What if you were a…?

A PROPOSAL FOR CHILDREN

The first thing to do is attach three sheets of paper together with sticky tape. The paper can be medium size, like A4 printer paper (21x30cm).

Everyone has a table and a chair at home.

Let’s try and draw them on the first sheet of paper the way we usually see them.

Now let’s try and make ourselves as small as small can be… as small as an ant. Looking at the table and chair with an ant’s eyes let’s draw the table and chair on the second sheet of paper, just as we see them with these new eyes.

Do you think the table and chair will look the same as the first drawing? Do you think they’ll change? How?

Now we’re going to grow as big as big as big can be… as big as an elephant, so big we can hardly get inside the house, and we’re going to look at the same table and the same chair.

How will we see them this time? Let’s try and draw them with the elephant’s eyes on the third sheet of

With all your drawings sitting close together can you see the difference in the three different gazes, the three different ways of seeing?

Our own, the ant’s, and the elephant’s.

You can carry on playing this game: for example what if you were… a bird?

How would you see the table and chair? If you aren’t tired yet you could make another fourth drawing.

Perhaps younger children can tell us in words about  changes in these different points of view.

Playing with changes of scale helps us to try and put ourselves in another person’s place, and to see the same thing from a different point of view. It’s a great exercise for getting used to being receptive and welcoming of other ways of seeing and thinking.

AT HOME WITH THE REGGIO APPROACH