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Stretched imagination: The wonderful world that children have inside their heads! May 21, 2012
Udai attended a 6-day art workshop this past week. Conducted by Sonal, a dear friend of Rahul and mine from the good old days in Lucknow, he had the time of his life exploring and discovering in himself new abilities and talents. Ten kids varying from age 7 to 11 and a wonderfully involved and talented teacher- Here’s a short run through of what they did…..
Exercise 1 was learning to put together the background, mid ground and foreground. Kids had an inherent ability to portray different moods and a very clear visualization of the scene was apparent. This one is Udai’s.
Exercise 2- Think of up of your own character. They made these fantastic character sheets describing these characters (Caroto the warrior carrot and Lion the Monkey are on this pic’s foreground), what they do, what they like, dislike, etc.
Udai created Matrix (inspired by summer holiday reading of Asterix) the Tribal Man. Lives in a cave in Africa. Hunts mammoths and eats mammoth heads. Dives backward flip into water and loves swimming. Wields a deadly spear!
Step 3 was creating a wire frame of the character. Some kids changed their characters but our man stuck to Matrix loyally all the way through!
Next: They built on the skeleton to add flesh and skin and clothes and accessories. This was most exciting. That Sonal Bua had so much fantastic stationery and material…wow! Do note the red loin cloth and the neck piece worn by our smart man Matrix! The important lesson at this point was to exaggerate the special characteristic, in this case Matrix’s leanness.
And that’s how Matrix turned out. He is broke at the neck but he adorns a wall in our house! Bua has got some stronger wire to remake him 🙂 In the final version, he got 3 bracelets on each arm also!
The most involved teacher with another talented student. During the presentation, Sonal had something special to highlight about each child. Made the parents day for sure!
Aadyaa thoroughly enjoyed the display and was much inspired. We went home and made a masterpiece of our own!!
Children always surprise us: Notes from our weekend club- Apr 30, 2012
We have a weekend club going about once a month for a few children. Usually, one of the parents facilitates some interesting activity and this time I volunteered. The idea was to get the kids to think and write creatively, focusing on narration.
The children, seven children aged about 6-9, were first asked to talk about their current favorite book or story, highlighting what they particularly like. Words from their narration were written on chits, which were then folded and placed in a box. The chits were jumbled and each child picked about 4, using which they had to come up with a story of their own, in written!
The results varied, but some attempts were pretty amazing. Aarush, younger than the rest, made up for lack of writing speed with his brevity. He wrote :
Once aliens invaded the galaxy. they used to be eating dictnory’s for power. the aliens were as stupid as idiots. like if sombody said something to them they jumped about.
I’ve transcribed the spellings and punctuation precisely to indicate that skill levels have nothing to do with how well someone can narrate! This was simply amazing. The other kids were also quite appreciative.
Nitya’s piece was notable as well, in which she described the joy experienced by a geeky kid who got to spend a day with his favorite author Roald Dahl. Most interestingly, they “ate ice-creams, they went to a movie and had lots of fun.”
The second exercise split the kids into two groups. They were each given a picture cut out from Lonely Planet Magazine. They were to include the picture in a verbal narration. One group, which included Udai, Utsa, Aarush and Aryan (below), chose to each make a story; then they found a clever way to weave it all together into one story and they took turns to narrate different bits. Nicely and confidently done.
A confident narration of a story built through teamwork and consultation. Kids make this stuff look so effortless!
Sushant and Nitya (below), on the other hand, decide to dramatize their narration, even weaving the toy wooden horse into the tale and using it as a prop!
There was lots of movement, well delivered dialogue and clarity of sequence in this dramatization. Little Aadyaa (at the back) thoroughly enjoyed being a spectator in this entire workshop!
Medha, who had opted out of this activity, was a bit sulky at this point. To cheer her up, I gave them a short lecture-demo on how a solo actor can essay multiple roles on stage, or show the audience that there are other imaginary people with her on stage.
Four children chose to go solo with the ‘dramatize a picture’ format. Medha did a really professional puppet show (I was so engrossed, I don’t have pics!) using the little half wall in the room (she was quick to spot that opportunity, totally appreciate that!). All the others did a great job of incorporating the elements I had spoken of in their little skits. Pretty amazed we were to see how quickly they picked up the nuances and were able to translate it into their own imagination and the context of their narrative!
Well done, kids! We have a lot to learn from you all…..
ramblinginthecity 