Games for the designs of the (woodcarving) projects by Jona
When I started leading my own workshops as a volunteer at Werkstattschule, I did my best to do everything the way I was taught. On the first day of the projects, in the woodcarving group, we first teach the schoolers how to carve wood, and then we do a brainstorming to find ideas for the design of what we will actually be carving and then start drawing the ideas that were found. For my first projects, I would lead the brainstorming by saying (in an approximate German) “Do you have any ideas?”. What would then happen was that usually the schoolers would look at me blankly and say something along the lines of “Nein”. Of course, from one group to another the dynamic can be very different, but I found that no matter the group, it was easier for me to lead this design brainstorming if I had some games prepared. It would bring some structure to the session and help even the shiest or most uninterested schoolers to at least bring some ideas to the brainstorming. I found it especially helpful for me as a volunteer who was/is not fluent in German. Therefore, I would like to share with you some examples of games that can be done to facilitate the design part of the woodcarving workshops.
As I did almost exclusively woodcarving in the projects, I am talking about woodcarving designs but of course these exercises can be used for any type of artistic workshops.
Finding a theme
Some projects already have a theme before the week even starts, and sometimes the schoolers find a theme pretty quickly and no game is needed, but if that is not the case:
Each person comes up with a colour, an activity, a location and a subject. The idea is to write down the first thing that comes to mind, without thinking. It is good to do it against the clock, this way they have less opportunity to overthink. For example, there could be a two-minute time limit. After the two minutes, everyone presents their ideas to the group. Then we vote for our favourite ideas and only keep a couple.
Here is how you can say that in German:
“Jeder sucht sich eine Farbe, eine Aktivität, einen Ort und ein Fach aus. Bitte schreibt spontan das Erste auf, das euch einfällt – ihr habt zwei Minuten. Danach lesen wir alles gemeinsam durch, wählen aus und behalten nur ein paar Ideen.”
Crazy 8
This game is to be done once you have a theme, to find more specific ideas. For example, if the theme is the sea, the ideas could be a submarine, a surfer, a whale...
8 Ideas in 8 Minutes. Each person folds a piece of paper three times. That separates the piece of paper into 8 parts. They have one minute to draw one idee. We do that eight times until each person has 8 different ideas to present to the group. The drawings do not have to be good, they can be quick sketches. After the eight minutes, each person presents their ideas, and we then vote for our favorite ones.
Here is how you can say that in German:
“In acht Minuten entstehen acht Ideen. Faltet ein Blatt Papier dreimal. Ihr habt jeweils eine Minute Zeit, um eine Idee zu malen. Wir wiederholen das achtmal, bis wir acht verschiedene Ideen haben. Denkt nicht lange nach, macht einfache Skizzen.
Danach präsentiert jeder seine Ideen, und wir wählen gemeinsam aus.”
Drawing
This is not really a game but just the last step: each person chooses one or a few ideas and draws them but with more details.
Here is how you can say that in German:
“Jeder wählt eine oder mehrere Ideen aus und zeichnet sie anschließend detaillierter.”
If you still have time, and if there are some good drawers, you can have them draw on the final design paper.
Of course these are just examples of games, feel free to make your own version. Have fun!