- Home
- Canvas Guide
Partial Progress - Circles (browser only)
Changing Shapes of Materials
Objectives
- To discover which materials respond to twisting with bare hands.
- To learn how heat changes materials.
Resources
Modelling balloons | Hard items which have been twisted | Wood
Today's Lesson
Main Activity
Look at the two photographs.
Ask your child, which they think would be the easier material to twist with bare hands. What process might have been conducted on the metal, in order to twist it to make the curls? If you have access to modeling balloons, encourage your child to try to create some interesting shapes with them.
Look at the huge model below. This is from modelling balloons, suspended from the roof of a shopping mall in Dubai!
In today’s lesson we are using heat to bend another rigid (hard) material. Take a thin piece of wood, which cannot bend. Think of words to describe the wood (rigid, hard, inflexible, tough, rough etc). Boil it in water (adult help required) for about half an hour and observe the difference that water and heat has had on the wood (handle it with gloves until it has cooled!). How has it changed? Are the words we used to describe it still the same?
Discuss this with your child and think of various country crafts where wood needs to be boiled for reshaping, e.g. basket making, bending wood for boat-building etc.
Rewatch the glass blowing video from Step 31 if you wish.