Last week we kickstarted our new business with a pop-up learning opportunity for kids. We are so excited to share with you the wonderful discoveries that transpired when we invited children to join us for a day of transforming their favourite online games into reality.
our loose-parts picnic The Space: The art studio at the North Thornhill Community Centre was the perfect space for this pop-up. The large picture windows filled the room with an incredible amount of natural light and provided a beautiful post ice-storm backdrop that made us feel grateful to be toasty warm inside. To create a space that would flow differently than a traditional classroom, we placed all of our materials in the centre of the room – like a loose-parts picnic – and left the surrounding area open for children to spread out, choose a work space, and interact with each other as they built and tested their creations. What we found most interesting about setting up the room this way was that a comfortable ebb and flow between projects and groups developed organically. Placing everything in a delineated space in the centre of the room allowed the children to use the rest of the space according to their needs.
choosing their materials The Materials: As the children arrived, we asked them to sign a loose-parts agreement and encouraged them to slow down and carefully select the items they might like to construct with. Then we provided them with large collection trays with which to make their selections. This set the stage for an incredible level of mindfulness, respect and care for the materials – which directly affected the way they interacted with each other as well. Even though the loose parts picnic was jam-packed with what seemed like random materials, we chose the materials purposefully and intentionally – taking apart pieces that went together, deliberately leaving behind parts of full sets, and including materials that stimulated a variety of senses (tactile, auditory, visual etc.) One of the things we love most about loose parts – besides the open-ended creativity they provide – is the multitude of sensory needs they help us meet. Parents marveled how their children, who struggle with everything from anxiety and ADHD to shyness and introversion were productive and focused for hours because they had access to materials and a learning environment that filled their needs. For us, this experience confirmed what we’ve long believed – that all children benefit from environments that are well-thought out to promote personalized learning.
SnakPaks Something else we really love about loose parts is the dramatic reduction in consumption and waste. Except for the masking tape (which is now a giant tape ball that Aviva’s using for inspiration), the minimal trash we generated that day came exclusively from food packaging. And even there, we did our best to minimize waste by creating a SnakPak system that can be re-used for future events. As each child arrived, we labeled their basket and let them know they were free to snack whenever they got hungry. The kids loved that their snack was contained and personalized, and they appreciated being able to work uninterrupted. The baskets are completely stackable, re-usable, re-washable, and (bonus!) the labels pull right off without leaving residue. At the end of the day, we were thrilled with the ridiculously small amount of trash we had produced.
wordless provocations The Provocation: We designed this pop-up with ages 8-12 in mind but everyone was welcome. We had children of multiple ages from nursery to grade 6, and it worked for all of them for many reasons. To keep the task open-ended and appropriate for varying language and learning needs, we made a conscious decision to keep the provocations wordless. We printed out images of online games and strung them along a rope with clothes pins so children could pull the pictures down and place them on a clipboard. Some students knew instinctively what they wanted to create, others came in unsettled but quickly adjusted to this new approach. It didn’t take long before all the children were helping each other and deeply invested in bringing their ideas to life.
When parents returned to find their children heavily engaged and on-task, they began asking us questions like, “how did you get them to build this?” They couldn’t comprehend or imagine the process that had occurred while they had stepped away. We used the same minimal but purposeful language to explain to parents what we had already told their children: “choose a game that interests you and see if you can use some of the materials to recreate it.”
Cut the Rope While observing and documenting the children as they worked, we noticed that many of them had moved beyond the original provocation. Armed with clipboards, time, and well-chosen materials, these children actually became inventors, designers and engineers who took apart and rebuilt the games in imaginative and innovative ways. The open-ended provocation allowed the children to release ownership of their creations. So much so, that an 8-year-old boy who had spent half an hour creating a 3D version of Cut the Rope willingly handed over a pair of scissors to a boy in kindergarten who wanted to play his game. The rest of the children unexpectedly gathered around to witness the big moment. The room fell silent and everyone cheered even though the swinging candy missed its target. After this brief but wondrous show of support, the children went back to their work newly energized and motivated to test out their own creations. The noticeable absence of aggression and competition, and the sense of community and support these children extended to each other in their language and actions, was nothing short of remarkable.
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collaborative city The Struggles: True creativity does not exist without struggle, so it was inspiring for us to watch the children push through their discomfort of failed experiments and uncertainty. They asked for help and guidance from us as well as from the children around them. Overall, they stayed committed to their visions but were willing to adjust their plans where necessary.
In an effort to make our own learning visible, we had a few struggles of our own. We had envisioned a cozy snack corner for the children where they could step away from their work, load up on energy, and allow their creativity to percolate. This worked well initially – until a group of kids recognized the creative possibilities of the colourful round table-top on the floor. While their use of the table-top effectively shut down our snack area, we can't deny that their 5-way multi-age, multi-gender collaboration blew everyone away. So while we saw the big round blue thing as the perfect snack table, it turns out it was also the ideal base for building an elaborate city!
And finally, we were surprised by an exchange we had with an onlooker at the community centre who announced that it all seemed like "way too much work and totally not worth it." Although we welcome a wide range of opinions as a way to expand our own thinking, we were taken aback by the comment until we realized that this individual didn’t have a child in the room and hadn’t witnessed any of the creative transformations. Seen through the lens of a child, educator or parent, this person would have seen what we saw: that anyone can be inspired; that a single learning environment can serve multiple ages, stages and abilities; and that you can awaken parents’ curiosity to learning through witnessing their children at play.
In an effort to make our own learning visible, we had a few struggles of our own. We had envisioned a cozy snack corner for the children where they could step away from their work, load up on energy, and allow their creativity to percolate. This worked well initially – until a group of kids recognized the creative possibilities of the colourful round table-top on the floor. While their use of the table-top effectively shut down our snack area, we can't deny that their 5-way multi-age, multi-gender collaboration blew everyone away. So while we saw the big round blue thing as the perfect snack table, it turns out it was also the ideal base for building an elaborate city!
And finally, we were surprised by an exchange we had with an onlooker at the community centre who announced that it all seemed like "way too much work and totally not worth it." Although we welcome a wide range of opinions as a way to expand our own thinking, we were taken aback by the comment until we realized that this individual didn’t have a child in the room and hadn’t witnessed any of the creative transformations. Seen through the lens of a child, educator or parent, this person would have seen what we saw: that anyone can be inspired; that a single learning environment can serve multiple ages, stages and abilities; and that you can awaken parents’ curiosity to learning through witnessing their children at play.
The Takeaway: The children who participated in our very first pop-up shared how much they appreciated the chance to express themselves creatively. One child in particular summed up the experience when she said, “I liked it because I could do whatever I wanted and nobody told me how to do it!” We know that feeling comes from having a lot of freedom within a purposeful structure. At the end of the day, they all went home with stories and photos of their creations – and memories of a learning experience that was empowering and meaningful. For us, it was a fantastic way to kickstart a new business and to announce to the world "game on!"
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