Blog #8: Pretend Play and Magical Thinking

The word of the week is mass and volume!    
      Hello there! My name is Brightelda Lampshade. I was born on March 26th and I am 7 years old. My family and I speak English. I live with my mom, dad, sister and brother. We do not always spend time together even though we live in the same house. We have time to be together when those "humans" are not in our house. Don't get me wrong, the humans are great company most of the time. Anyways, I'll tell you a bit more about myself. I love spending quality time with my family, every minute counts. My favourite season is winter. I love being able to wear my white hat with my pink scarf and white mittens. I occasionally change my wardrobe depending on my mood, but this outfit is definitely my favourite. I will tell you a secret, I do not like the darkness at all. I feel very fortunate that I am able to help my fear with my special power that allows me to not be in darkness. My special power is very fun to use all I have to do is wiggle my nose and I am able to glow. One thing that I do not like is when the "humans" decide to watch movies because they do not like to watch movies if I glow. So I get scared but hopefully I can work on my fear. My favourite colour is yellow, the reason I love this colour is because when I use my special power I give off a yellow glow. Over all, I believe I am very happy, caring, intelligent and patient. I am very patient because I am concerned about the "humans" needs first before mine. Although I do not like darkness I allow the "human" to enjoy the movie and keep relaxed. I thoroughly enjoy my life and enjoy every day.

            Creating Brightelda Lampshade, was a lot of fun and it took some serious creative thinking. She displays mass and volume. Brightelda's physical characteristics resemble mass and volume because of her light and delicate structure (Schirrmacher, & Fox, 2009, p.142). She has a larger figure that includes her head, body and legs. She is more successful if she is stationary, she would be more challenging to move, although it is possible. It is important to remember that she needs to be near a plug so that her magical powers work. In general, Brightelda resembles mass and volume because she is "three dimensional art, which has height, length, and width" (Schirrmacher, & Fox, 2009, p.142).

            Teachers need to remember how much fun children have using there imagination. It is important to bring imagination and creativity into the classroom (Schirrmacher, & Fox, 2009, p.39). Teachers can incorporate an activity similar to this into their classroom. They can do this by having the children pick an inanimate object and bring it to life! Children can work on developing stories about their object that they brought to life. This would work on social skills and their creativity.          

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar.