Dance/Martial Toy With Variations [Week 1 Task]
Instruction
This is a toy test as part of a larger project. The vision is to have a longer base with three tracks so two kids can experiment with their figures and battle/see how changes affect the results. I encountered some issues (I will talk about in the steps), so for now, here are plans for a working prototype.
It's fun on it's own to make the figure walk and to try to get it to do 'tricks'.
Variations: use a bead at the ends of the hands if you want the figure to be a walker/dancer.
Exploration Ideas for Education:
What happens when you use two sets of elastic, one for arms and one for legs instead of the one set described?
What happens when you have two small sticks in the hands instead of one?
Does using different material for the feet make it easier or harder for the figure to move?
What happens when you cross the strings (ex. left arm to right leg)?
What happens if you use strings that are more or less elastic, like rubber bands or yarn?
What happens when you add more straw segments, or take them away?
Art tie-in: children can decorate and make outfits for the figures with paper. Create new heads with facial expressions, hats, etc..
Encourage children to hypothesize what they think will happen, then they can test it with play!
This is a work in progress and I appreciate feedback.
Gather you materials. This project is very flexible, but there are some things you really need:
- Plywood and glue to make the box.
- Material for the feet. I originally did very thin plywood and the tension broke it. I used buttons here as a quick replacement, but you can use slightly thicker plywood and it would work fine.
- a soda straw. cut it into 8 segments that are close to the same length, and one segment slightly longer for the body.
as shown- the arms and legs are made out of segments around 20 mm long, body 27mm.
- Material for the head. Card stock is a great choice. very thin ply (thinner than for the box) works. As depicted I made a head by reusing a disposable cup (cleaned-many parts of this project are a great opportunity for reusing/ upcycling materials!)
- Thin elastic. two lengths, around 10 inches long each.
- A bamboo skewer (or beads of sufficient diameter, but expect more raised arms if you uncouple them)
I designed this for plywood that is a bit too thin, so you will want to make your own box for slightly thicker material.
To do this, go to https://www.festi.info/boxes.py/ and select the 'ABox' option.
I first chose the SlidingDrawer option (shown), but needed to make many modifications. the ABox option is much more straightforward to use, but I didn't figure that out until after. This will be the base to modify for our needs.
Make a box pattern. I used dimensions of 85 x 55 x 20 mm, and that worked well and feels good in the hand. Once you have the pattern you will modify it.
- Use creative space shapes to add a rounded corner rectangle cut out to the bottom of the box (cut). This should be around 3/4 the width of the box face. It will allow for you to easily manipulate the tension strings
- Create two cut out paths (rectangles) for the feet to slide in (cut). This should also take up around 3/4 ths of the length of the box. Do not use lines, you need a little thickness in these cuts so the elastic can easily slot through and not have much friction.
- Create two feet. These are just circles with smaller circles cut out of the center for the elastic to pass through. Make sure that the inner circle is smaller than your drinking straws diameter. Make sure the outer radius is less than half the distance between the two walking slots so that the feet can easily pass by each other.
- Create a head. If using thicker plywood as I recommended, you may need to use a different material so it will fit in the straw. Heavy cardstock works well, is inexpensive, and allows children to customise options for different puppet expressions. The head is just a circle with a narrow oblong merged with it so the oblong can friction fit into the straw body. Mine measured 20 mm at widest, and 45 mm in length.
Make the figure:
Cut holes around 1/3rd down the long straw section. this will be where the arms attach.
Look at the diagram for how to thread the toy.
A bead or the skewer holds the elastic with a knot and prevents it from unthreading the limb 'beads'.
You may find it helpful to use a twist tie or bodkin to get the elastic through the holes for the shoulder.
Decorate (or allow children to decorate) the box if desired. Here I painted paper and 'gift wrapped' the box because I am still experimenting.
Take the remaining ends of the elastic and place one in each long slit in the box.
Hold the strings underneath the box and apply tension. slide the elastic and see what you can get the figure to do!