Paper Towers

A while ago, I think maybe two years perhaps? The church I go to did a Construction themed vacation bible school.

I was able to assist as a helper for the crafts, and one of the projects we did, my sister recently re-created, so I thought I would share it with you.

This project...is Paper Towers! And before you ask, no; I did not misspell paper towels.

Paper Towers are towers, drawn and scrap-booked out of giant pieces of paper.

What you do is you take a piece of paper, about three to four times long as it is wide. Then gather some colored paper, and lots of crayons, as well as some scissors, glue, and a pencil.

Start by deciding the theme of your tower. Is it a tower in outer space? Maybe a tower in the desert, or even underground!

Once you have your themed decided, take a pencil, and outline the basics of your tower. Include multiple floors, with windows, doors at the bottom, and anything else you might want! Then take the paper, and cut it into the shapes you need. Then glue them on, and use your crayons for detail work.

And finally, or perhaps first, depending on your preference, use a black crayon/marker to write the name of your tower at the top.

What sort of tower did you make? Back when I did it, I made a Lego Ninjago themed tower, with one floor for each elemental master. I don't have any pictures, and sadly the tower got accidentally ripped up quite some time ago, but I'd love to see pictures of yours!

 After you make it on paper, try to re-create it out of toys, Legos, or even cardboard boxes.

Coding Games in Scratch Book Review

I'm sorry about the lack of posts, but I must admit it's been a rather crazy time.

For Independence Day weekend, me and my family went on a trip, and when we got back, well...me and my father, plus possibly two, though I'm pretty sure it's only one, of my siblings are the only ones not sick.

But anyways, while I've been gone, I've gotten a book from the library, that I'd like to share a review of with you.

The book is called Coding Games in Scratch, and it was written by Jon Woodcock in 2016, so it's a fairly recent book, and as a result, everything in book is up-to-date, concerning the images and options in Scratch, and so far I've found it very helpful, as it explained the New Block section, which I had never before been able to figure out.

The book has many step-by-step instructions for games, ranging from quite simple, to surprisingly complicated coding.

A lot of these games, you play, and don't really think about what code went into the making of the game, until you open up the project and peek inside, but even then, you don't think about the effort, and time the game took to make, until you actually try doing it yourself.

But while the book does have rather detailed explanations for what you need to do, there are some places where you need to stop, stare at the words for a second, look over the images nearby, and figure out what sprite the code is going into, or where in the code the addition needs to go.

But all-in-all I found the book quite useful, and decided to post all of the games I've made so far using it; my favorite so far is Dog's Dinner, but I am working on a racing game now that looks quite promising.

If you have a Scratch account, I suggest you get this book, whether you buy it, or find it at your library; it is quite the guidebook for Scratchers of all experience levels.