The Laboratory

It's the last week of term, so teachers are on the look-out for activities that are (a) educationally valuable, and (b) seasonally relevant. One of my favourites is to look at constructing snowflakes - depending on the group it can be something quite straighforward, or become incredibly intricate. Our friend Karen is both a Maths teacher and very good at knitting and crochet, and these are some of the many snowflake designs she has crocheted this year. If you want to make snowflakes online there are two very good websites: At  http://www.andrewt.net/snowflake/ by adjusting the pattern in the top left you can alter your snowflake on the right If paper-cutting is more your thing but you don't fancy clearing up the mess, a snowflake maker from  http://snowflakes.barkleyus.com/ gives you loads of possibilities!

Welcome to our Advent Calendar! Now in its 10th year, we're so happy to have friends, family and random visitors joining us again for our Christmas preparations. Do send us your ideas, your photos, and your feedback. OK, enough chat, on with the show! We're going to start decorating the house today, and what better way to brighten up the window than with some paper snowflakes? But with a twist ... STAR WARS snowflakes! Thanks to Anthony Herrera, who has designed a whole Jedi Council of snowflakes, like R2-D2 above, you can have Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie and even Admiral Ackbar. Download the full set from Anthony's blog . Bonus beats: buy "Darth Vader and Son" , a heartwarming cartoon book by Jeffrey Brown, about what would have happened if Lord Vader had to use his parenting skills (rather than the Force) to bring up a 5-year-old Luke.

A seasonal snowflake hat, advertised in the Saks Fifth Avenue catalogue, with snowflakes designed by Marian Bantjes.