The Rasp!

Luca uses a rasp to round and smooth the edges of a freshly cut base.
His friends won't need to worry about splinters or sharp edges.

THE RASP
The past couple days we've been using a new tool - The Rasp. The students have nicknamed it "The Cheesegrater." It is a tool that operates much in the same way. It is used to smooth very rough edges and form the wood.

My description as a hand-tool with hundreds of tiny, razor-sharp teeth (like a pirhana - from a Magic Treehouse Story) inspired appropriate caution for our young woodworkers. Safety is of utmost importance with all our tools, and this one is particularly nasty if mishandled. With this one, we are especially cautious. The students made two very interesting discoveries:
1) "If you do it right, it makes lots of curly shavings bigger than sawdust." - Luca
2) You can rub the (smaller) wood on it (reversing the usual method) and it still works, and it sounds like music.

So true. We used exactly that method to round the ends of the dowels we cut last week.

Hmmm...a base and twelve rounded dowels...I wonder what it could be?

TOOL SURVEY
As a math lesson, we took a survey of which tool the students enjoyed using the most. Here are the results:

7 - Drill
7 - Miter Saw
4 - Hammer
2 - Rasp


TODAY"S ACTIVITY
Usha prepared the hands-on science experiment, exploring density with water, oil and salt. The students selected their own colors and performed them independently.

The alternate group played a new game, "Buddy Bowling" in the multi purpose room. One class mate in the center of the room tries to roll the giant green bouncy ball into each buddy, one by one. The buddies stands in their own 18" ring and may move any way to avoid the ball, as long as they remain within the ring. All had their turn and loved participating in each role.