Welcome back to Summer Wonder at Home Creativity Challenges! Every Monday until August 31, there will be a new challenge for you to build, create, design or discover with your family using materials you have at home. So far we've designed dinosaurs and dream libraries, and also built bird's nests and time machines. This week's activity is creating a graffiti handprint. Your print will be an exploration of you — in words!
As you create your handprint, here are some questions to think about:
- Why did you choose the words that you did? Did you write any words bigger than others? If so, why?
- What about the colours you chose? Did you choose any colours that are special to you?
- Would the words have changed if you had traced a different object than your hand?
- Can you find something else you can trace at home? How about drawing a shape or object and filling it with words? For example, the librarian in the video traced a cactus notepad and filled it with words about plants!
Learning about words is fascinating, as English words have origins from so many different languages. Over 60 per cent of words in the English language are from Greek and Latin. There are also words from Arabic, Spanish and Sanskrit. Do you speak a language other than English? Try coming up with a variety of words for your graffiti print!
Explore the magical world of words through books:
Camp Fossil Eyes: Digging for the Origins of Words by Mark Abley and Kathryn Adams
The Dictionary of Difficult Words by Jane Solomon and Louise Lockhart
Weird Words by Susie Dent
The Weird World of Words: A Guided Tour by Mitchell Symons
Parents and caregivers, you can join in and design your own graffiti handprint, too! This can be a fun exercise in stretching your mind to come up with as many words as you can to fit your handprint. Be creative and have fun! Take a picture of your graffiti print and share it with the Toronto Public Library on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. You can use the hashtag #TPLSummerWonder.