TEN LITTLE FINGERS - Arvind Gupta

ZERO-COST INSET PUZZLESOld rubber slippers are great for makingMontessori Inset Puzzles. Take an old rubber“Hawai slipper and scrub it clean with soap.Mark out some geometric shapes on theslipper with a pen. Keep the slipper on awooden board and cut the shapes using a shoemaker’s knife (rampi). Round circles are bestcut by hammering a sharpened pipe on therubber.Rubber slippers have no sharp points so theycannot hurt children and are safe. The rubberblocks fit snugly into their slots. The insetblocks are white above and blue below. If youupturn them then the blue block stand outclearly on the white background. So, there isno need to paint them.MOTHER MOTHER TRUCKRUCK1 Take a 20 cm x 30 cm pieceof shoe sole rubber (about 8mm thick). Mark out differentvehicles - engine, car, jeep andvan on it.2. Cut these shapes with asharp knife3. Using a shoe maker’spunch make two holes of8 mm diameter near thebase of each vehicle.4. The finished rubber carswill look like this.5. Make several buttonwheel pairs. Use 1.5 cmlong pieces of a ball-penbody as bearings.6. These pieces will snapinto the holes of therubber vehicles. You canfix or remove the wheelsat will.7. You can also fix wheels on theMother Truck.8. Fix the wheels on the vehicles to make them run.Join all the vehicles into a train.