The Shape Game

It is a rainy school holiday day - what to do...

Maybe play the shape game? It's a great fun drawing game involving a random shape being transformed into something recognisable, and even the celebs (including Quentin Blake, Emma Thompson, Harry Hill, Ian McEwan and Sir Peter Blake) have been playing it as part of Anthony Browne’s THE SHAPE GAME project, in aid of the charity Rainbow Trust.

They started with this shape drawn by Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne.

and they came up with many different ideas...

Hats proved a common route for many of the contributors involved, with Jo Brand, Axel Scheffler, Jacqueline Wilson, Andrew Motion, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Sir Peter Blake amongst those transforming the shape into headwear. Animals were also a popular choice: Harry Hill opting to customise the shape into a whale, Quentin Blake adapting it into a bird and Emma Thompson using her artwork as a way to declare that she is “obsessed with pigs”. Other creations inspired by the animal kingdom include those by Greg Wise (who drew a rhino), Michael Morpurgo (elephant), Michael Foreman (hippo) Catherine Rayner (pig), Linford Christie (bird), Emily Gravett (owl), Shirley Hughes (cat) and Ken Livingstone (shark).

Other creations include a desert island by Booker-Prize winning author Ian McEwan, a person pondering the question: “Why Me?” by philosopher Alain de Botton, and comedian Leigh Francis’s take on 1980s high-school hero, Teen Wolf.

Other contributors to Play the Shape Game include: Anne Fine, Emily Gravett, Meera Syal, Philip Pullman, Tracy Chevalier, Nick Sharratt, Michael Rosen, Imelda Staunton, Anthony Horowitz, Sir Derek Jacobi, Rob Ryan and Jan Pienkowski.

Quentin Blake, the first contributor to sign-up to the project, said:

“I jumped at the chance to get involved; not only was it huge fun thinking about how I’d like to customise Anthony’s shape, but encouraging creativity is something I feel very strongly about. I hope the auction and book go on to raise lots of money for Rainbow Trust, which does such important work to support families at a time of great need.”

Anthony Browne said:

“Although on one level it’s just a game, I believe that it encapsulates the act of creation… everything comes from something else, inspiration is everywhere. I am thrilled that so many big names have joined in to play The Shape Game and I’ve had enormous pleasure looking through their artworks – it’s fascinating to get a glimpse inside the minds of celebrities! Hopefully they will capture the public’s imagination too so that we can raise a good amount for Rainbow Trust.”

Bestselling author Philip Pullman said of his contribution:

“I was enthusiastic about the idea from the start, because I seize on any excuse to get my pencils out, and this idea was so intriguing. I did have to let my mind go free over Anthony’s shape – there’s no point in thinking hard about it, because the exercise really involves thinking very loosely. But as I did, the landscape seemed to form itself around the shape. I loved doing it - huge fun”.

Members of the public will be able to bid for the original artwork from the project at an online auction for further information see www.childrenslaureate.org.uk. The transformed shapes will also be published by Walker Books in a book, Play the Shape Game, intended to encourage children to use their imaginations. The book, which will be published in paperback at £5.99, will also feature brand new shapes created by the contributors which readers can then customise for themselves.

Both the auction and the book were launched yesterday at a special event at Waterstone’s Piccadilly (London), Europe’s largest bookstore. All funds raised from the auction and all profits from the sales of the book will be donated to Rainbow Trust, a charity which provides vital support to families who have a child with a life threatening or terminal illness.

Operation Play Time - Sugar Chalk

I'm very sorry to say that I didn't manage to get time to complete today's Operation Playtime task - Sugar Chalk but here is the information so we can try it another day...

Regular chalk drawings smear and smudge but not if you use 'Sugar Chalk' which will stay bold and bright and it won’t smear or smudge!

You will need:
pavement chalk or regular chalk,
bowl,
water,
sugar,
construction paper

To make:
Place water and 1/2 cup of sugar in the bowl and stir until it is dissolved.
Place the chalk in the bowl ( make sure the bowl is big enough and there is enough water to cover the chalk.
Let the chalk soak a few hours or overnight.
Take the chalk out and give your child some construction paper and the chalk and them create pretty masterpieces! Black or dark blue construction paper makes the most bold chalk masterpieces but any color will work!!!

This idea and recipe came from the book "First Art" by Mary Ann Kohl.

Developing Imagination / Story Skills

I was reading a post on a parenting forum yesterday about encouraging children's imaginative development and there were some great ideas so I thought I'd share some with you.

Make sure that you spend time reading and sharing a variety of different books, stories and rhymes because the more ideas your child comes into contact with the more ideas they have to build on when creating their own stories. Ask questions when sharing stories; for example, why do you think that happened? how did he feel? what do you think will happen next?

Try to think imaginatively yourself when showing you child stories, use story sacks to develop story ideas. Gather props relating to stories for example puppets and games and use these to enact the stories. Make props such as wooden spoon puppets, playdoh food and cardboard box houses to help you.

For children who really struggle with writing / drawing / thinking imaginatively the Nonsenses puzzle. These puzzles encourage reading and building sentences; each card has a character, place or an action and by mixing the beginning, middle and end pieces you can have hours of fun as you try to compete to come up with the silliest sentences possible!

Make stories up co-operatively; depending on your child's drawing / writing ability there are several ways you can do it. The most simple way is to do it orally, you start a story and then take it turn to say a sentence or part of a sentence and see how silly it can get and how much detail you can put into it. If your child likes drawing you can make a story board by drawing squares on paper (start with just a few squares and then build up to longer ones as your child gets more confident) and taking it in turns to draw the next picture in the story. If you child struggles with drawing you could ask them to tell you what to draw and draw if for them. Lastly you can create stories by writing ideas down, take a strip of paper each and write down a character, fold it over and swap and add a location, fold and swap again and add an activity, fold and swap etc building up ideas and then open them out to see what has happened.

Draw random shapes / lines on a piece of paper and see what your child can make them become, for example a square could become a house, a circle could be made into a pig and a triangle could become the sail of a boat or the top of a rocket a wavy line could become the sea or turned into a caterpillar. This a great game for children who need to practice their fine motor and drawing skills too.

As with all learning activities the key is to keep it fun.

Creative Cards

We've had a few birthdays amongst our family, being known for 'doing stuff' with the children it's come to be expected that I'll (sorry our children will) produce a handmade card. I've learnt from experience that simple is generally the most effective as Mr I Can Do It (aged 3) wants to do it himself and has the concentration of a typical three year old and Mr I Want To Do It Too (aged 1) thinks he can join in.

These two cards have been made using a similar theme.

A piece of white A4 card folded in half and 'coloured' with a base colour by Mr 'I Can Do It' with a few doodles from Mr 'I Want to Do It Too'. We discussed the colour needed and sorted the crayons so only the correct colour ones were on the table (incidental learning of colours / matching and sorting!).

For the windsurfing card we did a google image search for sailing but then Mr 'I Can Do It' explained he wanted "a boat the man falls off" so we found a windsurfing picture and printed it off, cut it out and glued it on. I did the cutting but if you are card making with an older child / or have a simpler shape picture they could cut it out themself.

For the flower card, I cut out six 'flower' shapes and we cut out the three contrasting circles together. We assembled two flower shapes and topped off the flowers with the circle inners. The bumble bee was coloured and striped by Mr 'I Can Do It' and he stuck on the star glitter.

There are some more easy card making ideas in my article Father's Day Cards at Treehugger Mums. Have a go and create some home made treasurers for your friends and family whilst practicing the important fine motor skills of writing and drawing and cutting.