energy so Hazel and I went. I stopped at Starbucks first for my chai. The craft today was a really cute caterpillar. I may use this idea for our butterfly party. It was just a rolled strip of green paper (which they had prepared), a brown piece of construction paper and another strip of green and glue, eyes and decorations. The antennae are just a pipe cleaner poked through the head. Isn't it cute?

While there we did some shopping. As always, we never buy things that are not on sale or clearance. On our way out, however, I found this great cube. As a former math teacher it really intrigued me, so I bought it. Getting it home I realized it would be easy to make one. So I made one as well. I made it from milkshake straws and stretchy string. You need six pieces of string and 12 pieces of straw (I cut them in half).
Step 1 is to string four of the straws and make a square. Tie the string tight (tighter than you think you need to since I went back and tightened mine up). Next using one of the straws on your first square make another square with three additional straws. Now you should have two attached squares. Using a straw from each of those (in other words stick another string through each one) and two more  straws make the third square. Keep making squares using the sides you have until you have the complete cube. The final straw should have two strings running through it (actually all of them will).

Now for some of the neat things you can do. Hazel enjoyed playing with this. She needed some help, but had fun moving it around. The little tag on the one I bought showed each of these being made.
Two-dimensional shapes are square, triangle, rectangle, trapezoid, and hexagon. The three-dimensional shapes are a cube (or square prism), tetrahedron (or triangular pyramid), and a square pyramid. It also showed how to make A, b, c, and d and discussed it as a game. Any letter that can be recognized by others works.

So much fun and so many things you can teach with it. Plus it is relatively easy to make and not too expensive to buy already made. Enjoy!

Tomorrow there will not be a Multicultural Monday since it is the first day of the Virtual Book Club for Kids Link Party. This month's author is Kevin Henkes. Stay tuned this week for lots of fun with this!

11 comments:

  1. amazing work! I like that is so versatile.

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  2. Ooh very cool tool! I need to look into my Lakeshore Learning and see if they have a craft Saturday. Thank you for linking up to The Sunday Showcase!

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  3. Really great DIY toy! I would be so grateful if you would link this up at Mom's Library!

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  4. This is really cool - as a math buff, I'll have to try it with my kids.

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  5. This is awesome!!!! I can't wait to make some for my kids!
    Thanks for sharing with my Super Link Party! :-)

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  6. I have featured this on the Sunday Showcase: http://www.herecomethegirlsblog.com/2012/08/25/sunday-showcase-maths-fun.html

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  7. Wow, these are fantastic. My son love shapes!

    Thanks for linking to Science Sparks xx

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  8. I LOVE your straw shapes!! That was such a CLEVER idea! Thanks for linking up at TGIF! I featured it this week: http://www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/2012/08/tgif-linky-party-45.html I hope you'll come by and link up again this week =-)

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  9. This is a really fun way to get kids to know their basic shapes, the hexagon is very colourful!

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I love to hear your comments and ideas. Thank you for reading and contributing!