Aim of the activity
To encourage the development of a child’s understanding of language as a means of thinking, mutual interaction and creative expression.
1. Prepare
Invite children to sit comfortably and start a conversation about imagination, something like...
„We are all rich. We each have a large and vast world of imagination. So today I invite you to play a thinking game. Do you have lots of thoughts in your head?(The children reply in turn.)
What do you think about the most? (And the children reply.)
Would you like to allow your thoughts to play. That means, we are going to imagine."
2. Story
1. Follow up with the story.
Imagination has no boundaries*
Once upon a time a little girl loved to play. But she had no toys at home.
At home there was only a computer, a telephone, a television and lots of other technical equipment.
The girl wanted to make some new toys herself.
But she had nothing to use for this. She thought to herself: „If only I had something simple, I would think of how to turn it into a toy”.
The next morning, the girl awakes and sees a GIGI Blok next to her bed. First, she imagines that it is a magic lantern, made of shiny gold and she whispers into it: "Be my teddy bear", - and a wonder happened, she was able to imagine that it really was a teddy bear. An unusal bear in an unusual colour – green with orange stripes...
The girl plays with the GIGI Blok all day and imagines it is a house, a basket, a car, even Sponge Bob, a doll, a teddy bear... until she falls asleep in the evening. When she awakes in the morning, she sees two GIGI Bloks next to her bed.
And so for the second day, the girl plays with GIGI and imagines different toys from both blocks. When going to bed, she thinks how nice it would be if in the morning she had not just a block to play with but a friend.
The girl awakes, and next to her bed are the same blocks as before. But then someone knocks at the door. The girl from the neighbour's house has come to visit, and she had with her two GIGI Bloks.
They decide to imagine lots of new toys together.
The girls played happily together for days in this way, imagining many new toys. When they grew up, they become designers and invented lots of important new inventions for people. And what do you want to become?
2. After story have a conversation with the children. Ask cognitive questions, like:
Can children make toys themselves? From what?
What have you used as a toy?
3. Give to each child one GIGI block and encourage to imagine:
Let us try and imagine the same as the girl in the story! What could this block be.
It can be a basket, a house, a cup etc. Try to come up with at least 5 ideas.
4. Then give one more block. Encourage to join these two blocks together as they wish and imagines what toy it might be ... a train wagon, airplane, car, etc.
5. Then you can give two more blocks so that each child have 4 GIGI Bloks.
Or if possible, just put your GIGI together in pairs and imagine what toy it might be! The children carry out this activity (the suitability of the children's age for working together in pairs should be considered).
And explain:
„You can put them together in the same way, but each should imagine something different”.
3. Activity - build a veggie or fruit.
6. In conclusion, you can invite to make a construction using all of their GIGI together. The wackier construction is, the better. And then ask each child what they think it is.
7. When going for a walk later, the game can be continued, by taking various natural materials found on the way, and adding them to the GIGI construction, such as pine cones, leaves, twigs etc.
*Story by Maija Mitema