Let's make a dodecahedron calendar for the year 2001. There are five regular solids. One of them is the dodecahedron. It is a solid with twelve faces, each of which is a regular pentagon. Because it has exactly twelve faces, it is ideally suited to use as a calendar. One month is placed on each face.
This project is rated as: MODERATE
Materials needed: Card stock, scissors, glue (or tape)
Display and print the calendar on card stock.
(Note: If you are using a MacIntosh computer, you will need to copy the displayed image and use a graphics program to adjust the print size so it will fit on one piece of card stock.)
You may choose any color card stock that you desire.
(You may even use paper, but the resulting calendar may not be as sturdy as one made from card stock.)
Cut out the calendar along the outside edges of the figure. There are six places where you must cut a tab away from the adjoining pentagon. These are located between:
January and June
June and March
March and October
April and September
September and December
December and July
In each case, cut between the tab and the pentagon down to the vertex of three pentagons.
Fold along each side that is shared by two pentagons.
Fold each tab along the common edge with a pentagon.
Now that the folds have been made, you may assemble the calendar into a dodecahedron.
The tabs are to be fastened to the underside of the nearest pentagon.
You may fasten the tabs with glue, paste, tape, or what ever works best for you.
The calendar shown in the picture was fastened using hot glue from a glue gun.
The order in which you fasten the sides together is left up to you; however, it is best to do it in such a manner that July is the last face to be fastened. The reason for this is that the July face has no tabs. There will be tabs on other faces that will be in position so that the July face is fastened down to those tabs.
Before closing the calendar, you may wish to add some weight inside the calendar. You may use rice or beans for this weight.
You can make several of these calendars and give them to other people as gifts.
You may find it very difficult to glue the calendar together neatly. Therefore, this alternative is provided. The calendar is to be made from 12 seperate pieces (one for each month)and then assembled with the tabs external to the calendar. The resulting calendar will look like the one in the illustration below:
Display and print the 12 calendar faces on paper or card stock.
Cut out each circle
Fold the 5 tabs on each face upwards
Glue each face to another face. The order in which you do this does not matter. However, it is suggested that you glue 6 faces together to form half of the calendar and another 6 faces to form the other half of the calendar. You will have two halves as illustrated below.
Let the glue dry thoroughly, and then glue the two halves together to form the calendar as shown above.
Before gluing the two halves together, you can add weight as described above.
Note that the calendar does not exhibit the year, 2001. This is deliberate. You can save this calendar and use it again for the years: 2007, 2018, 2029, 2035, and beyond (if the calendar survives that long.)
