Floam

Floam is a fun science & art project. If you don't know what it is, it is like silly putty with styrofoam beads mixed in. You can't exactly sculpt with it because the putty is not stiff enough, but it's very fun to play with.

Materials

  • 3 cups styrofoam beads

  • 1/2 cup school glue

  • 4 tsp borax

  • 1 cup water

  • Large bowl to mix ingredients together

  • Small bowl

  • Food coloring

 

Instructions

  1. Mix borax and water together in the small bowl.
  2. In the larger bowl, mix together the styrofoam beads, glue, and a few drops of food coloring.
  3. Stir in 6 TBSP of the borax/water mixture.

Paper Cutout Masks

paper cut out mask 2.JPG

Materials

  • Paper or cardstock in different colors
  • Scissors
  • Hole punch
  • Elastic string
  • Miscellaneous supplies for decorating

Instructions

  1. Cut out a face of person, animal, etc. Don't forget to cut out eye holes, too!

  2. Punch one hole on the right side of the mask. Repeat on the opposite left side.

  3. Thread some elastic string through the holes and knot it. 

  4. Decorate the mask with anything.

Tips

  • The kids, especially the youngest group, had a fair amount of trouble with this project. It was difficult to make eye holes so that it actually worked as a mask. Have an adult cut the holes out. 

  • For the elastic, you may want to measure some around the wearer's head for reference of how much to use. 

Jumping Figures

The puppets made in this project are fun to play with, but making them can be tricky for kids and adults alike. Hopefully, the steps below will help make the process easier.

Materials

  • Cardstock
  •  Scissors
  • Tape
  • Paper fasteners
  • Thin string
  • Hole punch
  • Markers
 

Instructions

1.      Cut out shapes from the cardstock to act as the legs, body with head, and arms of an animal/creature/alien. Decorate with markers.

2.      Punch a hole in each limb where it will be attached to another body part.

3.      Arrange the limbs underneath the body. Attach the limbs and body together by poking paper fasteners through the holes from above and opening the fasteners to lock. Keep the paper fasteners loose, though. The limbs won’t move easily if they are tight.

 

4.      On the backside of the puppet: tape a piece of string across the top pair of limbs, in this case, the arms. The ends of the string must be taped above the paper fasteners for the puppet to work. The string should not be very loose. Trim to size. Repeat for the legs.

5.      Take one long piece of string. Tie one end to the center of the string connecting the arms. Tie the string again, but this time around the center of the leg-connecting string. Leave the other end hanging down. There is no specific length the string should be. It will all depend on the size of your puppet. However, when the limbs are down, the string connecting the leg and arm strings should not be slack.

6.      To use, hold the puppet from the top and pull the string down. The limbs will move up.

 

Tips

  • Students found this project relatively difficult, and needed help figuring out how to join the pieces of cardstock together.
  • Keep the pieces, especially the limbs, wide. Kids like to cut them so narrow that a hole can’t be punched in them.
  • These instructions are based on a 4-limbed puppet. We found any more made the moving of the limbs particularly difficult.

Sources

  • Book: "Get Creative with Paper" by Paul Jackson and Angela A'Court

 

 

Marble Mazes

Materials

  • box (Nutrigrain, Teddy Grahams, etc.)

  • craft knife or scissors

  • straws

  • masking tape

  • marker

  • a marble

Instructions

  1. Tape the box shut.

  2. Cut out a large side of the box, like in the picture. 

  3. Cut straws to different lengths. Tape or glue down the straws to make paths for the marble to go through.

  4. Mark start and finish.

  5. Use the marble to try to get through the maze.

Tips

  • The kids also had fun trying out each other’s mazes and trying to make theirs “the hardest.”

  • While glue does keep the straws in place, tape works the best