icosahedron

We made an icosahedron today out of bamboo canes. An icosahedron, for those of us whose geometry is a bit rusty, is a 20 sided polygon. Gamers, think d20. Our icosahedron was of the regular variety. See wikipedia for some examples of other varieties and a more complete definition.

Anyway, it was brilliant. The kids used masking tape to fasten the ends of the bamboo into regular triangles, which were fastened to each other, until there was this enormous, vaguely soccer ball football shaped object in the middle of the room. Here’s a shot of the kids inside it when it was about half-way compete:

We managed to come home with a big bundle of bamboo which I’m hoping to build things with in the yard garden. While chatting with another parent, we had some ideas for alternate building materials, including straws and toothpicks. I’m think we might have a geometry unit coming up?

We had a couple of other activities happening today. The kids and I went to a “Play and Recycle” center, which was basically a big room full of junk that people should probably have thrown away. Instead, we came home with a couple of bags full of cool stuff to use in all sorts of projects. River picked up some fabric, ribbon, and thread that she’s planning to sew into some sort of clothing. We got a couple bags of balloons, some blank stickers, tracing paper, some empty containers, candle holders, wooden sticks of assorted sizes, and more. It’s a cool idea.

Molly took the kids to art class after the bamboo workshop. The theme for the last two weeks has been clay. I guess they have each artist put together three or four sessions focused on a particular media. I had a good time last week making a head, but this week I went to play soccer football with some guys mates from Molly’s work. It was fun. And on Tuesday, I went to the capoeira class, which I thoroughly enjoyed again.

I was talking with a dad at the bamboo workshop today, telling him that the kids seemed happy to have gotten the shipment with all their stuff, and that it seemed a little more like home now. He said something like, “Yeah, it’s not really home until it’s a mess.”