Читать книгу Toy-Making in School and Home - R. K. Polkinghorne - Страница 9

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In toy-making in schools it is very necessary to design toys that can be made from materials which are easily obtained. The Board of Education in a report on handwork in the London elementary schools says: "The range of materials used is limited, as a rule, to paper, cardboard, clay, and 'prepared wood' or 'stripwood.' It is perhaps unfortunate that these are almost entirely 'school materials,' in other words materials which are not likely to be much used outside the school, either in the child's home or in after life."

There is truth in this—to give the child too much 'prepared material' tends to make him less inventive, resourceful, and painstaking, and prevents him from continuing his work at home, where he has not got prepared material. Any series of toys made from the same material—say a series of toys made from match stales or from 'stripwood'—has very limited educational advantages. Toys made from a combination of waste materials are the best—match-boxes, cardboard and wooden boxes of all sizes, mantle-boxes, reels, corks, broom-handles, silver paper, etc., can all play a part in producing an effective, even a beautiful toy. Most of the toys described in this book are made from so-called 'waste materials.'

With regard to infant school work, squares of white paper—cartridge paper or ordinary exercise paper—which the children can colour themselves are better than a too slavish use of the coloured gummed squares supplied to schools. Further directions with regard to materials will be given in connexion with the various toys. It is advisable to use as few tools as possible, both because the fewer tools the less expense and because the fewer tools the more thought and ingenuity required. To have a perfect instrument at hand for every need paralyses work, thought, and happiness. Most of the toys in this book are made—if for little ones, with scissors, if for older ones, with hammer, saw, and file.

A graduated course is necessary. Generally speaking, the little ones from five to seven make their toys of paper, clay, plasticine, and raffia. Children from seven to ten can make simple wooden toys. Wooden toys are the best; many things can be done with wood, impossible with cardboard or paper, and they are so lasting.

Cardboard modelling is always difficult, and as a rule should not be attempted by children younger than nine. Except that they provide practice in accurate measurement, toys made of paper and cardboard by children of nine or older are disappointing, they crush so quickly. Quite strong toys can, however, be made from a combination of wood, cardboard, and paper.

If really strong paper toys are required (for example, the various articles of doll's furniture, the table and chair, etc., are more valuable if strongly made), an excellent medium can be made by pasting (using ordinary flour paste) two or three sheets of paper together and allowing them to dry thoroughly under pressure. Both or all three sheets must be pasted over before they are brought together to avoid subsequent curling. This will, however, prove too stiff a medium for children younger than five.

Skewers will be found very useful in toy-making. Any ordinary metal skewer is useful for boring holes in cardboard and corks, while the short meat skewers, three inches long (cost twopence per dozen), are an excellent substitute for bradawls when the children are making the early light woodwork models; later on in woodwork a fine workman's bradawl is required, or a drill.

Wooden skewers are useful for axles of all kinds.

Another useful boring tool (for making holes in paper, corks, or cardboard) is the metal pin stopper supplied with tubes of seccotine. This bores a hole in cardboard or paper that is the right size for a match. When boring holes in cardboard the children will find a cotton reel useful to bore upon; their meat skewer or seccotine pin stopper can then pass through the cardboard into the hole in the reel.

Methods of joining Cardboard and Paper Edges. (1) Leaving a flange. In Fig. 1 the shaded portions represent flanges—flange A is for joining side of house B to C, flanges D, E, F, G are for holding the roof; they must, of course, be bent at right angles to the sides B and H. (Note flange in socket of candlestick, Fig. 49, Chapter IV, and in pigeon-house, Chapter X.)

Fig. 1

If Fig. 1 is made of cardboard, flange A must have the surface of the cardboard pared away, otherwise the joining will be clumsy. The dotted lines represent bends only in the case of paper, but half cuts in the case of cardboard.

Fig. 2

With regard to the size of the flange, this will depend upon the strength of the adhesive used and the stiffness of the material. Generally speaking, the larger the flange the better, for a narrow flange tends to turn up and must be held down longer than a wide one.

A good general rule to remember when joining two pieces of material is this—that it is always the thinner of the two that is to be pasted or glued. This must be borne in mind when using the second method of joining cardboard or paper edges.

Fig. 3a

Fig. 3b

(2) Using paper hinges. The hinge should extend the whole length of the edges that come together, as in Fig. 2, where pieces of cardboard A and B are joined by the hinge a b c d e f. Before pasting the hinge must be folded along b e, care being taken that b e is at right angles to a c and d f.

The sides, bottom, and roof of the Noah's Ark are joined together by paper hinges (Chapter X).

(3) Wherever it is necessary to join curved edges, the flange must be cut as in Fig. 3a, flange a b c d. Fig. 3b shows paper curved and flanges bent down ready for pasting.

This is the method used for fastening on paper funnels, the bottom of the paper mug (Fig. 57, Chapter IV), etc.

The Making and Fixing of Wheels. If it is desired to attach movable wheels to any of the toys described in the following chapters (in the early chapters for greater simplicity the wheels are gummed to sides of carts, or to matches, etc.), the following methods are suggested.

(1) The wheels can be rigidly fixed to the axle—that is, a match end is pushed tight into the cardboard wheel and the axle is free to turn in loose bearings, as in Fig. 4, fixed under the cart or other vehicle or to the sides. These bearings can be cut from cardboard or cartridge paper.

In Fig. 4 the paper is bent at a right angle along the dotted line, and the rectangular portion is gummed under the cart. If the rectangular portion is gummed to the side of the cart no bend is needed. The parts of the match sticks that pass through the holes must be rounded with sand-paper so that they will turn easily in the holes.

Fig. 4

(2) The axle can be glued to the bottom of the cart and the wheels left free to revolve. The wheels are kept in their places by the following plan. Cut some small cardboard washers, seccotine one near each end of the axle as in Fig. 5a, taking care that they do not come under the cart. Slip on the wheels, taking care that the centre hole is punched large enough to allow the wheel to revolve freely. This will be the case if a steel meat skewer (size about 7 inches long) has been used to make the holes. Fix washers outside the wheels to keep them on, as in Fig. 5b. These washers keep the wheels from sagging.

These wheels will revolve if the match stick has been rounded with sand-paper.

Fig. 5a

Fig. 5b

With regard to the arrangement of the toys in this book, roughly they are described in order of difficulty, but for convenience sometimes this order has been departed from. For example, match-box toys have been grouped together, cork animals, etc. The teacher must select her own models from different parts of the book and use them in accordance with her children's ability and her own taste.

Another important principle to follow is this. The teacher should give as few directions as possible, be as silent as it is possible for a teacher to be. The child has an excellent opportunity in these classes of learning from his own mistakes. This opportunity must not be taken from him; he must be given the chance of finding out his own mistakes. Moreover, every difficulty should not be anticipated for the child; nor should too many warnings be given. Let the children set to work as soon as possible and use their tools without too many instructions about them. Let them ask, let them have the pleasure of discovering; every child wants to learn, but not every child wants to be taught.

All models should be made as large as is reasonably possible; this should be insisted on from the beginning. Lastly, great accuracy (though much to be desired) must not be expected from the child; careful work must be insisted on, but one must learn to recognise the careful work of a child (which is so different from that of the grown-up person) and not heedlessly blame him or her for not reaching perfection.

Accuracy is so often the outcome of 'lack of vision.' The child so often has that 'vision,' that imaginative outlook on life that floods the mind with ideas, but lacks accurate power of expression, while the grown-up person has the accurate power of expression, but has lost the fresh imagination of youth and all its ideals. We must see to it that we do not dim our children's vision.