How to make a Neuron Model

Neuron Model

Hi friends it's been a long time since I posted any  of my daughter's school projects .Of late most of the time they are made in such a  hurry that I either forget to take pictures or they are made at night so I end up with grainy blurry pictures not worth sharing!
But this one was made completely by my kiddo with no help at all from me and I do have some decent pictures to share with all of you!

Neuron Model

Can you believe some  of the  popular posts on my blog include  "How to make a Tooth Model" and "How to make a Respiratory System Model"!
So in case  you landed on this page by googling " how to make a neuron model" let me run you through the creative process so that you can make a neuron of your own!!

Draw/Pint/Trace a Neuron
My daughter is 12 yrs and is quite good at drawing so she looked at the picture of the neuron in her Biology text book and drew a large neuron freehand. If you find free hand drawing challenging ...lightly trace or print the picture of a neuron

Neuron Model

Make it dimensional using lightweight media

To make a dimensional model on paper use thick paper as your base and avoid very heavy materials on top. If you have light weight clay such as Amos clay or Sakura clay you can make your structure using clay like in this Tooth Model we made long back.

For this model my daughter used different colors of hot glue! The cellbody and the dendrites were made using white hot glue. It is tricky to get the hot glue drawn into the thin dendrites so if you are not confident with hot glue do practise getting thin lines first and avoid hot glue altogether with young children!

The nucleus in the cell body was created by sticking on a red spiny pompom!

Neuron Model

The central part of the axon[axoplasm] was made using a plastic tube filled with beads and sealed at both ends. A word of advice here...avoid seed beads as they are too tiny and don't move around well. The beads my daughter used here are inexpensive but medium weight beads which roll within the axoplasm and are wonderful to give the illusion of a nerve impulse travelling down the axon!

Neuron Model

The yellow myelin sheath of the axon was again created using hot glue. The end of the  plastic tubing was split using scissors into multiple filaments to make the axon terminals and the synaptic bulbs was created using pink pom poms!

This project was a big hit in class and not only did kiddo score full marks but it was displayed on the board in her class [ which is a big deal according to her!]

Interactive Pop Up Book School Project

Pop Up Book School Project

          Hi friends, my daughter came home last week and said she had to make a "chart" for an English poem! I was quite perplexed  I must admit!

          Education is rather progressive nowadays...her English teacher had assigned different poems to groups of children and each group had to creatively present the poem in class using  power point presentations,vocabulary quizzes  and pictorial charts. What a fun way to learn wont you agree...!!!

My daughter's group was assigned the poem " The Old Wife and the Ghost" by James Reeves.

Pop Up Book School Project

           The theme was just perfect to make an Interactive book and so I encouraged my daughter to make a  pop up book. Our plans were rather grand to start with but oooh it was pretty time consuming  involving brainstorming what elements to make , what scenes to draw, working out the paper engineering aspects, making rough templates etc etc..hehe I think you get the picture ! And at one point I nearly abandoned the idea!

             Well finally we decided that a few well made pages were better than a dozen sloppily made pages and we settled on  a cover page and 3 interactive pop up pages .

I  hope you get time to watch the video we put together and give my kiddo a thumbs up! Also  please  do forgive the barking dog in the background ...our neighbor  has just got a new dog and poor thing has not quite settled in!
 
All graphics and illustrations are by my 11 yr old. She used stamps and distress inks plus some freehand paper cutting to create the cover page

 Pop Up Book School Project

The first page has a  pop up house in the center with blades of grass  and shrubs popped up behind it.  The book is rather huge ..measuring 12 x 9 inches and I had to do quite a bit of maths to work out the dimensions of the pop up house....will not bore you with all the details but will share a few steps on how it came about.

Pop Up House

My daughter used the TCW Mini Bricks Stencil and Distress Inks  on Cream colored card stock to create the brick walls.

Pop Up House

We die cut windows and added glitter strips for window bars and pattern paper for the curtains.

Pop Up House

Fabric curtains were not a good idea as it could get entangled and affect the pop up mechanism on opening and closing.

Pop Up House

Pop Up House

The house has gluing tabs on 2 walls and is technically called a box type of pop up. Here is the link to a simpler Pop Up House Card Tutorial I have shared earlier.

Pop Up House

The roof is not glued on but rests snugly on a supporting piece which also acts as the chimney. I got this design idea from Robert Sabuda, the master of all great pop ups

Pop Up House roof

Though I had to help quite a bit in the paper engineering aspect of the book my daughter was the real artist, creating the sky and grass using distress inks  and drawing the ghost freehand . 

Pop Up Book School Project

I experimented with 2 hidden pop up slider mechanism  in this project and they helped to create a bit of drama by making the moon rise and ghost pop up on saying the right lines from the poem!

Pop Up Book School Project

 The Old wife had a very neat kitchen so this pop up scene inside the cottage was in contrast to the darkness of the first outdoor pop up . My daughter helped design the oven  and the kitchen cupboards which were easy pop up mechanism.

Pop Up Book -Kitchen

 Decorating the kitchen was real fun. My mom had come to spend Sunday with us and we even took her input on design of the wall paper and the flooring!

DIY Pop Up Book

Adorable Cottage Cutz dies were used to create the basket of fruits and the Creative Expressions kitchen utensils were painstakingly die cut by my daughter. Hehe I must say it was a Sunday spent very creatively!

Pop Up Kitchen Scene

We used silver and black card-stock to make the oven.

Pop Up Kitchen

And lo... above the window is the ghost peeping in!

Pop Up Book

The last scene depicts the ghost banging the pots and pans and being a naughty ghost!!! This pop up mechanism was the most challenging ...requiring several rough drafts and experimenting with different weights of paper before I got it perfect. But once I got the paper engineering part of it right my daughter had a gala time adding cups and saucers! She even thought of  the little details like adding broken cutlery on the floor!

Handmade Pop Up Book

And here is the proud little girl...[not so little any more] with her pop up book.

Pop Up Book School Project

 She took the Pop Up Book to school today and everyone including her English teacher were super impressed with it. Sigh...well worth all the effort I guess!!
And please do give a thumbs up on her video if you can spare a moment. It will mean so much to her!

Supplies : Dies : Grass : Dienamics [MFT ]Grassy Edges, Shrub : Spellbinders Ferns, Kitchen Utensils : Creative Expressions Necessities Apron Die. Fruits and Vegetables : Cottage Cutz Cornucopia, Basket : Cottage Cutz Spring Basket with Ducks, Flower Vase : Cottage Cutz Birdbath. Window : Sizzix Tim Holtz Window and Window Box,Cupboard : Couture Creations Victorian Square,Oven Burners : Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Circles,Cup : Elizabeth Craft Designs Teacup. Cup , Mugs , Kettle: Paper Smooches Coffee and Tea.

Making a Respiratory System Model !

Respiratory System Model

       In my daughter's school, the teachers don't stress out the kids by giving marks or grades  for projects and that I guess makes it all the more relaxed and a fun learning experience for the children! My daughter loves to make 3 D models and dioramas for her school projects and really likes to put in a lot of work!

Lungs Model

 Though the topic was respiratory system , we decided to just concentrate on the parts beyond the trachea!

Respiratory System Model- Alveoli

        Though I know most of my blogger friends will be least interested in a detailed tutorial of how to make a model of the Respiratory system...sharing a few steps all the same as  a lot of folks do google up such topics. Hehe yes... my blog stats tell me  a lot of people come to my blog searching about various such school project topics!!]
Making the Lungs, Trachea and Bronchi

Lung Model

We used big sponges to make the lungs and used regular scissors to snip off the excess sponge and shape it. Our lungs are actually life size though simplistic in shape!

Lung Model

There was some flexible plastic piping at home and this was perfect to make the trachea and bronchi and it was also helpful to explain to my daughter about the cartilaginous tissue forming these tubes!

Trachea and Bronchi Model

 We used an adhesive called Fevibond to stick one short piece of the tubing to a longer piece and thence form the point of bifurcation of the trachea into the bronchi.

Respiratory System Model

It was super easy to insert the "bronchus" into each  sponge "lung" by simply twisting the pipe in and securing with fevibond glue.

Lung Model

The part my daughter enjoyed the most was painting the lungs!

Making the Air Sacs [Alveoli] 

Making a  Model of Alveoli

 Alveoli [ tiny air sacs] are the endpoint of the respiratory system where the gaseous exchange takes place and we used tiny styrofoam [thermocol] balls and light weight air-drying clay to make the bunches of alveoli!

Model of Alveoli

We used plastic straws to make the " bronchioles" which  led to the alveoli, poked the straws into balls of clay and stuck the thermocol balls onto the clay.

Model of Alveoli

Coming back to the lungs...here are the painted lungs.

Making a Lung Model

And here is the model after attaching the tracheo-bronchial tree!

Respiratory System Model

To add charm to the model, my daughter  die-cut glitter foam letters  to form labels for  the parts.

Respiratory System Model

She was so proud that amongst all the models and charts the children had brought, her science teacher chose to keep her model in the showcase of their science lab so that junior and even senior children could see it!
Supplies : Dies :  Spellbinders font one upper case , Spellbinders font one lower case,Spellbinders Labels 8

Asteroids and Meteoroids School Project

Asteroids and Meteoroids School Project

       Hi friends life is slowly settling down for me and since I have been missing my blogger friends I thought I will restart blogging but not with my creation but my daughter's!
This is a school project my 11yr old made for her Geography school project on Asteroids and Meteoroids.

Asteroids and Meteoroids School Project

       We really put a lot of  paper-crafting supplies to good use to make this 3 D chart. The letters were cut from glitter foam using Spellbinders dies and  spray paints and  glitter glue came in quite handy to create the planets and other celestial bodies!

Asteroids and Meteoroids School Project

 The base of the 3 D chart is a sheet of thermocol  painted in  a splotchy manner with black spray paint and glittered up with patchily with sparkling silver glitter glue!

Asteroids and Meteoroids School Project

 The "Asteroid belt" between Jupiter and Mars has modified "pompoms" made sparkly with generous helpings of silver glitter glue!

Asteroids and Meteoroids School Project

 Jupiter is my favorite...love how the splattering of paint and the glitter glue gives it a misty,shimmering look! And in the photo below you can see the closeup details of the Asteroid belt!

Asteroids and Meteoroids School Project

 My daughter was so proud of her model and I think for a long long time she will remember about this little topic in geography !

Asteroids and Meteoroids School Project

I will be visiting you all soon! I sure did miss my blogger pals!

Neolithic Age School Project

Neolithic Age Diorama

         Dear friends , this school year my daughter has to learn about the Stone age with all its subdivisions - the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic Ages! It can get pretty confusing trying to remember what happened during each age!! But kudos to the clever History teacher who asked the children to make a chart, a powerpoint presentation or a model on an assigned age!
           My daughter got Neolithic Age, and of course, if you have been following my blog for sometime you will guess correctly that she opted to make a 3 D model rather than an easier chart or powerpoint presentation!!Haha!!

Neolithic Age Diorama

        We planned out the elements in our Diorama such that each unique and important aspect of the Neolithic Period was highlighted.
        The main reason I am sharing this project in so much detail is that it may benefit someone in future...When I googled about this period I found there was hardly any school project type material online!!
        And for my crafty friends....well do sit back and be transported back into Neolithic Age!!

Neolithic Age Diorama

During  the Paleolithic Age which preceded the Neolithic Age ,  men were predominantly nomads hunting for food and living in caves. During the Neolithic Period they started farming and settled down in small fenced villages and built homes with thatched roofs.

Neolithic Age Diorama

The type of tools used is distinctive in each age . During the Neolithic Period , sophisticated stone tools evolved. My daughter made all the tiny tools referring to pictures of Neolithic tools in her textbook and online. She molded the tools using air drying clay and added "toothpick" handles to some of the tools as "handles" were a hallmark of Neolithic Period stone tools!

Stone Tools

       Neolithic man could make more polished tools compared to his predecessors as he made use of the "grindstone" to smoothen and shape his stone tools! My daughter's grindstone was fashioned with clay which she painted with acrylic paint to give the "stone look"!

Stone Tool Making- Neolithic Age

Neolithic man also used "basalt" ...a type of stone which did not chip easily and hence could be shaped into finer stone tools. And in the picture below you can see the "bone" tools my daughter fashioned by cutting clay which had dried up!

Neolithic Age Tools

During this period man discovered fire and pottery! And my kiddo was sooo proud of all her little pots and vessels she made painstakingly! She added all kinds of little details like the "mound of clay" on the side besides the pots from which the pots were made!

Neolithic Age

 And can you see the food she added to one of the plates![Its craft foam putty!]

Neolithic Age Diorama

And we added a toy basket as Neolithic man were expert at basket making!!

Woven Basket in Neolithic Age 

The invention of the wheel happened in the Neolithic Period ...and they made the wheels by carving stone!! Just imagine!

Stone Wheel in Neolithic Age

And the major points differentiating the Neolithic Period from the Paleolithic Period....cultivation and domestication of animals!

Neolithic Age Diorama

         It is times like these where I am soo glad I have a nice stash of craft supplies I can fall back on to make a project quicker and easier! We could use dies to quickly and easily add a lot of plants to our diorama!
         Neolithic Period man cultivated rice, wheat and barley. Our diorama has maize plants but then I guess that's okay!!Hehe!

Neolithic Age Diorama - Cultivation

Neolithic man settled down near rivers and streams and our deep blue stream is bordered by glittery reeds and vines! Th muddy mound you see near the flower is a lump of clay!! Turned out sooo realistic !

Neolithic Age - riverside settlement

           Most of the objects in the diorama were created by my daughter with help from me for the hot gluing aspect but I couldn't resist contributing bits here and there and one of them is the  lotus! [here is the tutorial : Easy Flower Tutorial ] !

Neolithic Age Diorama 

            My kiddo painted the muddy patches and grassy terrain for her animals. And boy was this an educational as well as a fun project!
            And can you spot the "socks" on one of the cows...well that poor chap had his legs eaten off by my dog when he was a puppy ...but the good news is he can now happily stand on prosthetic clay feet [created by my daughter] !

Neolithic Age - Domestication of Animals

We had signs put up to highlight each important aspect of Neolithic  life and my daughter used glitter foam  to depict fire! The little rocks you can spy right at the back behind the sign was the carton packaging of eggs!!Hehe yeah we used a lot of recycled objects in this project!

Neolithic Age - Religious Practices

         It is always fascinating to read about religious practises and I was so surprised to read that Megaliths [which are huge stone boulders used to mark burial sites] can still  be seen in my home state of Kerala , near the popular tourist town of Munnar!

Neolithic Age - Religious Practices

Our project took a good many hours to complete but boy my daughter was sooo proud of it ! And the best thing is that I think she will remember all the important facts of the Neolithic Period for a good many years!!

Neolithic Age Diorama School Project

Supplies : Dies :  Couture Creations Bijoux,Memory Box Fringe Border,Dee's Distinctively Tree Base 1,Sizzix Tapered Fringe,Sizzix Flower Layers 3 , Cheery Lynn  Sunflower, Spellbinders Frameablities Decorative frame S5 005,MFT Dienamics Cornstalk

Stamp and Die sets :Sizzix- Hero Arts Stamp- Die Set Flowers- Thinking of you, Heartfelt creations Classic Leaf Stamp + Heartfelt creations Classic Leaf Die

Punches : Balloon Punch

Edited : This project was featured at the Pixie's Snippets Playground - Thank you so much Di !!