Cool Flexagon Art

November 1, 2013

Gr 4-8-These books are not for inexperienced crafters. Flexagon requires several pages of explanatory material before the first project, "Make a Hexa-Tetra Flexagon," is even introduced. In Paper Folding, children are asked to fold an icosahedron made from 20 triangles by following a pattern without the benefit of written instructions. And in Tesselations, readers may find the sentence "You will need a truncated tetrahedron for every cuboctahedron and truncated octahedron you make" more than a little intimidating. The complexity of the crafts make it difficult to know who the appropriate audience would be. Color choices include a great deal of black and gray, making the books look somber and less than child friendly. These sophisticated choices would require adult guidance and encouragement for children to avoid frustration. Diagrams and color photos illustrate the projects.

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