Popsicle Stick Figure Maker Project

Here is a small, but awesome activity that any educator or parent can use to create dialogue, self reflection, and communication. This is an activity that one can use for the following:

1. A nice ice breaker activity for your classroom that allows a student to share informaiton about themselves in a personal way that is safe. They can create themselves and when sharing allows the focus to be on the object vs. them specifically. This is very similar to the work I do with LEGO to help those who are intrinsic, shy, and unsure about sharing.
2. You could use as a get to know you activity where students pair up and do a quick 5 minute interview of one another to learn more about each other. From there they create a figure of their partner based on the interview.
3. A fun thing to do with your own kids. I did this activity with my daughter and we had a blast!

Extension Ideas

1. They are popsicle and because these are on popsicle sticks an educator could use these to call out students for participation. This would be a fun way to enhance the regular pull a popsicle stick out of the coffee can(do these even exist anymore?) model. Not much different except you have these amazing little figures instead.
2. If you keep these figures throughout the year students can come back to these figures to swap out symbols and objects as they learn and grow. They can add new skills and hobbies as they grow to help them realize their own growth.
3. I tested this build out in my latest workshop where I used this as our first project of making. We then came back to the figure to have participants add more items that showcase their new learning throughout the workshop. Additionally, I posted a bonus challenge to infuse their popsicle stick version of themselves into their builds and creations.

Even more important is this…… you are simply playing and making. Nothing more, but nothing less. Sometimes we need to do these things to remind ourselves about the importance of play and creativity in a day and age that continues to grind kids into sit and get of information to pass tests.

Activity Idea

For the sake of the activity, I am going to use the ACE model I read about in the book, New Power. If you do this activity, then please reach out and share your little figures. I would love to see how this idea gets used.

Actionable(ideas designed to make you do something)

The call to action for this project is for you to make a popsicle stick version of yourself or your partner. Start with the basic materials. You can use anything you have sitting around, but the bolded are the ones that I think are most necessary.

• Jumbo Popsicle Stick(regular works, but the big ones are easier to work with)
• Felt
• Foam paper
• Googley Eyes
• Craft Glue
• Scissors
• Construction Paper
• Straws
• Pipe Cleaner

Think about how you want to be represented and viewed. Think about your hobbies, interests, and more importantly your skills. It is easy to showcase that I like basketball, but more important that I showcase that I love to make and play. Try to think of at least three things about you or your partner that could be represented on your model of yourself/partner.

If you are doing this with a partner, then give each person 3-5 minutes to interview one another to learn more about each other.

Connected(ideas that promote peer connections)

Once everyone has made their models of themselves it is important to share who you are or who your partner is. Figure out some new ways to share. It could be in small groups or whole class. The goal is to take the pressure of everyone focusing on the person themselves and putting focus on the figure they made. Through this viewpoint it is easier to share about ourselves.

Extensible(ideas that can be easily remixed, customized, and shaped by the participant)

Think of clever ways to shake up how we share and use this idea.

Presentation Remixes

• It could be done through a Flipgrid video for kids to check out later.
• You could do a greenscreen popsicle stick play.
• How cool would it be to have kids form groups and create little 2-3 minute popsicle figure plays sharing information about one another?

Self Reflection

• Have students take a picture of their figure and do a short write up about themselves in that moment. What is their favorite food? What are their current interests? What is their favorite song/band? Favorite food? The goal is to capture the moment. Each quarter or semester revisit the figure and have them modify it based on where they are in this current moment and do another reflection prompt. At the end of the year they have this cool learning journey about themselves.

Example

Ava(my daughter) and I did this activity one Sunday afternoon. We talked to each other about who we are and what we like. We then sat down at a table and got to work. It was so fun. We had some good laughs and through the making she was asking me lots of questions. As I was creating her she had questions about why I was making her a certain way. She did not always agree, but it was interesting for me to explain and through those conversations provide her positive messages without it feeling phony.

In this moment she has her tie-dye shirt that she loves. She wears it all the time and we actually made 3 more shirts the day before because she loves to make them and wear them. She has her pizza as her favorite food. She was not happy with the green pants as she does not wear green pants, but I told her this symbolized her upbeat view of life, her high energy, and not being afraid to be herself. I also have her a big old red smile because she brightens up our days all the time.

Here is me! She attempted to create my Adidas shirt I was wearing. It is actually pretty good if you saw my shirt and the creative ways she was trying to solve the decoration issue.

Here is a Awesome Ava and Dorky Dad video of us making our figures. I share this video because if you watch Ava you can see firsthand how important the opportunities are to make and play without specific rules. I love watching her work through her ideas. You can see her brain working all the time(not always sure what it is working on), but it is a reminder for me to make sure that in schools we provide these types of learnig experiences in the classroom. I love observing her figure out the vision she has in her head come to life with the constraints of materials. Probably even more important is the atmosphere to be able to wiggle, spin, stand, talk, and of course sing.

When I was editing the video and rewatching I realized that even when I thought she was not listening or observing she was. There is a part where I showcase in the video how I traced a coin for the face of my figure. Later in the video she does the same technique without being told and to be honest I was not even sure she was listening. It further proves that our actions speak louder than our words!

What we we modeling for our students and kids?

A great question for all of us to think about.