We started them off with a simple card game I brought in (which would be used later for the main activity as well). It’s like that Celebrity Heads game, where one person has a celebrity or person’s name attached to their forehead, and they have to ask the other people questions, hunting for hints, so they can guess what their person is. This game used a whole bunch of objects as well, so the broad scope of potential guesses was huge.

We chatted about the challenges we faced in the guessing game, and also explored how we could adapt the rules to be simpler, or more fun. All part of the process of designing game mechanics for our upcoming board games.

Board Game Tryouts, Roundtables - I brought in a wide selection of card/board games for the students to try and investigate, with the grand purpose of them choosing a template game for their own game design. Due to the relatively small time I have with them for designing these games, and the inevitable overdesigning kids do when they design games, I thought to push them into choosing a ‘template’ game, like one of the games I brought in on this day. The games I brought were; Tsuro, Settlers of Catan, Ecosystem: Coral Reef, Muffin Time, Selfish: Space Edition, Once Upon a Time, and my two games; Frodge and Bin Off. The games I chose were intended to be alternatives to what they might usually know, like monopoly or UNO. We wanted to avoid a bunch of monopoly clones, forcing the students to learn new games and figure out ways to adapt these into an educational bushfire safety game. I explained concepts and processes for using existing games as templates for our own designs, and how the students can swap out graphics and adjust values, but keep the overarching game mechanics intact. This helps them to gradually understand how a game is put together, and how all the moving parts interact, as they experiment with fiddling with those moving parts.

We conducted the usual Creative Communities building activity, but swapped back to making habitats for this week (since last week they drew animals for their previous week’s habitats). We pushed them to choose more unique habitats this time, so we didn’t get another bunch of bee hives!

The overarching project is still engaging the students, even if they’re finding it challenging. We will carefully monitor their progress to ensure we can have a finished prototype by the end of the term, and at least some workable progress by the end of the creative schools program.

The game design concepts are proving challenging for them, perhaps a little too challenging. Some students will definitely struggle with coming up with their own unique game, but we will adjust future plans (maybe scrapping the instructional video idea) to ensure they can finish at least their game.

The board game round table activity on this day was ultimately too short, and didn’t give the students enough time to truly sink their teeth/minds into the games on offer. Kirsti will give the students extra time during the week to look into the games and make more conscious/informed decisions on which they will use as a reference.

I use a specific worksheet for when I conduct board game design programs like this, so we will print it out and have it available for the students by Thursday.

Still aiming to have the board games available for play with parents and wider school community later on in the term.

1. Find the person whose birthday is closest to yours (without words)

2. One of you will be given a tool, one a piece of cardboard

3. Using only one hand each, cut a piece of cardboard 10cm x 10 cm and another 13 x 13cm

Mini Urban Farming

1. The small piece of cardboard is the floor plan of your house, the large is the size of your property

2. In your pair, discuss crop yield (enough food for each season), crop rotation, maintaining soil quality and sustainability (water, food, waste), cost 

3. How would you design a garden to grow food for a family of four in this limited space?

4. You have limited materials - cardboard, toothpicks, string, nuts, grass, seeds, masking tape, check for plasticine

On the board are two creative habits - persistence and discipline

1. What is an example of how your partner used this in today’s session?

2. Write it on the board or write it onto a post it note.

Successes

• Problem solving, particularly with how to get the tape off the roll and how to stick things together

• The overall creativity - chickens and chicken coops, roof top gardens, vertical gardens, solar panels, a windmill to pump water, water tanks, livestock fences, double stories, bird netting to protect the crops, composting, a raised house with a duck pond underneath

• Use of materials

• Coming up with their own ideas and not copying from other groups. Each property design is different

• Reflecting about how partners used a creative habit today resulted in a lot more examples of discipline and persistence. There was also almost no repetition

Challenges

• Definitely some students fudging birth dates in order to sit together.

• Masking tape was temperamental 

• The limited knowledge of what vegetables look like when they are growing

Each group worked productively with only one group of three in which collaboration from one person could have been better. We are going to extend the project into next week, even though the grass will die so that we can consider crop loss, particularly for monoculture. The making was really engaging as this is not something that they usually have the time or resources to do.

Tuesday - continue building after reflecting on knowledge from the week. Revisit crop yield, rotation, orientation, water, maintaining soil quality

Wednesday - You want the government to invest in your design for all first home buyers. How will it reach targets? How will this help with cost of living and the impact of large scale farming and food production

Human Knot 

We split into two teams, each reaching into the middle of the circle and grabbing two hands from two different people. Then collectively needing to untangle, there were a lot of unders and overs and turning and returning. 

Woven Underwater Creatures. 

We looked at the remarkable nature of the craftsmanship needed to create a piece of clothing. Looking at a shirt, zooming in to then the weaving technique, to then the thread, to then the fibres. We then talked about how each of them is a fibre/ thread that makes the fabric of their classroom the way it is. Their curiosities, their questions, their interests, how they treat each other, all in all makes their collective fabric. 

Tennis rackets were then introduced as the looms and the kids were challenged to use them to create underwater imaginary creatures, featuring woven fabrics through the holes. 

We didn’t quite get to the reflections, but I was going to ask them to think of themselves as a fibre woven into their classroom fabric, and list the strengths, colours and textures that they think they bring to the class. 

They were doing a great job in problem solving, and with a bit of encouragement they continued to make their own decisions and choices in what this creation would look like and be. We were both discussing how we need to keep ourselves in check to not just give them the dopamine kick of a compliment, but encourage them to observe their own efforts not look for that external gratification as the only means to measuring somethings value. 

They are very curious and excited by the market stall and door stop creations. 

NEXT WEEK;

Family members have been invited to help us in the sewing and creation of these doorstops. 

An advertisement in the newsletter went out for volunteers for next week, looking forward to hopefully having some grandmothers to help us! 

1. Focus on action – Decide on a single clear thing people can do to help protect it.
2. Design for impact – Keep the message short, colourful, and bold.
3. Add a hook – Include a colourful picture or drawing of the species.
4. Place signs – Display along safe paths by the river.

After last weeks exciting game focused warmup, i decided to go with something a little more low key this week. Kirsti had been reading a bushfire themed book to the students, so i took up the mantle and the mic to read out to them on this day. 

With most students having picked their template board game, we dove into gameplay designing. I began this section with some preamble about gameplay concepts and design processes. Some of this might have gone over their heads a little, but I wanted to challenge them with the higher end stuff, then let them focus on using the template design structure. The students got out the various board games I’d brought in, then we handed out my Game Design Document worksheets that I usually use for game design workshops. These provided the students with some prompts for what needs to be designed for their own game, and with the templates next to them they could reference a functioning game to help them piece together their own design.

As usual, there were some groups working well, and others struggling to move on from playing to learning/working. By the end most groups were managing to fill out sections of the worksheet and form the basics of a unique game that fits the fire safety/flood theme.

Our creative community grows! This time the students were adding animals to the habitats from last week. Now that this is a consistent, alternating reflection activity, the students are getting used to what is required for it, including writing the creative habit on their drawing, and explaining their reasoning to us as they stick it to the glass.

We’re still aiming to have the basic prototypes of the games ready in a few weeks, and for parents/school community to come in and see. We will monitor the progress the students make on their designs over the coming weeks, and prepare for the potential of the games to not be playable, if the students have not had enough of a chance to playtest their games.

They are certainly still enjoying the integration of games into their classroom, but sometimes the processes and methods I discuss are a little challenging for them to understand. It is always a mixed bag though, as some groups of students are doing well with the task, one in particular is developing a game I’m genuinely impressed with.

Kirsti will continue to prompt the students to make small progress on their games every morning in class. This task is a significant undertaking for the students, so they need all the time they can get.

For when the students begin crafting their prototypes, I pre-emptively brought in old cardboard boxes for them to use.

The current plan is for the parents/school community to see early prototypes of the games in a few weeks, then for the improved prototypes to be showcased at the Creative Schools Showcase later on. We’re excited to see how the students will approach public playtesting of their creations, and how they will process the feedback to improve upon their designs.

What shape are you?

In each row one student will be given an envelope with a shape in it.

The other students ask yes/no questions to guess the shape:

E.g., Do I have 4 sides? 

Are the sides equal to each other? 

Are you a square?

Spoiler, noone has a square!

Part A: Data Investigation & Conversion

Your Mission: Convert global food crisis statistics between units

Food Crisis Data to Convert:

•"1300 tonnes of food wasted per city  each year"

•"Each Australian wastes 312kg of food annually"

•"A family of 4 throws away 2,500L worth of embedded water in wasted food yearly"

•"Food banks distribute 77 meals per day (avg 400g each)"

Conversion Challenges:

1.Convert 1300 tonnes to kilograms: 1300t = ___kg

2.Convert 312kg to grams: 312kg = ___g

3.Convert 2500L to millilitres: 2500L = ___mL

4.Convert 77 meals that weigh 400g each to total kilograms: 77 meals = ___kg

5.If 1000kg of food could feed 800 people for a day, how many people could 5060kg feed?

Part B: Canva Conversion Animation

Set Up:

1. Create new design → Video → Square (1920×1080px)

Creating Unit Conversion Animation:

1. Add 3 text boxes vertically:

   • Box 1: "1300 tonnes of wasted food" (large font)

   • Box 2: "=" (medium font)

   • Box 3: "[insert calculated # kg" (large font, different color)

2. Animation sequence:

   • Box 1: "Fade in" - 2 seconds

   • Box 2: "Bounce" - starts at 2s, 1 second duration

   • Box 3: "Typewriter" - starts at 3s, 3 seconds duration

3. Add food imagery:

   • Insert 2-3 fruit/vegetable images from [please insert location of these images so they can find them]

   • Position around text

   • Animate: Custom animation > Click and drag

   • Animate: Add an effect, e.g. "Pulse" with staggered timing

4. Share video with Ms Ritchie

• Fold your page into 3 boxes.
  
  
• Student 1: Write/draw the setting (where is your dragon?)
  
  
• Student  2: Write/draw the middle (what problem do they face?)
  
  
• Student  3: Write/draw the end (how does the helper change the story?)

• Holding your hand in front of the light.
• The pictures are not following the script.
• Changing the colour of the light with cellophane.

1. Find your partner from last week without words

2. Without words, locate the group born in the month closest to you

3. Standing back to back, describe your urban garden design

4. Without words, enter the classroom and sit at the table with the design you think best fits the description you were given.

5. Did you choose correctly?

1. Exchange your designs

2. Take turns to explain your urban design again, including types crops, how these will rotate through the seasons, orientation (N-S-E-W), water supply, maintaining soil quality, sustainability and how you propose to feed a family of four over a year - self reflection 

3. Provide feedback to your partner group - What would make it even better? 

4. Discuss with your partner - What can be done to improve the design?

5. Reflect on feedback and knowledge from previous lessons to complete your design

1. Look at the updates made to your partner group’s design

2. How did they utilise the feedback your group provided? What creative habit did they implement?

3. Write it on the board or write it onto a post it note.

Successes

• Working in their pairs…they were all reasonably quiet

• Ability to reevaluate their designs and make improvements

• Lots of groups gave constructive feedback on designs and they were able to implement the feedback

• Sharing of ideas

• Follow through of ideas from last week such as the bird net which the student worked on for 20 minutes in order to get it to suspend over the vegetables. 

• Students tackled and overcame the challenges

• Adding a physical sun to determine where it would sit

Challenges

• People who were away for the last session, coming back and having to partner with people whose partner is away today. 

• The one more vocal student who began defending his design before he’d been provided with feedback. This may also mean that he was aware that there were things that would need to be improved. He was also annoyed at other people using solar panels.

Working in pairs is a lot more productive and there is accountability. No one can sit out and avoid participation. They are also implementing pairing really well. The making of their structures, considering and including everything - chickens, water sources, power (solar and wind), food variety, protection from birds,