I find fun, indoor activities are sometimes difficult for me to come up with, especially at a moment’s notice. When we are stuck inside, because of bad weather, a flight delay, nap time schedules or what, I feel like I never have enough to keep us busy or the kids lose interest fast in my ideas. Jocelyn Greene, from Child’s Play NY, has a great make a sculpture game theater game that will spark all kinds of creativity in both parents and kids and she has shared it all for us for our next raining day!
“Make a Sculpture Game” is a theater game that we use in classes at Child’s Play NY, but it can work really well as park or rainy-day play-date, a party game or a parent-child bonding activity. It has a focusing effect and channels the kinetic energy of kids into something really creative. It is an incredibly FUN way to work on some executive functioning/impulse control like working memory and physicalizing a task, non-verbal communication and human emotions. The clay for our sculpture is the human body! Based on a title, and with a careful set-up (see below), one child molds another. No two sculptures are ever alike and the process is invigorating and inspiring for those who play.
Here’s why we love it: Molding another person’s body builds incredible trust between the “Artist” and the “Clay” and confidence on the part of the sculptor. Kids get to work on communicating with their bodies and interpreting language into a picture. A simple two-word prompt of a title is enough to catapult imaginations. Kids can “give voice” to complex emotions without speaking a single word.
Here is how to play the make a sculpture game. (See below for lots of variations – or come up with your own)!
Partner up.
One person is the Artist and the other is the Clay. Kids or adults can choose or you can pick the role from a hat. It’s a good idea to switch after you have played once through.
Title Your Make a Sculpture Game.
Before you begin molding, pick a title for your statue.
- For pre-school aged children this can be a simple adjective/noun combo. Have fun with juxtapositions or use it as a means learn new words. Titles like The Restless Princess, The Sneezy Hyena, or The Dangerous Mouse tickle the funny bone and teach at the same time.
- For elementary school age, use a quote or a favorite dramatic moment from a book.
You can write the quotes down together or separately. The Artist then pulls them from a hat. - A challenging-to-articulate emotion. If something is going on in your family, (birth of a new child, a move, the death of a pet, etc) this can be an empowering way for kids to show adults how they are feeling without actually being the one physicalizing the emotion. In this case you can come up with titles together based on what you are looking to work through.
Sculpt Safely.
Kids really respond to parameters in this game. Here are the ones that I lay out for Statues:
- Clay must start Neutrally. I love to show what neutral is by showing what it is not – like wild and crazy or already with an attitude. It’s great when kids can zero in on a simple and trusting body for the Clay to start.
- Touch your Clay RESPECTFULLY.
- Know where your Clay bends and balances. Explain that we hinge at knees, elbows, waist, and it is important to not force a move on our bodies and if you move their feet make sure you do so with care so the Clay doesn’t fall.
- Mirror the face. Instead of touching the Clay from the neck up, have Artists show the picture they want to create by using their own face as the model. The Clay will copy their face like a mirror. This should be the final touch of their statue.
No Talking!
One of the giddy-making factors of this game is the fact that you cannot speak to your clay. I often repeat to the Artists during the course of the game, “Don’t talk to your Clay! They don’t speak your language!” In this case, language is a shortcut and asking the kids to communicate with each other without it is what defines this game. Play music in the background while the sculpting is happening to help kids get in the zone.
Gallery Show
Whether there are many sculptures or just one, it feels great for the transformation from Clay to Sculpture to be seen in a bit of a presentation. When the molding is complete, the artist should stand back and viewers walk all the way around (but not touch!) the sculpture. The title is then shared and viewers can ask the Artist any questions they may have.
Variations
- Just start sculpting and see what happens…then give your creation a title.
- Wind up the statue in the back and see how it moves. Give it 10 seconds of “wind-up life” before it has to resume its original form.
- In larger groups with multiple sculptures going on at once, count down to unify the group. I often give a ten-second warning so that the Artist can put their finishing touches on, “Make sure every finger, every elbow, every eyebrow is how you imagine it.”
- Create a scene with one Artist molding more than one Clay. When we used this game in our Shakespeare Players: Twelfth Night, one actor scultpted two different versions of the same character using two different actors. One was titled “How Malvolio Sees Himself” and the other was “How the World Sees Malvolio” and it prompted great discussion and understanding.
- Play around with the Clay knowing what the title is, and then not knowing and learning along with the audience when the Artist reveals the title. In our Roald Dahl on Stage class, multiple actors are “cast” as the title of a Roald Dahl book but only the Artist knows which one. Then, based on their special relationships, body language and facial expressions, the audience guesses and learns with the Clays what the title is.
- Play this like charades where the people who aren’t Artist or Clay have to guess the title. In this case keep it simple like an animal-adjective combination.
As with all great theater games for kids, this one owes a debt to Viola Spolin (1906-1994), innovative children’s improvisation and theater games teacher.
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Jocelyn Greene is a Brooklyn-born actor, director and educator. She founded Child’s Play NY in 2009 and offers dramatic play and creative theater classes, camps and parties throughout NYC. She lives in Clinton Hill with her husband and son.