I think these Halloween Paper Circuit templates from Makerspaces.com look like a lot of fun. You can download the templates for free, but will need to purchase the other supplies. The instructions are excellent. I plan to try this with my 3rd graders. Once they learn the concept, I am going to challenge them to light up a picture of their choice to encourage some creativity and give them the opportunity to apply what they have learned about circuits. By the way, if you are looking for some other paper circuit projects, here is a post I did on ones that our Maker Club did.
As this is a “National Week of Making” in the U.S., it seems only appropriate that makers around the country should spend some time on making cool gifts and cards for Fathers’ Day on June 21st.
I saw a tweet earlier today from @Makerspaces_com that shared a link to this Instructables page with gift ideas. As not all of the projects are appropriate for elementary-aged kids, I sought out something that would be a bit less labor intensive than building your own barbecue barrel.
I saw these instructions for a Light Up LED Card, which reminded me of the ones our Maker Club did in May. I didn’t get a chance on that post to show some of the variations that the students did after learning the basics of the “Everything is Awesome” card. Here are a couple of student originated versions:
Hopefully the students remembered to keep the circuits open so their batteries don’t run out before Fathers’ Day!
You can find more fun projects and resources for any time of the year here.
There are so many wonderful things that have happened in my classroom as a result of resources people have shared on Twitter, and I have a feeling Chibitronics will be another one that I can add to the list this year.
@GingerLewman tweeted about a Chibitronics kit that she was eagerly anticipating last week. The name caught my interest so I visited the web site. When I saw the product, I knew immediately that I had to try it out. I went with the Advanced Kit because, well, it just had so many cool things included and I hadn’t spent money on anything fun all summer yet 😉
Chibitronics offers circuit stickers. These are stickers that can be re-used a few times, and include sensor stickers, effects stickers, and LED’s. Included in the kits are also some conductive tape (which I can already tell will need to be replenished very soon), batteries, and a Sketchbook.
The Sketchbook is not just a blank book. It includes instructions and templates as well as prompts for creative elaboration on each project. The Sketchbook and the video tutorials (which can be found on their main page) have been highly advantageous for my daughter and I since we are both completely ignorant about electronics – aside from our MaKey MaKey adventures.
Conductive tape can be purchased separately (Amazon, for one, offers different sizes), as can the batteries. I think one Sketchbook is fine. But I am going to need to set aside a serious budget for those stickers. We are having such a great time making LED’s blink and fade and twinkle that I have a feeling we will have used the entire supply before it ever makes it to my classroom Maker Studio!
I have been collecting other resources for “making” on this Pinterest Board if you are interested.
