Blog Archives

TO THE PAINTING!!!!

1/22/2020

I love painting! And I am not alone in this at our site!
Whenever we start a Bob Ross painting we get a great number to join us on our happy tree adventures!
But yesterday was not a happy cloud adventure day.
Yesterday we ventured to paint...
*drum roll*

MUGS AND PLATES!!!

Even more exciting! The paint that came with the dishwares was food and dishwasher safe! =D
All the kids had to do was bake it following the instructions and then, voila!

But then, catastrophe struck!!!
The paint only came in green, blue, yellow, and red!!!
Dun, Dun, DUUUNNN!!!

How would our crafty heroes overcome such a formidable set back?!?
With an ancient technique called "Color Wheel," they
used their color combining knowledge and thwarted the challenge with barely a second glance!

In the end, the heroes prevailed and made fantastic dishes! Even the kids who were like, " I don't know what to do", made their chosen dish-weapons well! Sometimes, "just doing" gives great results!

By Nikki Bjorklund

Imagination Will Get You Anywhere

1/10/2020

Imagination is one of the best things out there, I think.
It's what inspires us to create, build, explore, write, and dream.
It is with imagination that so much of our world has come to be.
How dreams have become reality and reality is filled with dreams.

Yet, surprisingly, imagination is like a muscle.
If you don't exercise it, it's harder to use.

This is a project near and dear to me because its main component is imagination and it starts with a simple instruction: Make a map.
Yet from this simple instruction, most kids instinctually, and without even trying, take it away with their own creativity!
It's so fun to see the worlds these guys create and how excited they get as their ideas build off their other ideas and it just snowball effects away!
For such a grand scheme we had to spread it out to encourage thoughtfulness and discourage the unnecessary need to rush.

Day 1: You're designing a country; a place. You start by building how you want the land to look. After you have the outline sketched, you sketch in land features: mountains; are they ranges or individual? Lakes, rivers, cities, towns, marshes, desserts, volcanoes, lava, forest, etc.

This section is the longest process, so should not be rushed. The point is to take the time to be detailed. Much of what kids begin to imagine starts with how they build their world in this stage. Many kids were already thoughtful as they pondered how their world should look.

Day 2: You take a break from designing the landscape to instead think about the laws of your world. Is there one unified ruling force? What are the laws? Or perhaps there are warring groups, and each has their own law system. Maybe you have clans of people who have very few rules, or your laws are based off of absurdity and silliness, or they're based off our world but in a broken, distant future!

Once kids, get what they like down, they continue to work on their landscape design. =]

Day 3: Designing the flag of their country. Is there a country flag and then province flags? House symbols? Clan symbols? No symbol? Why? I encourage them to design their flag(s), and then also have meaning for the design they came up with. This usually rolls into day 4 well because...

Day 4: Making the history of your people and the land! This is where they answer all the "why's". How things connect, the legends, why people are warring, at peace, are there people completely isolated and unbeknownst to others, why is this so? Why is the land broken? Are their gods? Creatures?

I usually let them type this section, but forgot to let it happen this time. The kids didn't seem to mind. ^_^

Having taken their time and delved into their world building, many are not yet finished, and despite the "official" conclusion yesterday, they plan to continue their worlds until they are done. =]
I love this craft. It's good for those who are artistic and for those who think they are less so. It's not just about drawing your world, it's about what you're creating in your head. What can you imagine? What can you make? Why is it like that? Your world can be as silly or realistic, or as sci-fi or fantasy as they want. I have seen shattered worlds, floating worlds, underwater worlds, future worlds, and so many others. But in the end, it's the excitement at what they're creating that gets me every time. I love this activity because it gets me fire up and creating, and I love to see that it affects others just as it affects me.
Always keep imagining! It will get you anywhere!

By Nikki Bjorklund

TO THE PAINTING!!!!

Imagination Will Get You Anywhere

Author

Archives

Categories

Preschool

School Age Care

!MPACT

JOIN OUR TEAM

Job Opportunities
Team Member Website
Internships
Work Site Learning
Volunteers

ISD Links

TO THE PAINTING!!!!

Imagination Will Get You Anywhere

Author

Archives

Categories

Preschool

School Age Care

!MPACT

JOIN OUR TEAM

Job OpportunitiesTeam Member WebsiteInternshipsWork Site LearningVolunteers

ISD Links

Job Opportunities
Team Member Website
Internships
Work Site Learning
Volunteers