This was based on an idea our Dance teacher saw on YouTube when she was looking for a special way to fold money for a birthday. As soon as she showed me the video I remember making chains with my mom using gum and starburst wrappers.The video used $1.00 bills which gave the bracelet some extra give to get over the hand and then cinch a bit for the wrist. I didn't have any cash on me and for some reason trial and error seemed faster and easier than looking up dollar bill dimensions on-line. So, I took some printer paper and started to mess with sizes - it took a couple of tries to find the right ratio for the rectangle.
I found that paper 2.5 inches wide x 7 inches long gave us the extra movement needed to fit over hands.
Students decorated 10-12 strips of paper the first day. We did a little math if they had 30 minutes left and 10 strips - then they had only 3 minutes for each one. I tried to stress that they had very little time to color/design their papers. Most finished, some didn't - but got close enough.The next class I showed the kids how to fold, assemble, and finish their bracelets. Most students finished, but a handful did not - I promised to put the videos on the blog so they could make/finish them during break!
Enjoy!
2 comments:
Hello! I've been doing this with my fourth graders and we've run into some problems with the joining part. The video makes sense and your directions work for some of the bracelets, but others are being a pain. Do you have to use an even number of paper strips to get them to join properly, or are odd numbers okay? Some of the bracelets are not expanding over the hand like they should and I don't know why. If you could provide any feedback on these issues, I'd appreciate it!
Hi! Yes you need to have even number of units. Odd numbers won't match up correctly.
If the bracelets won't flex over their wrist - a few things to check. 1) What size paper did you use? - depending on the paper size you used will alter the flex in the joints. 2) check the students folding - sometimes they over fold or under fold creating strange sized links, which will alter the joints.
Let me know if you need more help!
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