By Haven Mitchell-Rose Only a few weeks into school, and I for one could use a vacation. Luckily, I get to interact with little ones whose active imaginations transport us to any number of exotic locations, from a hovering alien hut on the moon, to a lavishly decorated palace. This week at our Explorers classes, the power of our little friends' imaginations helped us travel to the circus, and through the subway system. We also used imagination to create shapes, music, and movement. There is no limit to what a child's imagination can do, and now you and your little one can see where the following imagination activities will take you. Music AssociationMusic is a great way to get the creative juices flowing, and makes a great launch pad from which imagination can take wing. Materials: Music player Your imagination Step 1: Play a piece of music for your child. This can be anything from Oldies to Classical and everything in between. Music should be continuously playing throughout this activity Step 2: Ask them what the music makes them think of or feel Step 3: Ask follow up questions. For instance, if they say "It makes me think of being under the ocean," ask "what kind of fish do you see around you?" or "What do the fish look like?" or "What are the fish doing?" Step 4: Bring it to life! If your child says, "I see an octopus over there" go to where they are pointing and become the octopus through physicality and octopus-esque vocal choices. Step 5: Encourage them to join you. Say, "Show me your best fish face, show me how a fish swims. Let's swim together!" swim around the room, you as the octopus, your child as the fish *Infant Modification: If you little one is pre-verbal and/ or pre-mobile, observe their movement, noises, and demeanor during the music, and dance around with them based upon their reactions to the music. MisMatch!Materials: Blank sheet(s) of paper Pencils, crayons, markers YOUR IMAGINATION Step 1: Orient the piece of paper so that it is Portrait style, and fold it into thirds. Step 2: Ask your child to draw a head on the top third. Don't look at what they are drawing! When they are done have them fold it up and pass it to you Step 3: Draw a torso in the middle section. Don't let your child see what you draw! Fold it over again, and pass it back to your child (or to another child if one is present) Step 4: Child draws a pair of feet. When they are finished unfold the paper, and look at the mismatched person you have imagined! Step 5: Work with your child to create this person. What is their favorite color? What is their job? What is there favorite food? What kind of home do they live in? etc... *Challenge: Can your child and/ or you walk like your person? Or Talk like them? Or sit in a chair, or eat a snack or pick up toys like they would? Don't forget to share pictures of your mismatched person and/ or the music-inspired world you create to our Facebook Page with the hashtage #imaginespellbound This is Sharla. She likes to swim and eat dog food, but she does NOT like playing tag.
Created by: myself and Annika Kline (age 4)
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By Haven Mitchell-Rose Fall is here! The leaves are changing, sweaters are coming out of storage, and Spellbound has a revamped schedule of Storytime classes located in several new and exciting places. In honor of our new classes, this week's blog post is all about creative play! Engaging your child in creative play develops empathy, provides learning opportunities for kids, and is a great diagnostic for grown-ups to assess said learning. I love it, in my dual capacities of teacher and babysitter, and want to share some tips and activities for inspiring the imagination, and encouraging creative play. But wait, there's more! We here at Spellbound would love to hear from you! Please comment on this blog post with some of you and your child's favorite creative play activities. 6 1/2 Tips on Playing Creatively1. Play WITH your child. If they have a character that they are being, create a complimentary character and immerse yourself in the story of the game. Doing this in a whole hearted and unabashed way, you are giving your child permission to let their imagination run free. 2. Create transferable characters. Does your child love a certain kind of animal? A specific profession or superhero? Help them create a character, based on their interests, that can go on many varied adventures. This way you can get more than one game out of it. 3. Role reversal. Tell your child that in this game they are the Mommy/ Daddy, and you are the baby. Kids love this because they feel like they have the power, and you get to see the astuteness of their observations of you and other adults in their lives. 4. Re-appropriate everyday objects. Encourage your child to use the objects around your home in ways that are not that object's intended purpose. Put a bowl on your head and, voila! It's a hat! A paper towel roll is a paint brush, and a spatula is a microphone. 5. Make it tangible. Encourage you child to draw the character they love pretending to be. Or have them select an item of clothing (or even a whole outfit) that this character wears. These tangible elements offer you an entry point into your child's imagination, and transforms creative play into a shared experience between you and your child. It is also very validating for your child to be able to share their creative play with you and will hopefully lead to more creative play in the future. 6. Freedom within structure. Sometimes kids, especially very young ones, need a little help to get the creative juices flowing. Try offering them some given information as a starting point such as a location "We are at the doctor's office" or a relationship between your characters within the game "You be the doctor and I have a broken leg." Providing your child with broad information like this gives them a jumping off point, but leaves them the freedom to make all the specific decisions within the world you have established. 6 1/2. Switch it up. As kids get older they begin to take on this role of creating the world of the game and will often say things like, "Okay, let's play. I am a puppy and you are my owner." In so doing they are asking you to play within the confines of a world they have created, and now it's your turn to exercise freedom within it. Playing within your child's established rules demonstrates that you are giving them control of the game, while letting them know that you are still there to provide guidance and support. Creative Play Activity: The BoxNow that we have talked about some of the building blocks of creative play, let's apply them to one of my favorite activities. This game is called The Box, and is also great for developing fine motor skills.
Materials An empty box Step 1: Present your child with the box. Allow them to explore it and realize in their own time that it is empty Step 2: Mime opening the lid of the box and/ or digging around inside Step 3: Pull out an imaginary object, say a shoe, out of the box. Step 4: Mime using that object, putting the shoe on your foot, tying the laces/ buckling or velcroing the straps, etc. Step 5: Ask your child to guess what the object was based on your movements. Step 6: Now it's your child's turn to pull out an object, and your turn to guess. *Please post any pictures you take of you and your little one engaging in creataive play to our Facebook Page, with the hashtag #spellboundcreativeplay, and don't forget to tell us your favorite creative play activities by commenting on this post! By Haven Mitchell-Rose Back to school. Or, for many of you and your little ones, this year marks the beginning of their formal educational journey. While this might be a little nerve racking for parents, the general consensus among kids - at least the ones I've spoken to recently - seems to be excitement and anticipation. Here are a few activities, to peak their excitement even further, and hopefully ease some of your worries about what the coming year in the classroom will bring. Picture Day!With the beginning of school comes the greatly anticipated picture day. Gather your family, and make some goofy memories with your very own back to school photo shoot! Materials: Blank/ neutral background (a wall or sheet should do the trick) Nerdy and/or school related costume pieces and accessories (gathered from around the house) Stool or chair Camera Step 1: Set up the stool in front of your background Step 2: Present your child with your assembled costumes, and encourage (and/ or help) them to create their picture day look Step 3: Say cheese! Snap some fun back to school pictures of your child- in a variety of scholarly poses- and don't forget to share them on our Facebook Page with the hashtag #back2schoolwithspellbound *Challenge: Let your child pick out an outfit for you and take your back to school picture. The Student Becomes the TeacherFor many of your little ones, back to school means back to an instructional style that involves a teacher addressing a classroom full of students. While we here at Spellbound support all teaching and learning styles, we want to turn the tables in this next activity, and allow your child a rare opportunity to be the teacher. Materials: Toys Your child's room Small table and chair (optional) Easel/ chalkboard/ giant sticky note, large sheet of paper and tape (optional) Step 1: Imagine that it is the first day of school. Your child is the teacher showing their new student (you) around their classroom (bedroom). Step 2: Ask your child lots of questions about their toys and possessions around the room. And don't forget to raise your hand! Step 3: Place a small table and chair in center of room. Sit it in, raise your hand and ask "Mr. or Ms. (child's last name), What will we be learning about today?" and see what you find out. If they need a little help, suggest a toy or game that they cam teach you about. Be sure to ask plenty of questions! Photo credit: http://community.babycenter.com/
Did you know that not all roosters say "Cock-a-doodle-doo?" If you ask a German child to imitate a rooster, they will respond with a resounding, "kikeriki!” A Korean child will tell you that they say "Ko-ki-oh," and a French one will say, "Cocorico!" What this tells us, is that human interpretations of animal sounds, the world over, are directly connected to linguistics. When you teach your child to interpret and reproduce animal sounds, you are providing them with a strong foundation of sounds on which to build not only their native tongue, but potentially other languages as well. Animal StoryThis week at Spellbound, we honored animals and the unique sounds they make, with the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle and Bill Martin Jr. Now it's your turn to liven up your favorite story with some fun animal sounds! Materials: Storybook Step 1: Find one of your child's favorite storybooks that features animal characters (preferably a large variety of animals) Step 2: Read the book once through to re-familiarized yourself and your child with the story Step 3: The second time through, whenever an animal character appears, ask your child what sound they make. Don't be afraid to help them to make it if they are stumped! Magic ElevatorNow that you've practiced making the sounds, it's time to bring them to life with a little movement.
Materials: An open space 2 chairs Your body Your Imagination Paper(optional) Markers/ crayons/ pencils/ etc. (optional) Step 1: Clear an open space, set up your magic elevator at the edge of it using 2 chairs, and assign an environment to floors 1-5, or as many as you like. ex: Under the sea, jungle, forrest, etc. Step 1.5: Here you may choose to make an elevator sign so that your child knows which environment they are going to. Or feel free to leave it a surprise! Your child can also help you decorate too Step 2: Step into your elevator, making the appropriate sound effects of course, and ask your child to select a number floor to travel to Step 3: When you arrive at your selected floor, you and your become the animals found in each environments. And don't forget about animal sound effects Step 4: Repeat steps 2 and 3 with as many floors/ environments as desired *Post any pictures you take of you and your little one to our Facebook Page, with the hashtag #spellboundanimalsounds We've all heard that exposure to music is good for babies for any number of developmentally significant reasons, but did you know that it can encourage helping behavior? According to a study conducted by McMaster University researchers Laurel Trainor, Laura Cirelli, and Kathleen Einarson, being bounced to music leads babies to help an adult pick up dropped objects, and ultimately "cements social bonds." In order to encourage these, and they myriad other benefits of music, we dedicated this week's Storytime classes to exploring instruments and the sounds they make. Now it's your turn to make some music of your own. 1,2, a 1,2,3,4! Kitchen OrchestraOur story this week was "Zin, Zin, Zin a Violin!" by Lloyd Moss, which is all about playing music in an orchestra, but did you know that you have an orchestra living under your roof? And where do you store your instruments? In your Kitchen cabinets, of course! Materials: pots pans tupperware maison jars wooden/ plastic serving spoons anything else in your kitchen that looks like a fun instrument Step 1: Present your child with serving spoon Step 2: Invite them to tap on various cookware with the spoon and/ or their hands, demonstrating different rhythms Step 3: Choose a favorite song (preferably one that your child is already familiar with) and demonstrate tapping the rhythm on the assembled cookware. See if they join in! Dance Party!Because who doesn't love a good dance party? And because it's a great way for your little one to feel music in their body. Moving rhythmically to music creates a tangible connection for children, providing a foundation for a life long association between music and fun!
Materials: music playing device dance floor Step 1: Find a recording of the song you and your child just played together in your Kitchen Orchestra (or another family favorite) Step 2: Hold your little one and sway/ bounce to the beat! (For slightly bigger little ones, stand facing them, holding their hands and encourage them to sway/ bounce with you) Step 3: Play other songs with different tempos and rhythms, and experience swaying/ bouncing to them Challenge: Once you have mastered the sway and/ or bounce, make up your own dance moves... but don't loose the beat! *Don't forget to post pictures of you and your little one doing these activities to our Facebook Page with the hashtag #spellboundsounds! Take it away, maestros! There is a Chinese Proverb that goes “Tell me and I will forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I will understand.” Here at Spellbound, we embody this philosophy by using stories, puppets, and interactive theatrical experiences to teach children a wide range of skills from mastering language to more abstract concepts like understanding and coping with daily routine. This week, in the spirit "involving" our explorers, Storytime classes were devoted to exploring the body through art, AND to using the body as a means by which to explore art. Here are some fun ways for you and your little one can do just that at home! Body StoryTell your child a story that makes frequent mention to parts of the body. Encourage and/or help them point to that body part whenever it is mentioned in the story. Example story: Once upon a time, there was a princess who walked everywhere on her TOES. One day, she got an idea in her HEAD that she would go for a bike ride around her kingdom. She pulled her shoes on her FEET and wrapped her scarf around her NECK, as it was the dead of winter, and set off. She was riding along her favorite street, when her EYES fell upon the most beautiful dog she had ever seen. So distracted was she by this dog, that she forgot to look where she was going, and crashed into a street sign! She fell of her bike, skinning her ELBOW. She did not know what to do, but just when she thought all hope was lost, the dog she had seen earlier came bounding around the corner, with a bandage in his MOUTH. The princess got on her KNEES, and took the bandage in her HANDS. Together they bandaged up her scrape, and she peddled back to her castle, the sound of the dogs friendly bark ringing in her EARS. Finger PuppetsNot only can we tell stories about our bodies, but we can use our bodies to tell stories. A Trip to the Circus Imagine running a consecutive 30 mile race. Impossible, right? What about climbing a 9,777 foot tall mountain? Now imagine doing these things Every. Single. Day. Materials: As you beg your child to use their “inside voice” , you may feel the urge to never encourage them to make sound ever again. However, exploring sound is of the upmost importance to the developing child. It is not only their primary tool for communication with you and their peers, but it provides a lens through which they can interpret the world they live in. We teach children to make and understand sound so that they can form clear schema, or mental foundations, that will eventually allow them to differentiate between types of animals, automobiles, musical instruments, and more! So take this opportunity to enjoy making a little NOISE with you family - and hopefully get it out of their system before nap time... The Homemade ShakerIf exploring the world of sound at our Storytime classes this week as taught us anything, it’s that little ones LOVE shakers. Now you and your family can create personalized shakers of your very own! Materials: 2 small paper plates stapler 1/2 cup raw beans funnel markets, crayons, paints, feathers, tape/ stickers, etc. Step 1: Encourage your child to decorate the backs of 2 paper plates Step 2: Place the 2 plates together facing each other, and staple them together around the rim, leaving a small open gap Step 3: Place funnel in the gap, and allow your child to help you pour beans into the space between plates. When all the beans are inside, seal your shaker with a final staple or two Step 4: SHAKER PARTY! *BONUS: Post a picture of your little one and their shaker to our Facebook page, with the hash tag #spellboundsounds The SoundscapeWith your snazzy new shaker in hand, you and your little one can now create your very own sound scape - just like a professional Folly Artist would for play or movie! This activity is also great for developing character recognition.
Materials: story book brand new shaker Step 1: Selected a favorite book or story Step 2: Read or tell it to your child as normal Step 3: Read or tell the story again, but this time encourage and/or help your child shake their shaker whenever the main character of the story is mentioned. *Challenge: See if your child can make a different sound with their shaker for each character Happy Noise-making! Every now and then when I tell people what I do for a living, "I make plays and teach theatre classes for babies and toddlers," I understandably get a slightly confused look. "So...do the babies...perform?" Nope. Not unless they wander on stage while the play is going on. And believe me, that happens. But Spellbound is about more than giving babies and toddlers performance skills, it is about supporting their natural development through art. While music for young children is generally accepted as a beneficial for babies' brains and skill development, other art forms such as visual art, dance, and theatre are rarely focused on before the age of five, other than craft activities. But can babies have an aesthetic and creative experience in a theatre class or at a performance? I believe they can, and here are three reasons why: 1. Babies learn about the world through their senses...touch, sight, sound, and taste. These are the tools of the theatre. Well, maybe not taste, but if you're going to bring materials into a baby class, you better be ready for them to be chewed on. All of our performances and classes feature objects that have texture, sound, color, and the flexibility to be used in many different ways, which engages a young child's imagination. Our approach is multi-sensory and responsive to children's curiosity and creativity. We focus less on characters, conflict, and narrative storytelling, and more how we can transport ourselves through imagination and play. Our guiding questions in almost every single class and play we develop are, "How does this work? What can I do with it?" 2. In art, there are no "wrong" answers. Babyhood and toddlerhood is all about experimentation. Trying everything a million different ways until you find the way that works. Or, for some children, trying one way over and over and over again until you understand every piece of it. Creative play and imaginative art-making relies on the process of experimentation, risk-taking, and multiple solutions. These are critical skills that our babies will need as they grow up in the 21st Century, and we believe that they are central to both child development and the artistic process. 3. Our classes are collaborative and in-the-moment, just like live theatre. Parents/caregivers work right alongside the children, modeling the creative process and finding new ways to engage with their babies from moment to moment. We encourage adults to take the same risks and experiment with the same materials in order to make their own discoveries alongside the young people. This collaboration is rewarding because both generations are learning skills that will go with them outside of the classroom. The skill of being present in the moment and making discoveries even amongst the familiar are the tools of the actor, and these are the skills that we encourage the adults to use in class and to foster in their children. This is a fast, results-driven world, but at Spellbound, our motto is, "slower, smaller, more intimate." We want to encourage parents/caregivers to think like artists and find new, collaborative ways to captivate the interest and curiosity of the babies. So, no, we aren't teaching our babies to perform. We are providing a space for them to explore, discover, create, and share...and these are the things that are the essence of theatre. Join us for spring classes starting next week! Let's be honest, after several days trapped inside because of winter weather and/or germs, even the most patient parent can get a little tired of the same old stickers, Elmo coloring books, and half-chewed markers. So how do you encourage your child's creativity while still staying creative yourself? When I am working on a new piece of theatre for young people, I always ask myself two questions. Firstly, what about this project is interesting and engaging to young people? But secondly, and possibly more importantly, what about this project is interesting and exciting to me as an artist? Children's theatre (and music and television and books) has too long been about what adults think kids should be interested in, rather than viewing it as a collaborative artistic experience for both children and adults. So this winter, as you are struggling to keep everyone happy and creative while stuck at home, think about what what YOU find exciting and interesting about a particular artistic media or subject, and work with your child in the role of collaborator, as an equal, rather than as a leader or instructor. As an inspiration, here are some beautiful parent/child collaborations that I've come across on the web lately. Get inspired and let us know what you come up with! "Creative parents often have creative kids and here, the two combine their artistic roots for a brilliant and inspirational series of surreal drawings. Redditor Tatsputin is a father of two and often has to take long flights for work, so to pass the time his kids give him some of their own drawings to colour in." http://www.creativebloq.com/creativity/dad-colours-his-kids-artistic-drawings-11135453 "One day, while my daughter was happily distracted in her own marker drawings, I decided to risk pulling out a new sketchbook I had special ordered. It had dark paper, and was perfect for adding highlights to. I had only drawn a little in it, and was anxious to try it again, but knowing our daughter’s love of art supplies, it meant that if I wasn’t sly enough, I might have to share. (Note: I’m all about kid’s crafts, but when it comes to my own art projects, I don’t like to share.) Since she was engrossed in her own project, I thought I might be able to pull it off." http://busymockingbird.com/2013/08/27/collaborating-with-a-4-year-old/ ‘Wengenn in Wonderland’ is a dreamy, whimsical photo series by artist-cum-mother Queenie Liao, in which she turns her baby Wengenn’s naptime into fairytale-like adventures. Using her imagination, she creates fantasy worlds for the sleeping Wengenn to journey into. To create these wonderful scenes she uses spare cloth, stuffed animals and other common household items as props. " http://designtaxi.com/news/361623/Creative-Mom-Creates-Whimsical-Dream-Adventures-For-Her-Sleeping-Baby/ "We had been living in Melbourne for about a year and our garage was still full of flattened moving boxes," Lang explained to Business Insider. "I wanted to throw them in the recycling bin but Leon was adamant that we'd be able to use them for something." http://www.businessinsider.com/cardboard-box-office-baby-movie-scenes-2014-1 |
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Lauren Jost, Director Archives
December 2017
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