Funny Boxes
30-45 min
5 – 10
What Will You Learn?
You will transform a box into a fun friend! You will create a mechanism taking advantage of the shape and structure of a thin cardboard box and together with our creativity we will turn it into characters and adventures, while you explore movement.
Engage
A great idea to do prior to our project is to ask, have you ever reused cardboard? Do you know what a mechanism is?
Prepare Your Box
Step 1
Open the tabs at both ends of your box, then press them so that your box lies flat.
Step 2
Take your scissors, and cut across the width of the box at both ends, having a cardboard rectangle without tabs.
Step 3
Now, place the box on a table, push it, move it and apply a little pressure on the top, you will observe a movement.
Does the way it moves remind you of an animal or a scene?
Now with the help of creativity, observe and imagine how to transform that movement into something fantastic, from a robot to a lion.
Create Your Character
Step 4
With your character selected, you will prepare your box.
With the help of scissors, select one of the ends of your box, and cut a small section at the intersections of this, in this way you will create the tabs where your character will go.
Step 5
Take the sheets of paper and begin to trace the arms and head of your character and then cut them out.
A tip: you will place these on the tabs of your box, so you can trace the outline of these on a sheet, to serve as a guide.
Add Your Character
Step 6
With your character finished, take the glue stick and glue each of the parts to your box, you can also take scissors to cut the excess.
Step 7
Your box is finished, it’s time to have fun with it!
What's Next?
You can experiment using other sizes or using drawing supplies, tape, and craft supplies to bring your imagination to life, adding more personality to your creations.
Take it Further?
You can take it further by generating other mechanisms to give our characters more style and new movements.
Further Resources
Media
About MoonMakers
MoonMakers — led by Camila and Diego Luna — are a community of creators passionate about knowledge. A Makerspace, an open space with different digital manufacturing machines. And a YouTube channel where we promote science, technology and the maker movement.
MoonMakers have collaborated with companies such as: Sesame Street, Make Community and in Mexico with Educational Television and Fundación Televisa, creating educational content.
We have given workshops throughout the Mexican Republic with: Talent Land, Secretary of Education in Jalisco, Conacyt, Centro Cultural España.
Materials:
- Thin cardboard boxes
- Pair of scissors
- Glue stick or tape
- Color papers
- Pencils or markers
- DIY material or decoration (optional)
Vocabulary:
- Fold: Join the ends of a flexible object or apply one over the other two parts of a flexible object.
- Reuse: To reuse something, generally with a different function than the one it originally had.
- Mechanism: A set of pieces or elements that, adjusted to each other and using mechanical energy, do a job or fulfill a function.
- Movement: Action of moving or moving, changing the place or position of a body in space.
Maker Camp Project Standards
Based on NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards)
National Core Arts Standards
The National Core Arts Standards are a process that guides educators in providing a unified quality arts education for students in Pre-K through high school. These standards provide goals for Dance, Media Arts, Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts with cross-cutting anchors in Creating, Performing, Responding, and Connecting through art. The Anchor Standards include:- Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
- Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
- Refine and complete artistic work.
- Select, analyze, and interpret artistic work for presentation.
- Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.
- Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work.
- Perceive and analyze artistic work.
- Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.
- Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work.
- Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.
- Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding.
National Core Arts Standards
The National Core Arts Standards are a process that guides educators in providing a unified quality arts education for students in Pre-K through high school. Also see Standards with cross-cutting anchors in Creating, Performing, Responding, and Connecting through art for Visual Arts.NGSS K-2 Engineering Design
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are K–12 science content standards.- K-2-ETS1-1. Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.
- K-2-ETS1-2. Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.
- K-2-ETS1-3. Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.
NGSS 3-5.Engineering Design
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are K–12 science content standards.- 3-5-ETS1-1. Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
- 3-5-ETS1-2. Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
- 3-5-ETS1-3. Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.
