ALL THESE THINGS WE CAN MAKE ACTIVITY PACK
Image: Pari Naderi.
WELCOME This pack is designed to go alongside audio piece, ALL THESE THINGS WE CAN MAKE. You can dip in and out, choose the activities that interest you. The idea is that they are fun things for you to do with your children/the children in your care, that encourage play, creativity, exploration and curiosity. Mostly they are activities to do outdoors - in your local park, on your estate, in your garden, but some can also be adapted to do from home. At the end of some sections you’ll see that there’s a mini-section called, ‘Wonderings’. These are offered as conversation starters ways to talk about what you’ve been exploring together, to share new ideas, thoughts and curiosities. We live in a tactile world full of sensation - things to look at, listen to, touch, taste and smell. Some of these sensations are very dominant, and some are easy to forget about, ignore or simply not notice at all. We hope that this activity pack allows some time and space to notice and enjoy many wonderful, interesting things that are all around us. We would love to hear about your adventures. Write, draw, photograph, video your experiences and send them to us. You can also ask us questions and we’ll try and answer! email Charlotte: info@charlottespencerprojects.org tag us on Instagram and Twitter @C_S_Projects
Enjoy! Charlotte Spencer and Petra Söör
SCAVENGER HUNTS We are surrounded by things. Living things like plants, trees and flowers. Natural things like stones, twigs, shells and fallen leaves. Things made by humans like buildings, vehicles, tools and toys. Some things are really precious to us, and some things we throw away - broken things, old things, packaging. Some things we notice more than others, some things we value more than others. Whilst you take a walk, try and spot lots of different kinds of things and collect them. Take a bag with you to put everything in. We have put together some suggestions, but you’ll probably find some other really interesting things as well.
MINIATURE HUNT Find a small box - an empty matchbox, or mini food container. Fill it with as many tiny items as you can find. (No duplicates.)
COLOUR HUNT Find as many items of the same colour as you can.
HOW MANY CAN YOU FIND? Spot them and tick them off, or collect and put in your bag
⃝ a smooth stone
⃝ an empty snail shell
⃝ a soft feather
⃝ a dandelion clock
⃝ a nibbled leaf
⃝ a spider’s web.
⃝ something fluffy
⃝ tree bark
⃝ some blossom
⃝ moss
⃝ butterfly
⃝ twig in the shape of a letter
⃝ shiny snail trail
⃝ lichen-covered twig
⃝ a bug
⃝ a bird
⃝ an acorn
⃝ something spiky
⃝ a piece of rubbish
⃝ something plastic
⃝ something strange
⃝ 3 red things
⃝ something shiny
⃝ 3 different kinds of leaves
WONDERINGS Can you work out where all of the objects you’ve collected came from? Which ones are useful? Are there any that used to be useful but aren’t anymore? Did you find somethings today that you don’t normally notice? Have you got a favourite? Something that you might keep? Why? How do they feel to touch? Which ones do you think of as rubbish? What happens to the things we throw away? Do some things have important stories to tell?
FOLLOW-ON ACTIVITIES (Making/Building) Image: Pari Naderi
SCULPTURES & SHAPES Use the objects and materials that you found on your scavenger hunt to make something: a sculpture, a picture, or a shape. You might not know how you want it to end up looking - that’s fine! Start by choosing some of your found objects and experiment with how they might go together. • What shapes, materials and colours do you like working with? • How can you put different objects together in different ways? • You can try more than one time and keep changing until you feel like it’s finished.
TRAILS, SHAPES & PATTERNS Use the bag of objects you’ve collected to make some trails, shapes and patterns: a long line, a circle, a spiral, a star, a triangle. You choose!
LEAF RUBBINGS What you need: Some leaves that you’ve collected, paper and crayons (this might be easier to do at home, or outdoors on a hard, flat surface). Choose a favourite leaf that you’ve collected. Turn it upside down on the table. Place a piece of paper over the top. Hold the paper and leaf carefully in place, and use the side of a crayon to rub across the leaf. Make sure that you colour over the entire leaf. Look at all the patterns that become visible. You can try another leaf if you like, or some of your other objects. TIP: A dark crayon will produce a clearer print of the leaf.
STICK STUFF These activities are good to try out if you have easy access to an area with lots of trees, some woods or anywhere where there are lots of sticks lying around on the ground. What you need: STICKS - all shapes and sizes! When you next go for a walk, collect and gather some sticks! See if you can find different kinds of sticks - long and thin as well as shorter and chunky, ones which are easy to snap.
PLAYING WITH STICKS SAFELY • Make sure you can see in all directions / are aware of where other people are before you throw a stick.
• Remember your stick has two ends! • Make sure you don’t hit anyone!
BALANCING Choosing one stick at a time - can you find a way to balance the stick on your head…? Or on your shoulder? Or on one finger? Can you try balancing sticks with your eyes closed? Or with the longest stick you can find?
THROWING AND CATCHING Take some of your sticks into an open space. Somewhere where there aren’t lots of people. Either taking it in turns, or all at the same time: • Throw your stick as high as you can. Catch it if you can. • Try it again and again. Try it with different sized sticks, light ones and heavy ones. • Have a go at throwing your sticks as far as you can. Run after them and go again. Maybe a dog will join in!
EXPERIMENTS WITH LONG STICKS Choose a long stick that you’ve found. One that you really like. Spend some time playing with it however you like. You’ll probably figure out lots of fun stuff to do with it. Here are a few ideas: • Take your stick for a walk, dragging it along behind you. • Push one end into the ground. Holding the other end, see if you can travel it in a circle. • Hold your stick vertically, with the bottom end touching the ground - and then let go! How long can it balance before you have to catch it? • Can you make your stick do a cartwheel? • Can you make some shapes or patterns or games with any of your sticks? Holding them, moving them, laying them down, running around them, hopping over them.
Image: Petra Söör
BIG SCULPTURES Starting with the biggest sticks that you’ve found, see what it’s like to make some big sculptures. • Is it possible to make something that’s bigger than you? • Is it possible to make something that you can get inside?
STICK SNAPPING ORCHESTRA This can be explored as a mini-orchestra with (minimum 3 people), or as a larger group (two or more households playing together). 1. Gather together as many sticks or twigs as you can. The more the better. The best sticks for snapping are ones which are thin and dry enough to snap easily. 2. Form a circle with everyone in your group. 3. Make sure that everyone has a good stash of sticks. 4. Choose someone in your group to be your conductor. They are going to direct the orchestra. Watch them very very closely. 5. Whenever your conductor signals/claps their hands - everyone else tries to snap their stick at EXACTLY THE SAME TIME. 6. For the conductor: You can play with big gaps between your signals, or lots close together. Try to keep everyone’s attention! 7. Listen to and notice the rhythms that you’re making - like it’s a piece of music. 8. Try snapping your stick one after another around your circle as fast as you can go. 9. See if you can find other ways to make music with your sticks! TIP: If the sticks are hard to snap, or if you’re running out of sticks you can choose two sticks and hit one against the other.
INTERESTING FACT: In the audio piece that this pack is connected to, there is a bit of music that’s made up of lots of stick snapping - did you notice it? We played exactly this same game in some woods in Kent and recorded it with a special microphone. Then one of our sound artists made it into musical rhythms.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN You could perhaps use a phone to record the stick snapping music that you make.
EXPLORE MAKING HOOKS AND HOLDERS Can we use sticks to make a hook or a holder for something? What you need: Sticks and maybe some string, screws, or nails and a hammer • Multiple holder: For this you need several similar sized sticks or sticks that you can shorten to roughly a similar length and some string. Assemble your sticks either by making a bundle tied together with some string or tying your bundle of sticks directly around something. Can this thing you made work as a holder for something? If not how can you make it work? • Hook: Find a stick with a nice bend in it, or a stick where the branch splits in two or more ways. It needs to be sturdy enough to manage the weight of whatever you might like to hang from it e.g some keys, a necklace or a piece of clothing. Where can it go? How could you attach it?
HOW TO MAKE A ROPE LADDER What you need: • A long length of rope (could be two skipping ropes tied together) or a ball of string or cord or wool. • Some strong sticks or small twigs or toothpicks or cotton buds. You can either make this rope ladder big enough and strong enough to hang on a tree branch and climb up, or small enough for a mouse. It depends a bit on the materials you have to hand and what you want to make. You just need to learn one simple knot and then thread your sticks into the loops of the knots. We’ve made a little instruction video to try and help. Have a go!
PLAY VIDEO
WONDERINGS Is there a way you can find out what kind of tree or bush your stick is from? Why do trees loose their branches sometimes? Why do trees and branches grow into different shapes? Can we imagine or learn something about the life of the tree through the sticks we find?
If you would like a slightly bigger challenge, you could try and follow the instructions for making this rope ladder just by listening to a short audio clip. It’s a bit more tricky than being able to watch and follow, but it could be fun and the music is great! This version is for making a big rope ladder, with a group of people. But you can absolutely make it on your own or with just one other person, and you can also adapt it for making a mini-version. TIP: For the audio instructions, you will need to know your left from your right really well. Before you start, lay out a long piece of rope on the ground in a U shape, and gather together a stack of similar sized sticks.
CLICK HERE
AUDIO
TO LISTEN
TRANSCRIPT
SPINNING / STIRRING AIR Spinning on the spot, or moving round and round in a circle can be really fun (and make you quite dizzy!). This is a good one to play with if you have access to a big open grassy space - in your local park, or your garden. See how long you can spin for. See how fast you can go. What about if you put your arms out while you’re spinning - what does that feel like? Can you go faster? If you don’t want to spin, is there a way that you can use your body to stir the air around you?! When you’ve had enough, then see if you can get close to the ground, lying down if you like and look up at the sky. Make yourself comfortable.
WONDERINGS How does your body feel when it meets with the ground like this? How did the air feel when you were spinning? How far is it from here to the clouds, to the stars? Where does sky start and ground end?
FORGOTTEN CORNERS / HIDDEN WORLDS (Ways of seeing/noticing/listening) Either outside or at home - find somewhere that seems a little forgotten, a space in between things we usually don’t notice. If you pay really close attention - what do you find there - what small or big things are in this place? What might have happened here? Is there something that seems to be thriving or growing? What can you hear if you close your eyes and listen, really carefully? • Make up a short story about this place • Draw/paint/make a picture • Create a recording from this place either with a recording device, a phone or in your mind. Record something close up, something further away or explore capturing the atmosphere of this place.
If you decide to create a story you could do it collaboratively with the other people you are with. Take it in turns to make up a sentence, so that you gradually build up a story that is perhaps a bit unexpected or quite funny. Image: Petra Söör
OVERALL WONDERINGS: Have a chat about what you enjoyed doing/making the most. How did it make you feel? Imagine the journey that some of the things you’ve collected or spotted have been on to get to you today. Try and tell their stories. What makes us take care about some things and not care about other things?
THANK YOU! There are so many things we can make out of the stuff that’s all around us - in our homes, nearby spaces and environment. There is so much to discover and rediscover about what value things can have, and what we find meaningful. We hope that you've enjoyed exploring some of these activities. We would love to hear about your adventures. Write, draw, photograph, video your experiences or ask us a question. Send your responses and your questions to us at: info@charlottespencerprojects.org #allthesethingswecanmake #C_S_Projects Instagram and twitter: @C_S_Projects
This activity pack was created by Charlotte Spencer and Petra Söör for Charlotte Spencer Projects. It was commissioned by Sadler’s Wells to accompany family audio work, All these things we can make for their Digital Stage in 2021. Activities in this pack are inspired by tasks, games, improvisations that we played with during the process of devising previous company work, Is this a Waste Land? (2017). Creative team behind Is this a Waste Land? were, Kirsty Arnold, Ben Ash, Jennifer-Lynn Crawford, James Keane, Keren Kossow, Ruth Little, Ben McEwen, Thomas McKeon, Petra Söör, Charlotte Spencer, Tom Spencer, Louise Tanoto.