Hexaflexagons - How amazing is this paper folding?

What is a hexaflexagon? A strip of paper, folded into triangles that can do some really cool flips!

Cool videos:

• Vi Hart video about Hexaflexagons 
• Vi Hart video about Hexaflexagons, Part 2 
• Vi Hart Hexaflexagon Safety Guide
• Vi Hart Flex Mex
• Vi Hart - How to Make a Tri-Hexaflexagon (advanced method) 

Written instructions and templates:

• Instructions for making tri-hexaflexagon
• Flexagon.net The biggest collection of flexagon facts and fun!
• Aunt Annie's Crafts - good hexa-hexaflexagon templates

Hour of Code Challenges from code.org

December 5-9 is Computer Science Education Week, and code.org has developed a number of fun Hour of Code challenges.

Here are some great activities to choose from.

Making art:

• Code with Elsa and Anna - Drawing Snowflakes and Patterns
• Artist - draw shapes and patterns  

Solving puzzles:

• Moana - Wayfinding Puzzles
• Kodable Puzzles
• Build a Galaxy with Star Wars - Blocky
• Minecraft - Adventurer - solve puzzles 

More challenging puzzles:

•  Build a Galaxy with Star Wars - JavaScript
• Minecraft - Designer - Program the characters to do what you want

For math lovers who want a programming challenge:

• Introduction to MATLAB Hour of Code challenge 

For those who want to try activities with Python:

• Python with Penjee
• Turtle Graphics with Python - does not work properly

Cardboard Challenge

MaKey MaKey building

Baking Soda and Vinegar Volcanoes

Scratch Starter Projects

Here is a selection of good starter projects in Scratch. Look at the code, figure out what it does, then change it to make it different!

1. Paint with Gobo
2. Wizard Spells
3. Spiral Maker

CS First and Pythonroom Coding Choices

Google's CS First computer science club materials are great places to get started with coding for students in grade 4 and up. Pythonroom.com is a good interactive website to learn the basics of python coding.

Choose from one of the following five projects from Google's CS First or pythonroom.com:

1. High Seas Animation and Story
2. Gumball's Coding Adventure
3. Musical Art
4. Platform Jump Game
5. Pythonroom

Computer Science First

Google has created an excellent resource for learning Scratch, with lots of ideas and helpful videos to assist students with independent learning.

Check out this link below to see the different options available:

Computer Science First

You will need a Scratch username and password to be able to complete the activities.

Caine's Arcade and the Global Cardboard Challenge 2017

Here is an amazing video that tells the story of what one nine-year-old boy can do with some cardboard, spare time, an imagination:

Caine's Arcade

There is in fact a whole web page dedicated to Caine's continuing story:

cainesarcade.com

Here is an inspirational video showing how some elementary students in Bermuda celebrated Global Cardboard Challenge Day in 2014:

Global Cardboard Challenge Day 2014 Bermuda

And here are some students in France:

Global Cardboard Challenge Day 2014 France

To see more videos of other cardboard challenge days, go to:

More Cardboard Challenge Videos

To learn more about Global Cardboard Challenge Day, go to:

Global Cardboard Challenge Day

Learning About Our Eyes

During their current unit, the grade 1/2/3 class is learning all about their bodies. Here are some interesting stories and experiments about our eyes:

• Experiment: Are Two Eyes Better than One?
• Experiment: The Red, White and Blue
• Experiment: Catch the Penny

• Really Cool Optical Illusions 

• I was born blind, Julia's story