Leveling up with Tomoko Fuse

partially completed dodecagon, rose pattern

Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan 

I am just coming to the end of 9 days of visiting with friends in Erbil. In preparation for this trip I decided to "level up" my unit origami skills by buying Tomoko Fuse's most recent book and spending some time to learn some new patterns, in particular the "rose units" and the "silver star units". (Rose units have a ratio of 1:2 and Silver star units have a ratio of 1:Sqrt2.) 

4-point football (silver star units)

I really enjoyed sharing some of my origami (both old and new) with friends. A great way to pass the time with folks who don't share much language in common with me...

"fairy lights"

Caye Caulker, Belize

A day or two before Christmas, A requested that we find a paper shop here on Caye Caulker. It's a tiny island, but I was pretty sure we could find something. She had a secret project in mind which she started working on immediately after we bought the paper.

Christmas Eve found all of three of us hard at work on paper projects--but A's project was clearly on another level. Frank has long wished for some "fairy lights" to string up around our house in Seattle. So that's what she made him: each tiny figure is either a fairy or a different source of light, such as a candle, the sun, or a window. And for me? I got my long-wished for Peace on Earth.

Summer reading challenge

Seattle, Washington

We are home from our big trip to Holland and Germany, and our first stop was the library to check out the summer reading challenge. A declared the teenage "Book Bingo" to be too uninteresting and set out to develop her own. 100 squares of reading challenges. She's not finished yet, but I she's definitely within reach. And THEN she gets to start in on the tasks.

Love the art!

Advent calendar: the next generation

Seattle, Washington
Sunday, December 2, 2018

When I was a kid, every year we'd make Advent calendars using last year's Christmas cards, heavy card stock, and carbon paper. This year, A was inspired to make an Advent calendar of her own for a friend.

First, she wrote a long piece of fan fiction which she divided into 24 sections. Next, I cut doors into a piece of thick cardboard and backed the whole thing with thinner paper. After painting her "scene" on the cardboard with acrylic paints, we opened each door and tucked a part of the story under each door.

Much more fun than our Advent calendars of old!

February Advent calendar

Seattle, Washington
Friday, February 9, 2018

About two weeks ago, A got the idea to make a sort of Advent calendar--for the month of February. We each sat down and thought up a month's worth of fun "tasks" for each other: writing haikus about the rabbits, searching for chocolate, picking up litter--all kinds of random, silly stuff...

The steppe in a shoebox

Seattle, Washington
Tuesday, March 28, 2017

This evening A finished her habitat project for school: each student had to choose a habitat, make a diorama, and present it to the class. A chose the Mongolian steppe, which may not the first habitat one always thinks about for these kinds of projects. Rainforests, deserts, or tidal zones, maybe.

One never knows the seeds that are sown when one is young.

Berries, beaches & art

Lopez Island, Washington

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Just finishing up a lovely week at Lopez with friends: lots of beach time, berry picking (yes, blackberries, too), and lots of art for kids of all ages. Thanks again, Mom!

World Art

Inspired by Australian aboriginal art

Seattle, Washington
Friday, July 17, 2015

This year's World Art camp at Pratt was a big hit. A came home with fun projects inspired by art from around the world...

Inspired by West African mudcloth designs

Japanese indigo

"The Weird Kids"

Lopez Island, Washington
Sunday, April 12, 2015

In addition to cake decorating, there was also much time spent developing and test-driving a new board game. Conclusion? The game seemed rather heavily weighted toward "going to the office"...

Diorama

View from the front

Olympia, Washington

Monday, January 19, 2015

Spent most of the morning indoors playing, despite the cold SUNNY weather outside: A was intent on finishing her nature diorama. 

...and from the back

St. Martin's--a few days late

Seattle, Washington

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Armed with lanterns and singing St. Martin's Day songs, we spent the evening wandering the neighborhood with German friends. We were a few days late but no matter. Lanterns from Germany and a homemade version served the purpose equally well...

Danke schön, K!

 

The Web

Madaba, Jordan
Friday, May 2, 2014

During A's week off from school, she amused herself with a variety of self-inspired art projects. This giant spider web was one of them. And then one day I came home and found that she and the babysitter had added something else...

Oh, Africa!

Madaba, Jordan
Thursday, April 30, 2014

In honor of Earth Day, I once again assigned the "Make a World" project in my Geometry Class. My students never know how to get started drawing their polyhedral globes. My advice? Start with Africa: two-thirds of it lies above the equator, one-third lies below, and the shape is fairly simple--and then go from there.

Once again, the results were very nice--some of them stunningly so.

Model fleet

Check out the tires...

Madaba, Jordan
Thursday, April 10, 2014

After a disappointing experience with trying to teach the idea of scale and scale drawings to my geometry students, I decided it was time to try something new: making scale models of the school's vans. I marched up to Motorpool one evening, measured the vans by headlamp, and made my own model. Then I returned the next day to Motorpool with students in tow--so they could measure for themselves. Each student got a different ratio to work with so all the vans were different sizes. I was pleased by the model vans they produced--and the fun (to-scale) details they added. (Part of the project was to add four to-scale details.) This 3D project was sure a lot more successful than those 2D drawings...

...and the license plates...

Down the Nile

Madaba, Jordan
Thursday, March 13, 2014

It's almost the end of our Spring Break, but it's been a Madaba-based vacation since A is on a different school schedule from our school. While unexpected rains pour down outside, we've been making a little Egypt, inspired by our recent reading of the Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan. Not as good as Percy Jackson we all agree, but still a fun read.

A's boat and crocodile and Frank's Sphinx are my favorites. As events continue to unfold in Egypt, this might be closest we get to the Nile for now...

Polynomial Press proudly presents...

Madaba, Jordan
Saturday, February 15, 2014

"Polynomial Press proudly presents the premiere of 'Polynomial Primers', a progression of pamphlets planned to promote polynomial proficiency among primary pupils! Pure pleasure promised! Please peruse the list and plan your purchases…"

For the culmination of the chapter on polynomials, my students were required to write a "Polynomial Primer." They were supposed to write a story for children 6 to 9 years old. Some of the results were outstanding--funny, sweet, and full of good math references/puns. Other stories were pretty mundane, but all students got a chance to practice graphing polynomials. And learn what alliteration is...

Here's one of the best examples, complete with pictures. Nice job, S!

The broken made whole

Madaba, Jordan
Friday, January 31, 2014

Ninety percent of the "Broken Plates" have now been turned in--and lots of fun they were! A few are pictured here. Here's a link to the instructions--from last year's go-around. For a sense of scale, all plates were made on A3 paper.