Happy Halloween!

Scrap Paper Airplanes

Last week, at the Brookdale Library we hosted an event where we invited 3rd-6th graders to come fold and fly paper airplanes. 

A mass of airplanes that we tested.

We selected six different types of airplanes, trying to find ones that were easy to fold, flew well and were unique in some way. There were six tables, one per plane. Each table had a volunteer that was willing and able to teach the folds. There were also printed instructions so that the students could practice folding them at home. 

The students got to decorate their planes.

In an adjacent empty room, we put tape on the floor so that folders could see how far their creations flew. Some of them went all the way across the room. That's over 30 feet!

We competed for distance.

W also made personalized certificates for all the students that folded four or more different airplanes. I thought this had a nice touch, since it actually reflected what they did. Often, certificates like this overstate a participant's skills, but I honestly think that all the students who got a certificate can fold a paper airplane.

 

It's official, I'm a Paper Airplane Engineer!

All in all, this was an awesome event and was well attended. We had students running around for the whole time we had the tables set up. The testing room had airplanes flying constantly, too.

I think I'll suggest we repeat this event sometime in the future.

Hamdmade Paper

If you read the previous post, you'll know that I participated in a day of paper-making goodness with Origami Minnesota. We made several sheets, all by hand, and it was awesome!

I thought I would share with you some of the paper we made:

Some of the paper was thicker and some was really really thin. The one above was thick, especially because it is double layered, each layer being thick individually.

 

This is my favorite one out of all of them, mainly because of the color mixture. I thought it might be cool to look at close up. This is as good as my camera will do.

 

The one on the bottom right is an odd one. I was experimenting with shaped molds, which is how I got the star in there. To be clear, I realize it is the Star of David, but there is no intended religious symbolism in it. That one is also odd in that I used the blue fiber, which had been mulched too much. It had the consistency of snot, which made it difficult to use, both physically and mentally. When I strained it, I put it on a shelf because it took so long for the water to seem out and when I tired to lay it neatly on the yellow sheet below it, a glob flew off and landed on the black one that is above it in the photo.

The lesson is, do not over mulch your pulp!