I wanted to post a few pictures of some of the creative stuff the kids have been coming up with this week. In this first one, the kids swiped our "rainbow story cloth" (a rainbow-dyed silk that I use to create a story nook for our curriculum story each day) and hung it on the loft in their bedroom to create a private space on Zoo Boy's bed. They filled the space with every stuffed animal they owned and opened a "pet shop", taking turns "selling" each other pets. J bought a chicken first. Then Zoo Boy bought a puppy. When I came in to take the photo, J had a flying squirrel -- I asked him what happened to his chicken, and he told me that he had to bring it back to the store because it wouldn't stop bothering Zoo Boy's puppy. Zoo Boy chimed in to tell me that it kept pecking the puppy's dog house. Pesky chicken! The boys promptly "sold" me a pet moose.
On a different day, the boys decided to give J's cat, Linus, a litter of kittens. That's a black kitten (not real!) on the cat's back, they've got a gray one "nursing" (neat trick with a male cat!), and an orange one licking Linus' face. I know, I know, it sounds like cat torture, but believe it or not, he was lying there purring and playing right along as though he was following a script for "how to act like a mother cat". (Linus is the world's best kid cat, he'll go along with just about anything.)
Here's the paper ghost puppet J created -- his idea actually came from a Spongebob Squarepants episode, of all places, but the design is entirely his own. He cut out two "ghost shape" forms from white paper, used scotch tape to attach them to each other, leaving a hole for his hand, and then asked for a piece of black construction paper, then cut out eyes and a mouth. When he started working on it, he told me he was making a "halloween favor".
Here's the prototype for his design -- on the right is what he was trying to represent -- Spongebob dressed up as the ghost of The Flying Dutchman. On the left is his design for the puppet.
And here's a drawing he made to explain to The Map Man which episode he was talking about -- there's good ol' Spongebob (gotta love that crazy yellow dude!) on the left, complete with dutch clogs (well, he WAS dressing up as The Flying Dutchman, after all!), and to the right is what he looks like after he shaves down his head and dons his costume. The dashed lines are to emphasize that Spongebob's head shape (square) and a ghost's head shape (round) are different.Who said cartoons don't inspire creativity!
2 comments:
I have read on your other blog, how, and when J.'s play began to become more imaginative. What sorts of "things", did you guys do to encourage this transition ( we have been doing RDI for a while, and are just on the cusp of this)? I love the richness of imagination used at your house and I am excited to see some of this first hand.
Thanks,
Michele
Michele, honestly a big part of what we did was just let Zoo Boy lead the interactions. I think led interactions is the key, but Zoo Boy was doing it around the clock, The Map Man and I were only doing it an hour or two a day. Once the child can tolerate playing with another child (sibling, friend, relative, whatever!), then one-on-one imaginative play in the prescence of a child that is able to draw them into their play is probably the most useful thing I can think of, because they will try to repeat what is being modeled for them (first) and then start to come up with their own ideas (much later). It took years, literally. (And the first couple were ugly, because it was a sibling that he coudln't get away from!!!) But once he was able to handle the social component, the slow work to bringing forth his imagination began.
Not sure if that's helpful, but it's the best way I can explain it. :-)
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