Make a Christmas HexaHexaFlexagon - computing and maths fun

A fun, printable item which can be coloured in (or print the pre-coloured version to save time). Fold the flexagon, and flex to find all the hidden faces. You can use this as just a fun ‘toy’ (or a stocking filler) or as a learning tool. This is a Christmas-themed hexahexaflexagon in which Father Christmas is trying to find his missing presents.

A hexahexaflexagon is a six sided shape (hexagon) which also has six faces in total (hexa-hexa) and which can flex and fold to show a new face (flexagon). They are fun to make and play with but can also be used to learn some computational thinking. To get to each face or side you may need to follow a variety of paths, you can’t always get to every face from every other face. The sides you can reach depend on the sides you currently have visible – it’s a ‘finite state machine’ and you can create a map to describe how you navigate around your hexahexaflexagon. We definitely recommend this as an end-of-term classroom activity for Christmas.

The zipped file pack contains PDFs of a coloured-in and a black and white flexagon to print, plus instructions.

There is also an accompanying ‘HHF links.pdf’ file which contains further information and resources including a full set of files (with options to design your own using SVG / PNG files), a blog post (part of our CS4FN ‘Advent Calendar’) and links to our teachers’ page on HexaHexaFlexagon Automata and a free booklet to download.

More free stuff
Our CS4FN ‘shop’ (everything is £0) on TES
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/JoBrodieCS4FN

CS4FN is supported through EPSRC Research Grant EP/W033615/1.