October – My Board Game

There is nothing more satisfying than playing a game created and designed by yourself!

Today our bugs created their very own board game; based on the classic ‘snake & ladder’. Before putting their ideas on the drawing board, our young designers went through the process of understanding the rules and its gameplay by playing rounds of the original snake & ladder. Next, the task was to design their own board, starting with replacing ‘snakes’ and ‘ladders’ with subjects of their choice; e.g replacing ‘ladders’ with elevators, escalators, rockets or trees.    

Game invention puts children in position of power, as they decide on which game to invent, select needed materials and set up the rules (Castle, 1990).

Learning outcome: Today’s activity provides valuable educational experience such as writing rules and game labels, arithmetic, focusing and creativity.

October: My First Tee Shirt Design

The class today was guided through the motion of personalizing their own tee with their names, and choice touch of art.

Everyone brought in their own tee shirt and was shown how a cut-out template can be fashioned out of an everyday available wax paper. The class worked on creating their own templates of favoured shapes and designs. Next, they were carefully guided through the hot stamped process and followed by sponging on their individual choice of colour.

Voila! An exercise and experience learnt on how to personalize their very own tee shirt!

Learning outcome: Creating stencilled templates, the idea of personalizing, new art and craft material exploration.

October: Henna/ Mehndi Art

Heena or Mehndi has been around for 5,000 years! Originating from Egypt, the art has spread across all continents and has evolved to meet cultures and social environments. In Malaysia, the art form of Henna shows great influence from India with   the artform being used to adorn women’s palms, arms and feet as part of wedding celebrations believably to bring luck and joy to the bride.  Nowadays it is a fashion statement revered by many, cutting across beliefs and backgrounds.

Today, our class discussed and learnt to draw the three traditional motifs in henna art - the Tree, Paisley and Floret. Using the three motifs, the students were asked to mix and decorate the motifs onto their hand prints. Next, our students were asked to create their own motifs; based on their favourite things (to name a few; iron man, pony, princess, maths!) and applied in Henna art form.

Learning outcome: Learning the traditional art of Henna/Mehndi, traditional motifs, creating their very own motifs