Hexaflexagons

Hallo everyone!

 So today I decided as I math project to make a "How to make Hexaflexagons" thing.
 But what is a Hexaflexagon, you say? A Hexaflexagon is the coolest, awesomest, most amazing thing ever! It's a piece of paper in the shape of a Hexagon that you can flex! They are so much fun.
 I found out about them from the mathmusician Vi Hart. She has such a huge amount of cool maths stuff! I noticed, however, that if one wanted to make a Hexaflexagon from her videos, it is a little difficult. So I've tried to make easy-to-follow instructions for people.

 Vi Hart's pages:

 Vi Hartl's Youtube
 Vi Hart's website
Vi Hart's Soundcloud



                   How to make a Hexaflexagon


  Tools:

• Paper 
• Sicissors
• Stickytape
• pencil
• felt tip pens
• Ruler

Take the ruler and measure two centimeters from the longest side of the paper.  Cut it out, so that you are left with a long strip of paper. 

 

 Fold the paper on an angle to make an Equilateral triangle. You can then use it as a guide, and continue until all the paper is a nice happy fold of bouncy triangles. :)

 When you have done that, you are now up to making it into the Hexagon shape!



Unfold the triangles. They should look like the ones to the right. Once you've
done that you can fold them into the Hexagon shape. See the images below:

Once you have your ten nice equilateral triangles in the shape of a hexagon,you can cut off the others and glue/stickytape the paper together. 

 It is now officially a Hexaflexagon! All you need to do is colour it and get flexing!

So in the images above you can see that I've coloured one side, "flexed" it, coloured the second side, "flexed" it again and then coloured the third side. When it was flexed the third time we came back to colour one again - side one.

The Hexaflexagon Safety guide:   Safety Guide

If you really love Hexaflexagons, consider holding a party! Click here.

 I hope this is clear, and that many people enjoy the use of Hexaflexagons!!

Cheers!

On a recent homeschool morning, Arden and I had a pleasant time doing some school work in the park, playing games in the playground and watching some ducks.  On our journey home, we stopped for a drink, at a local cafe, and found they had this very cute Easter window display.  We both liked the way the reflection came up in the picture.

Arden has been experimenting with milkshakes recently (Gabriel started the unusual flavoured milk shake thing a few years ago).  Arden's shot of his drink.

This one shows up the point of interest.  Sweet paprika sprinkled on top!  The rest of it was vanilla (from a vanilla pod, cinammon and honeycomb)

And the following day, a chocolate version (you can see the honeycomb sinking!)

I'm currently working on knitting Damien a tie, in a biege sock wool, with purple spots.  I found a pattern online, and have made some adjustments to it.
http://www.purlbee.com/the-purl-bee/2012/1/19/lauras-loop-father-and-son-knit-ties.html
Arden is still working away at his knitting, and is doing really well.  He's picked up the knack of it very quickly.  Presently he knits 2rows a day, and it shouldn't be long til we can turn his knitting into a bag for his doll, Honey.
Gabriel is just in the process of turning the heel in his sock, so the end is getting nearer, which will be very satisfying.

Willow went to a history workshop at the Perth history centre recently and found it useful.  I was under the impression that it would be more of a look at an individual historical person/ incident, but it was more of a discussion about the centre and how they collect and store historical information, according to Willow.  Anyway, she really enjoyed it, so that was the main thing.

As part of history month, there was a display of old cars, bikes, buses and prams in Fremantle, so we went down to take a look.  Gabriel and Arden were both lucky enough to be invited to try out an old Harley.  It was very much like this.

Projects

Homeschooling with our busy crawling baby Irving has been rather hectic recently.  He's been enjoying our music and dancing outings, though sadly our dance lessons have ended for now.  Everyone has gotten quite good at rockabilly especially, and can do a bit of a few other rockabilly related styles.  We all got out to do quite a bit of dancing over the Easter break, and enjoyed watching the Cotton Tail trio on ANZAC day.

Prior to easter we went to see the Spare Parts Puppet theatre do a performance called , Hachiko, it was a very touching story about a dog, that spent years waiting for his master to meet him after work.  Apparently it has been made into a film,and strangely, my mum had bought it for my niece and nephew, the same week we went to see it. 

Arden's  block of cursive went well last term, and interestingly he said that he found it easier than printing.  We're making cursive practise part of form drawing to keep it part of his regular work. 

Here's his cursive and form drawing.

 

Craft wise Arden started with finger knitting, then onto a knitting fork and this week he started knitting.  He's being enjoying it so far.

He made his doll, Holly, a finger knitted scarfe.

His plan with his current knitting, is to make Holly an orange bag.

This is some work Arden and I did together on fractions; using kite paper to fold into different sizes.

And some modelling he and I did together.

Last term Arden started circus and music classes, and he's taken to them both very well.  I sat in the first few so I could see how he would go with taking turns, and putting his hand up, etc and after each lesson I gave him a few tips on how the "rules" work.  So during the holidays he went to his first class totally by himself, he was a little nervous, but had a wonderful time.  He came home with a t-shirt he had screen-printed, which he was very pleased about. 

Finally he's been getting inspired to try writing his own music.

Gabriel finished his perspective block successfuly, with some interesting pictures.  His breathing exercises were quite interesting.

 

 This is a building plan that he did for the block.

He's now onto physics, and has been working through light and sound so far with Damien.  These two pictures show a tealight reflected in a mirror appearing to be on the paper- the back tealight is the reflection.

Willow has been busy working on finishing her latest history project- a study of a medieval era painting.  Her craft projects are getting closer to completion- her blanket is coming along nicely, and her doll is finished, and is awaiting her clothing; so far she has a dress.

 

Gabriel and Willow have both been working on busking together recently too; playing flute and recorder together, as well as trying out Willow juggling or hoola hooping whilst Gabriel plays recorder.  They spent quite a bit of time doing this during the holidays. 

This is my experiment of grinding cacao beans and making hot cacao, in more of a coffee style.  Very tasty.

Arden and my cooking croissants.  Arden spreading the butter.

Ready for the oven.

 And ready to eat !  :)