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Trinity flexagon- print out, make and play!

We have had a lot of fun today!!  

 I love making things with paper and saw some flexagons on Pinterest.  I immediately wanted to make some and, more importantly, think how I could use them at church with the children!  Talking to my friend Sarah, inspiration struck as she suggested we could use them to talk about the Trinity.  My imagination went into overdrive and this is what we came up with...

 Now I warn you that this is a bit fiddly, but it's so worth it!

 1. Print off the flexagon pattern.  Click here to get a copy.
 2. Cut out the two sides and arrange them like so.  You need to stick them back to back to make one piece...
 ...so that the finished piece looks like this.  I've turned over the corner to show you the start of how it looks on the back
 3.  It helps to fold along the lines so that the next part is easier.
 4 Fold so your piece looks like this,
 5. Then fold again to look like this...
 Bring the blank flap up from underneath and place over the yellow section.  
 6. Glue the white sections together and your piece should now look like this.
 The green section represents Jesus- the baby and star indicate the incarnation and the other picture indicates the crucifixion and resurrection.
 The yellow section represents God the father- a crown for his Kingship and a globe to indicate his creation.
 The red section represents the Holy spirit and shows flames and a dove.
To flex the flexagon, push like so and open out to reveal the next picture.  It will take some practice, but you will get the hang of it!

As with any method of trying to talk about the trinity, this has many flaws!  We were quite pleased though with being able to produce three pictures from one puzzle!

Sarah with our prototype :-)

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Comments

  1. Mina Munns11 June 2013 at 21:41

    Good idea! I was so impressed with myself for actually making this work, that that didn't enter my thinking! This took me several goes to perfect :-)

    Will post an updated version soon!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ticia30 June 2013 at 17:18

    Great idea! I'm pinning this to use sometime later.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mina Munns30 June 2013 at 19:20

      I warn you that there is a knack to flexing it but once you've got it you're sorted!!

      Delete
  3. Anonymous29 May 2015 at 03:29

    Hi,
    This is such a great idea! I will be using it for Sunday School this Trinity Sunday. Thank you so much for this. I made a file where the two strips are together so can just be folded in half. Also, I noticed when I made one that it didn't line up perfectly when I folded it, so I adjusted the size a bit until it worked for me. Is it okay if I upload my edited file to my blog and credit you for your original file and the idea and the art etc? The if you like my adjusted version of your file and would like a copy of the file to add to this post I would be perfectly happy for you to have it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mina Munns29 May 2015 at 07:28

      Hi! No problem whatsoever. Thanks so much, I hope it goes well on Sunday! You can email the file to the address on the contacts page. God bless! :-)

      Delete

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