This week’s lesson is about flexing our muscles…nah… is making a flextangle! You may or may not know what it is but after following us through this blog you will fall in love with it!
When I first learnt about it I thought it was just another paper game toy with flaps (sometimes also known as “paper flap toy” or “paper cootie catch toy”). Below image was taken from a website on how a paper flap toy looks like. As for flextangle, wait till you see the final product…
Teacher Huiyi has enlarged the template and letting the kids to trace out the lines from the template to the drawing paper. The kids were having fun making a “messy” drawing here but got really focus when comes to tracing.
They started colouring once all the lines are properly traced out. This is the tedious part and it really trained their concentration and patience because they need to beautify each and every triangles. I was really pleased when they could actually sit throughout the lesson, colouring non stop. Maybe because teacher is around. If it’s mommy, ME, doing it… bet they will run around the house after every single stroke of colours and that will take me ages to complete just ONE flextangle. (-_-;)
Over here, the teacher helped the little one on outlining the triangles after they have completed the colouring.
Decorations were added and cutting comes next. Teacher had a cold sweat while the little one was cutting. A good chance to test and train their motor skills on using scissors.
Teacher assisted on glueing and bending it to form the correct shape. Here we are with our final products!
If you still can’t see what this is about. Here’s a short explanation: a flextangle is a paper toy that has taken the internet by storm (I don’t know when it really started though) because it is fun, addictive, and therapeutic when making a flextangle. Therapeutic? I didn’t know about this till i read on the internet that the act of making a flextangle or any other form of abstract, patterned zentangle art is being applied in therapy, stress reduction, education, and even motivational training. Amazing huh? No wonder both of them can sit throughout the lesson without much whining. Maybe I should make this an everyday activity so that I can have some peace. LOL!
Oh my, we really got surrendered to this paper toy. Once we started, it can´t be stopped! We just keep “flexing” it trying all the combinations! It’s so much fun!