Dismantling innocent toys found in various places, figuring out how they work, and creating new toys & inventions from scratch. The Sid Phillips, the crazy kid who took apart his toys and combined them in a creepy way, side of Toy story.
Welcome Back!
I have never felt more like a mad scientist in my whole life and I loved it. This new inquiry was one that I looked forward to but it was also one that I knew was going to be difficult and something very new to me. This toy take apart inquiry required the class to bring in electronic toys and morph them into a new being, whether it be a toy or just a new object completely. We began this inquiry by searching for toys and we were given extra time to collect the toy for the project. I was grateful for this extra time because I have plenty of things to worry about during the semester and sean gave us the time to plan when we're picking up the toys and where we could go.
I have worked with stuffed toys before but that was back in middle school when I started sewing in an afterschool class. I had the opportunity to make a pillow during a sewing tutorial and this gave me the idea to start making stuffed toys since it was so similar to making a pillow, all you had to do was make the shape of an animal instead of the shape of a pillow. This is what put my mind at ease because I knew that my sewing skills would come in handy and I would be able to add cute details to my project in class if all else failed. I was definitely scared in the beginning because I looked at this inquiry like it was some huge, scary project about creating new animals and rewiring them to do big, crazy impossible things but once we went over the instructions and process of how we would complete our project I was relaxed. I always think of this digital learning class as something I'll never be able to pass because when I was growing up I wasn't introduced to technology until later in my life so I think I'll always have trouble with projects but I think I've only been excelling and it's such a cool experience for me because of my lack of knowledge in the technology category.
The Process:
We began this inquiry by making rough sketches of our stuffed animal that we chose to take apart. Drawing what you start with helps you in the process because you can look back at what you started with if you're having trouble with making changes. After we have completed the assignment we were allowed to show the old sketches of what the animal previously looked like and it was mindblowing how our class changed the mechanics of all these toys. We were able to see the difference from pictures and sketches we were required to take, prior to the take apart. As we took apart the toy we needed to sketch what our animal turned into and write down notes on changes or details of our toy.
I wasn't thinking too much about what I wanted to turn my black kitty cat into I was more focused on taking it apart carefully because I didn't want to hurt myself or cut cords that would mess up the mechanisms inside. We did end up having an incident in class but we all handled it pretty well and helped in any way we could. That is an important thing to remember in classrooms, that safety is always top priority and students must follow directions and know how to use tools correctly so that they are safe. I thought it was very sweet how our classmates came together to help Emmanuel feel as comfortable as possible after he had been hurt and that's such a healthy learning environment to be in.
I would say that the most difficult part was focusing on my own work while everyone around me was doing so many cool, crazy things. We were all playing our different sounds at the same time and asking each other for materials so it was definitely a busy environment but we played music to help focus and that really helped us out in the end, I believe.
A short video showing how I took the skin from another project because I liked it enough to use for my new toy. Creepy to watch but I always laugh when I think of how I asked my classmate to film this childish experience of ripping up my toys.
Photograph of my notes page and some of my hardware that was inside my Halloween cat that allowed for its head to spin, this is what I turned into my spinning helicopter wings by changing the direction of the original moves and turning it into something new.
Beginning of the End:
Towards this point of the process I had my idea laid out and I had what I needed I just needed to combine the different parts I had collected to create my little monster. Well, he wasn't actually a monster just a helicopter dog who was placed on a landing pad. I finished up by stuffing my creation with extra cotton we had scattered around the classroom and I sewed buttons over his lifeless holes where his old eyes used to be. The spinning mechanism was made into helicopter wings and I made sure that they stuck outside of the pad I created so they didn't get stuck against it while they spun. I was grateful for the small portion of time we had to finish up our products and I plan on implementing this into my own classroom in the future because I think giving students the time to finish their creation and bringing it to the point that they want it at is important. A student won't be fully proud and comfortable with sharing their work if it isn't where they wanted it and I relate to that because it's exactly how I feel about my paintings even if someone else likes how it is I always want to keep working and improving but for this project, I reached the completion point that I was happy with.
Once we completed our toys we placed them all on one table at the font of the classroom and first observed them and were able to talk to classmates about their projects. We were shown before and after photos and talked about our thought process on the project. I have to say that this part is one of my favorites and I love sharing my work and seeing what my friends have created. This might be different for other classrooms but I was gifted with classmates who have a real knack for these creative projects. I loved seeing the reactions of everyone once we started to play all of our sounds together and I'd love teaching a classroom experience like this one day. This is the type of moment kids in the classroom will remember later on in their life just like how I remember making pillows with my friends in an afterschool class and using those skills later in my life.
What's Next?
Since finishing this inquiry I've been itching to create more stuffed animals like I did when I was younger. Its things like this project that remind you of how much you enjoyed something in the past and push you to keep on improving your skills. I didn't improve my skills this time around I was just reminded of the skills I had before and started working with them again. I would work with something like this again just as a test to see how much farther I could go with my ideas of changing the stuffed animal. I enjoyed this project when it allowed me to step back in my childhood and just completely destroy a toy but it brought me back to my age now when I had to remember to be safe and use tools correctly. This is the kind of project to introduce to older students just because of the safety rules and the tools that we were required to use but I would still love to try something like this with younger kids and some safety needles.
Student Work:
This video makes me smile and its because all of my classmate's creations are included in this and you can see the variety of personalities and ideas based on each toy chosen and created. This was how we set up our viewing table and we started up our toys all at once so we could hear the chaotic sounds and movements altogether. This kind of experience is what I want the future children in my classroom to have, I want them to be able to all group together and be willing to show off their creations all at once and be fascinated by what their classmates created. I was so proud of all my classmates because I know some people really had trouble at first but in the end, there was not a single failure.
This was probably one of my favorite toys made in class and I just couldn't stop asking him to restart it and test it out on someone new. Tyler created this lie detector test from an old bunny rabbit toy. That is the type of risk-taking we need our kids to have so they aren't willing to create something completely different and not worry about what could possibly go wrong in the process. This was also one of the projects that changed the most because of what it used to be and what it ended up becoming. Tyler always seems to surprise me in class because he always has these out of the box ideas that are just so far away from my box of thinking.
Short clip of the progress of Madison's crazy Elmo remix. I loved how she added arts and crafts to her project and she incorporated her own art style of the hardware of the toy. I think this toy represented her personality so well, whenever I would look at it I just knew that Madison created it and I would love for all of my kid's work to be similar in that aspect.
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