Arts Explorer # 8: Pretend Play and Magical Thinking

Art Word of the Week: Balance

          Many times I am astonished by the ways in which little children are able to use their imagination to make use of things. A few weeks ago, my little cousin was over at my house, and I had small beads on my scarf which were falling off so I decided to pull them off. As I was walking over to the garbage can to dispose of them, my little cousin asked me for them and told her that it was garbage, however she insisted on taking them so I gave them to her. A few minutes later, she had used the beads as rings, and was showing them off to everybody. This made me realize how creative and imaginative kids can be while we often get stuck thinking about the ordinary. 

     So for this blog, I was required to use my imagination and think beyond the box by choosing an inanimate object to life. Thus, I chose to bring a mango to life!                                                                

Name: Mina the Mango

Personality: Mina the Mango is a very bubbly person who loves talking to other people about anything, she is a social butterfly and is very easy to get along with. However, everything in her life has to be organized, kept neatly and needs to have symmetry in everything.

Likes: spending time with her fruity friends such as awesome apple, berry cherry

Dislikes: fruit smoothies as they take her friends away from her and suck all the fun and juice out of her life

Hobbies: spending time in the sun, relaxing at the beach, and reading books

 

              I applied the element of balance to this blog for various reasons. Firstly, balance is about having "equilibrium or harmony" (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 143), and Mina the Mango requires that there is a balance of everything in her life. In addition, the image of Mina the Mango is also very symmetrical which is one way of achieving balance. This activity can be applied to my future teaching as I can also ask students to think about ways in which we can make things come to life. Although children are very imaginative and creative naturally, I can encourage them to apply this thinking to more academic subjects to make their learning fun. 

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

            Belmont, CA: Delmar.