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Cardboard Play Day at Kujira Yama (#6)

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Cardboard Kryptonite! We had light rain just after our event was set up for The Global Cardboard Challenge on Friday.  Sadly, most of the kids we anticipated didn't show up. We didn't lose heart though, and a few brave souls trickled in after the weather cleared to inhabit the cardboard dwellings that were created. As always, it was great fun and I couldn't have done it without my husband's help, or the wonderful folks that run the play park adventure playground.

I had such a great time this year getting to know the folks at The Imagination Foundation, as well as other Cardboard Challenge organizers from around the world. This year there were more than 43 countries represented and 100,000 kids at the Global Cardboard Play Day. If you've ever thought about planning an event for your community next year, be sure to visit Caine's Arcade to find out more. You can be part of this amazing and inspiring cardboard movement!

10 Tips for Cardboard Play Day

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The Global Cardboard Challenge is here again! Will you be joining THE WORLD on October 5th, 2014 to either play or host an event?

For everything Caine's Arcade and The Global Day of Play, please be sure to check out The Imagination Foundation's excellent website and resources. 

I'm also excited to be planning my own event in collaboration with a local adventure playground here in Tokyo! More information to come, but until then I want to share some of my insights from hosting 5+ events last year.......

 *10 Tips for Cardboard Play Day*

1. It's all about the cardboard!

  • Provide a wide variety of cardboard! Shoe boxes, small boxes, over-sized boxes, cardboard tubes, and whatever other reclaimed materials you've collected all add to the diversity and creativity of what kids create.

  • A rule of thumb that I follow is 1 square meter of cardboard for every 20-30 kids

2.Don't let cardboard get unruly.

  • Cardboard + kids can = chaos!

  • Keep the cardboard upright if you can (as if each piece were a book on a book shelf.) That way there is thought in selecting the cardboard and it doesn't get kicked around and stepped on.

  • It's even more helpful to organize your cardboard by size. (Think of a lumber yard.) Kids often know what size materials they need and if the cardboard is organized then kids won't have to spend time rooting around through big piles to get what they want.

3. Give them tool boxes.

  • Tool boxes allow kids to be mobile and have everything they need to build whatever, wherever, with whoever.

  • A tool box can be as simple as a shoe box, or a cardboard six pack.

  • Provide a place that is clearly marked for kids to return tool boxes when they're finished working or ready to leave the play day.

4. Provide a secure area for kids to keep their stuff (i.e. coat check).

  • Kids easily loose track of their new friendship bracelet, cell phone, hooded sweatshirt, etc.

  • Create a place (as simple as a "drop" pile), or even better an informal system like a coat check, for keeping track of kids' things so they can focus on building and collaborating with their friends, and you can alleviate the hassle of having to help them search for their lost items.

5. Keep the organizer free.

  • If you are organizing a cardboard play day, recruit enough parent volunteers to assist kids so you're free to trouble shoot any problems that might pop up.

  • Parents get excited and often want to share or ask questions. If you're responsibility is to supervise kids, you may be torn between providing adequate supervision and having a great conversation with a future cardboard enthusiast.

  • It's also helpful to have a volunteer that is solely devoted to taking photos so you have some great shots for promoting your event next year.

6. Provide a theme/give permission

  • Telling kids that they can build whatever they want is exhilarating for some and overwhelming for others.

  • Providing a theme a invites collaboration and helps kids narrow their focus....

  • We're building a village....

  • We're building igloos....

  • We're building a cardboard maze....

  • We're making cardboard costumes....

  • We're making an arcade....

  • It's a cardboard ocean!

  • Some kids need permission to create and many just want to be told it's OK to be creative and let loose. Indulge them! This is their time to think big and we want to encourage them in any way we can.

7. Give kids real tools.

  • It's important to gauge your audience, (parents kids and the host institution) when deciding what kind of tools you're going to make available to participants. I prefer to always give kids "real tools" as opposed to dumbed down versions that can cause frustration. In the real world, however that's not always possible.

  • If kids are only allowed to use safety scissors and plastic saws, try arming your adult volunteers with more professional tools that can help finish the job. These are the tools I've found to be most effective and in my opinion entirely kid-friendly, but they require instruction and adult supervision:

  • round tipped serrated cutting tool

  • Phillips head screw driver

  • scissors

  • cordless drill

8. Use reusable fasteners.

  • To build really cool, big stuff out of cardboard you need some kind of fastener to hold everything together. (tape and hot glue just don't cut it!) There are 3 that stand out in my opinion, based on their re-usability AND functionality.

  • MakeDo

  • re-usable zip ties

  • nuts and bolts

  • All of these fasteners have different price points and advantages and disadvantages, so I really recommend getting a few of each and test driving them at home before your event.

  • It's really helpful to show participants how the fastener you're using works when kids arrive, so keep some supplies in your pocket to quickly demonstrate as you greet new arrivals.

9. Have an exit strategy.

  • Sometimes kids are so excited at cardboard play day, they can't stop building! Givie kids a heads-up starting 30 minutes before cleanup, so they can get focused on completion and get ready to say goodbye to their creations.

  • Make sure you have a plan for recycling your cardboard. I was once left in a terrible position at a play day, when the organization that donated the cardboard said they could no longer take it back! I had to haul it all back to my home by bike and then put it out for recycling over a course of several weeks!

  • If you haven't prearranged volunteers for cleaning up and bundling cardboard at the end of your event, a clipboard signup is handy when participants arrive and usually provides you with enough hands to finish the job.

10. Get feedback.

  • This is something new I'm hoping to try this year; a one sentence question for kids as they're cleaning up or heading out.... you could also try a paper-pencil survey or even a simple high five?

  • What would you build next time?

  • Is it more fun to work by yourself, with your mom and dad, or with a friend?

  • What was the best part about today?

  • Have you ever made/built something like this? Why/Why not?

  • See you next year?

Cardboard Play Days 4&5

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[slideshow_deploy id='3717'] This week was filled with lots of play, lots of cardboard, and lots of discovery. I learned a lot by watching children and parents play and build together during the two events that took place.

The first was a play event for my daughter's Yoji group, a play group that meets weekly at the local Jidokan (a kind of youth community center). The other was at a local park called Kajino Koen. The Kahjino event hosted lots of local groups that support the park, like Play Park: a local adventure play organization that facilitates weekly play events for children.

Play Park built an amazingly tall and steep wooden slide with wooden handholds, as well as over-sized hammocks, rope walkways, and braided swings. I'm in love with the work that they do and I'm hoping to deepen my relationship with their community in the coming year.

A few things I learned this week:

  • Crayons (bright, waxy pastel ones) play really nicely with cardboard. Markers wander, and paint is a pain to clean up.

  • Parents love to play like children. Children give them a great cover for indulging in the kind of play that they used to do.... and at the same time children fall in love with their parents all over again. There is an amazing playful connection that Is kindled, and when I see parents leave cardboard events smiling, I know an imaginative little fire has been lit and will grow into something more.

  • pre-teen boys like to kick cardboard boxes and stab them with screw drivers. At first I bristle, and then I watch for a while and see the totally therapeutic effect of this activity for them. They calm down, start talking to each other and then start to cooperate and build. Cardboard stabbing boys, I welcome you, and I love to see the amazing things you can build with cardboard.

  • Girls can bring a quiet measured intensity to building with cardboard. I love watching them deliberate while considering all the details like widows and shelving...their excitement is contagious.

  • I love connecting with people through cardboard, seeing parents build something for their children, seeing children build something else for themselves, watching three year olds rip their older brothers around in the back of wheelie cardboard boxes.

  • What can I say? I'm hooked.

Resources: How to put wheels on a box and instructions for Tanaka Satoshi's Giant Cardboard Windballs

Will You Join Me? A Global Cardboard Challenge

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Have you heard the news? The Imagination Foundation, (the people behind the short film, Caine's Arcade) are hosting a global day of cardboard play!

While I'm busy organizing an event here in Tokyo and getting ready to unleash our first cardboard challenge here on The Cardboard Collective, I wanted to get the word out to all of you so that you can get the ball rolling in your neck of the woods.

The Imagination Foundation has put together organizing kits with resources and ideas for hosting an event in your community.

We would love to publicize your event here on The Cardboard Collective as well, so this is an invitation to all of you cardboard creatives out there....Will you join me?

Giant Cardboard Cubes and the Adjacent Possible

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In the spirit of modeling creativity and inspiring play, I wanted to share with you a little bit about some of the "play" that I engage in here in my cardboard lab/home.

I made these giant cardboard cubes after spending an hour or so playing with a stack of cardboard banana boxes that I had collected.

Each cube is made from the tops and bottoms of two banana boxes and two cam straps.

Remember this stage in your kids? Everything down the rabbit hole...

We discovered that the cube has these pockets that are the perfect place for Isis to keep her favorite board books. (We have to keep our other books out of reach for now, otherwise we would spend all of our days re-shelving books instead of reading them.)

Last year I read the book, "Where Good Ideas Come From", by Steven Johnson and started thinking about how I could become more innovative in my day-to-day life.

In Where Good Ideas Come From, Johnson talks about an idea called "the adjacent possible." The concept goes something like this:  We seldom have fully formed ideas or creative solutions that come to us in a moment of brilliance. These ideas build up as slow hunches that we compile over time.

So in effect, it's all the little experiences that lead us to those  genius ideas.

I imagine these adjacent experiences as stepping-stones. You can't get to that big idea, without first leaping from little idea to little idea.

I'm trying to spend more time stepping away from the computer and actually playing and experimenting with cardboard as my way of building a path towards new ideas and designs in cardboard.

Future Parkour enthusiast?

I have to say, it's a lot of fun.

I get so much joy out of just playing with cardboard, with no obvious intent, just for the joy of it. Sometimes it comes of nothing, and sometimes you get giant cardboard cubes; a happy accident.

As Steven Johnson says, "Chance favors the connected mind."......

So now I invite you to comment!

What materials do you like to play and experiment with as an adult? Fabric, wood, flour, clay, fiber, dye, paper?

What machines do you work on and repair? bikes, sewing machine, cars, cameras, computers? (This year I replaced the hard drive on this very iMac that I write the blog on. Talk about empowering! You have to check out iFixit.com.)

Do you let yourself drift off into that elementary school aged daze, where nothing mattered beyond the sandbox or your paper and paste pot?

Cardboard Travel Swing (A Father's Day Tribute)

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Made from about five layers of glued corrugated cardboard and 4 cam straps, we created a  swing, with well, more swing. This is a great kid's swing to keep in your car or bike bag, particularly if you find that sweet spot near a body of warm water this summer.

If you use cardboard that comes from a box that has a waxy finish, your swing would be water-resistant, and should hold up in the event of an occasional splash.

The design of this swing is a common one, but the inspiration runs deeper.

The whole idea of bringing a swing to the people is one that stems from my father; rope swing builder extraordinaire.

My father actually made a practice of seeking out "rope swing type" people, and convincing them to let him build a rope swing (or zip line) for them in their back yard. He was a kind of "missionary of extreme backyard play" seeking the easy converts of the neighborhood.

I remember my father, one evening, relishing in the fact that he had scored a large pile of tow rope from a local ski hill that had recently gone out of business. He thought it would be enough to make a swing for every family in the neighborhood.

He had extension ladders, tree climbing harnesses, and I seem to remember a pair of spiky shoes for scaling tree trunks.

He was always planning ahead by stockpiling materials. Once he and my mom even moved a massive old hospital fire-escape into our backyard which he reconfigured into an incredible twisting tube slide that launched from our back deck.

I cannot remember a time in my life when we didn't have some kind of risky swing to swing on or I couldn't hear my father's occasional Wheeee! punctuate the silence of a beautiful summer day as he pushed one of us on a swing.

I know it would put a warm feeling in my Dad's heart to know that we are sharing his enthusiasm for big swings with a few kids in Tokyo.

Thanks for all the fun Dad.

Happy Father's Day.

Cardboard Playdate

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(Cardboard Pull Toy at 0123 Harappa)

After a week of sewing my heart out for the Elsie Marley blog KCWC (Kids Clothing Week Challenge) I'm ready for a break and the opportunity to get back to my cardboard projects.  I had a great time sewing and even had a blouse that I made for Electra featured on Elsie Marley's Blog. It was a great opportunity to engage in a Sew Along, and I'm hoping we can do something similar  here on The Cardboard Collective someday (of course with cardboard).

Today I took the girls to a favorite public indoor play place in Tokyo called 0123 Harappa. Harappa is a place for kids aged 0-3 and their parents to play with developmentally appropriate toys, socialize with other children and parents, and basically have fun.

Harappa has lots of activities for kids including a library area, an art area with clay, paper, crayons and glue, an are just for small babies who are not crawling yet, a house and dress up area, an open area for ride on toys, blocks, slides, small climbing gyms and so much more.

I wanted you to see some of the great ways that the staff at Harappa uses cardboard. They have made some incredible creations, and they're always changing! Here are a few of the things that they've made that I hope will inspire those with young children.

I've got to find out how they are cutting Japanese cardboard letters with such precision!

Peek-a-boo Wall murals. Hand painted cardboard.

Animal ball toss. They've put a rounded piece of cardboard inside so the ball rolls back to you quickly and easily.

My favorite. An amazing "Where Do These Animals Live?" wall puzzle (The pieces are magnetized and everything is hand painted.)

Cardboard Cylinder Walls for hiding small objects in. I didn't see too many kids playing with this, but I know if we had one of these in our home the girls would absolutely love it.

Even this adorable cardboard lion memo pad and pencil holder!

You can see why we love this place.

A Spring Swing

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We've been away to all sorts of places during Grandma's 3 week visit to Japan, and to be honest we haven't had a spare minute to catch our breath and let you know what we've been up to. No cardboard projects until today, but lots of time to dream after being reacquainted with all the beauty and ingenuity of Japan's temples, gardens, and urban streets.

And did I mention that spring is in the air? Literally. Our cherry blossoms are at their peak beauty and their petals are just beginning to fall... my VERY favorite time of the year.

I made this swing to take to our favorite playground that has only a climbing structure and no swings.

The swing is made of three very sturdy cardboard tubes that I measured to the desired length and then cut with a Japanese hand saw (nokogiri).  I used paper twine to weave around the tubes, which took about 10-15 minutes, and then threaded rope through the outer two tubes. My trusty bike straps make the swing adjustable and easy to put up and take down.

A fun swing that I can also easily carry with me to the park to hang on a low tree branch. All parts recyclable or reusable. I haven't tested to see how much the swing can hold, and Electra is not a candidate for doing so due to her featherweight status, but I'm quite sure it could hold most toddler's quite easily. Give it a try and let me know how strong yours is!

Cardboard Tinkering Toys and Mobiles

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Intergalactic Cardboard Space Station? Cubist Crossroads? Alice in Cardboard Wonderland? Just a few possibilities for Cardboard Tinkering Toys.

After experimenting with some tightly rolled up magazine pages, our universe kept expanding. The fun part of tinkering with the cardboard and magazine pieces is that you keep adding pieces to your building set as you go. As you fiddle, you get new ideas for ways that you can connect the magazine paper rods to one another. Add to your building set every time you play. We were able to recycle some of our old cardboard beads and cardboard alphabeads, and I've been saving words and images cut from cardboard boxes as well.

I also loved the possibility for mobiles.......

Here's a closer peak at some of our components. To be able to attach cardboard rods in two different directions, I glued two cardboard circles together with the channels running perpendicular to one another. If you glue four circles together and poke a whole through the center of each one, you can get your magazine rods to attach in four different directions plus you can thread the component piece on another magazine page rod. Other great possibilities include splicing two pieces together to get x-shaped pieces that act as stands and stabilizers.

I love the "found" poetry aspect of using cardboard words in conjunction with the bold cardboard geometric shapes.... Now go play!

Cardboard's Strengths

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Although this is probably not a project many of you are jumping to recreate, I did think you would find it interesting to see how strong a few little pieces of cardboard can be.

Electra has been wheeling around on her tricycle these days, and is keen on making her bike into more of a workhorse around the house. We have a wooden plant coaster that we have also been using as a kind of wheelie body board that makes a perfect trailer.  We just needed some kind of hitch so that Electra could easily take off the trailer when she was simply "cruising."

I measured and sketched, and then cut out this little device made of three pieces of cardboard glued together. It's surprisingly strong- it's able to pull a lot of weight (at least 10 kilos) without looking stressed. The trailer hooks up with some braided paper cord, which I used to illustrate the power of paper! I love continuing to be surprised by cardboard. It's free, recycled, and recyclable and offers so much possibility. I just find it so darn cool!  What do you do with your cardboard?

Hashi Stool: Cardboard Chair Du Jour

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We've been on a sort of hiatus this past week. Isis and Electra have both come down with massive head colds while I've been trying to get all our packages shipped to the States so that they make it back before Christmas. Pair those events with rain, 45 degree F temperatures, and bike and train as our sole modes of transport and at times the cookie was starting to crumble. The good news is that today the sun came out, we had an amazing day at the park, Isis cut her top front tooth (looks like her Christmas wish will come true) and we finished this awesome project that's been in the works for a while. Click through the slideshow for tips on how to make a Hoshi Stool for your kids.

(If you are reading this in Reader, click back to the site for the slideshow and tutorial.)

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This is a great project for anyone who wants to make something for a child by hand, but doesn't have a wood shop, knitting skills, or a sewing machine. You can put this project together in the most studio of apartments, and put your leftover cardboard out (or collect the cardboard that you need) on recycling day. We used a total of 32 layers, but you can vary the width based on your preference.

  

Click the pictures above to download free PDF patterns for the Hashi Stool