The Secret Life of Things

Volunteers: Krishanka, Hasini, Sethu, Nishitha

Place and time: Nagaswatta, Building Hope Children’s center | 12.30-2pm (please be at the class 15 minutes early)

Intro:

What if the things around us could think, feel, talk, and have adventures when nobody was watching?

In this class, students will choose an everyday inanimate object and bring it to life through art. They will imagine their object's personality, emotions, dreams and relationships, and then create a scene showing their object in its secret world.

The activity introduces the idea of personification, giving human characteristics, emotions or behaviours to something that isn't alive.

For example:

A school bag that feels nervous every morning because it doesn't know what the day will bring.
An umbrella that loves rainy days but feels useless when the sun comes out.
A pair of shoes that dreams of travelling somewhere far away.
A chair that feels proud when someone sits on it after a long day.
A water bottle that gets worried when its owner forgets to drink water.
A pencil that feels happy when someone uses it to draw.
A window that wishes it could leave the house and explore.
A tree that sees everyone coming and going but can never move.

You will need:

Drawing paper
Pencils
Erasers
Colour pencils
Crayons
Markers
Real everyday objects for students to observe: shoes, cups, bags, pencils, umbrellas, bottles, toys, etc.

Main Activity:

1. Warm-Up: “What if…?”

Start by showing the children an ordinary object, for example, a shoe, pencil or water bottle.

Ask:

What does this object see every day?
Where does it go?
Who uses it?
What might make it happy?
What might make it sad?
What could it be afraid of?
What might it dream about?
What does it do when nobody is watching?

2. Choose Your Character

Each child chooses one everyday object.

Example: Shoe, School bag, Pencil, Water bottle, Umbrella, Chair, Clock, Toothbrush, Spoon, Cup, Book, Toy, Pair of glasses, Plant pot, Bicycle, etc.

Then have them imagine their object's personality.

They can answer:

My object is: _______
Its name is: _______
It is:
Happy / shy / adventurous / grumpy / curious / brave / lonely / silly / nervous / kind...
It loves: _______
It hates: _______
It is scared of: _______
It dreams of: _______
Its secret is: _______

3. Bring It to Life

Now the children draw their object as a character.

They can experiment with:

Facial expressions
Arms/legs
Body language
Colour
Shape
Movement
Accessories
The environment around it

Reflection

Did your object become different from what you originally imagined?
Was it easy or difficult to imagine an object having feelings?
Did anyone choose the same object but create a completely different character?
What did you learn about your object by imagining its life?
Can looking at something from a different point of view change the way we see it?

For next week…

We will be working with clay. Ask students to bring:

Plastic/ Polythene sheet to cover the final projects with (ask students to bring)

Shells, leaves, flowers, other stamps (for stamping - ask students to bring)

Inspiration

Pixar — Luxo Jr.

Pixar — The Blue Umbrella

Aug 23: Special workshop with Krishanka