'Seeing' with our Imaginations and Testing Rafts

Imagination is one of the best things in the world. Nobody can be bored with a good imagination. 

Imagination helps us enjoy things that we can not see or do in real life. People in wheelchairs imagine walking, we imagine flying or breathing underwater. It helps us enjoy life with none of the restrictions that ours often have.

We practised using ours this morning - pretending we could do things that we just can't in real life, like flying, going through walls, and in my case, throwing and catching things well!

Then we thought about blind people. Do they imagine seeing? And how would we describe colours and sights to friends who were blind?

We tried - how would you describe blue, yellow or green using other senses but sight?

'Colour The Stars', by Dawn McMillan, explores this idea, so after reading it, we set out to explore our forest and beach by 'seeing' with our imaginations and other senses as well as our eyes.

Many in the group decided to experience blindness on the forest path, closing their eyes and holding on to the handrail as they walked. 

Friends were guides to each other, describing sights and colours and helping them experience what we see. The photo below was of experiencing the colour, brown.

We played by the sea and enjoyed wading, finding small treasures like lacy leaves and crabs, digging, making a sand-couch and continuing to see things with our imaginations. So much fun!













Ideas for home:

- Some children wondered how blind people do some things when they can't see. We talked a bit about Guide Dogs. Why not find out more? Did you know that the Guide Dog centre in Homai can take visitors?
- Try describing something in your garden with your imagination - don't just focus on what you see, but what you hear, smell, touch, taste and feel in your emotions. What is it like? What does it remind you of? You might be able to do some very creative writing with your thoughts!

REMEMBER - as the weather warms up, keep bringing a change of clothes. It's probably also a good idea to wear togs and bring a towel, just in case the water is inviting!



Afternoon Group:

Wow - some of you have been busy with your rafts over the last week! It was great to see the progress and spend most of the afternoon helping each other with advice and continuing to put rafts together.

First, we thought a bit more about what makes things float. We experimented with an orange - it floated with the peel on but sank once it was removed, even though it was now lighter. Orange peels have a lot of little air pockets in them and air always wants to go up in water, keeping it floating. Remember to add air to your rafts if they sink otherwise!



After an afternoon of tinkering, helping and raft-making, we headed to the water with three of the more completed rafts. Success! Fun!
















Ideas for home:

- Keep working on your fabulous rafts!
- You might be interested in looking at boats and rafts from different cultures, especially in the days before modern technology. How did people in the past use what they had with materials and tools to create effective vessels?

More raft tweaking and testing next week if the weather is good - bring your togs! Otherwise, we will finish off our floating / sinking experiments inside and think about what other investigations we want to work on for the rest of the term.