FableVision Learning Spotlight Blog

Guest User 5/31/23 Guest User 5/31/23

Celebrating Student Voice in NYC D75’s Middle School After School Program

The New York City Storyteller Superstar | Creative Storyteller Showcase 2023

FableVision Learning is excited to celebrate the students of New York City District 75’s Middle School After School on their hard work over the last semester.

During the student showcase on June 7, students that participated in FableVision Learning’s Creative Storytelling program will share their animations and books with New York Times best-selling author and Illustrator Peter H. Reynolds and the school community.

To kick-off the program, Peter H. Reynolds will read one of his books and provide a message of encouragement to the students to keep creating because, as he likes to say, “your voice matters!”

Students will get to see their work displayed on the big screen and some students will even take the stage to read their books aloud. This celebration continues the years of work FableVision Learning has done with District 75 to help students to explore self-expression and tell their story through books and animation. After a few years of virtual visits, Peter H. Reynolds is excited to be with the students in person again to cheer them on.

Andrea Calvin 10/6/22 Andrea Calvin 10/6/22

Somerville Elementary School Creates Bravely With FableVision Learning

Outside the sky was gray and rainy, but inside Somerville Elementary School in New Jersey there were rays of laughter, beams of creativity, and of course, lots of lots of dots! The FableVision Learning team journeyed to Ridgewood New Jersey to run a creativity teacher PD session, a family night, a virtual author visit with Peter H. Reynolds and student workshops on writing and animation.

With a focus on creativity and divergent thinking, Sara Smith, FableVision Learning’s director of creative education, led teachers through exercises in thinking outside the box. The school has also implemented Start With a Story, a program designed to activate books by Peter H. Reynolds as students explore STEM, SEL, and digital storytelling.

Following the teacher PD, the gymnasium was transformed into Creativity Central with a selfie station, collaborative mural, scavenger hunt and Peter H. Reynolds Film Festival. Jumping from spot to spot, kids did ishful drawings of each other, created book plates and solved challenges for a special prize.

The FableFun continued the next day with a school-wide virtual assembly with Peter H. Reynolds followed by workshops with students around animation and storybook writing. Every student ended the day encouraged to Create Bravely.

If you’d like to bring exciting programs like this one to your school or district, contact us at info@fablevisionlearning.com.

Andrea Calvin 10/6/22 Andrea Calvin 10/6/22

New Hampshire's SAU 6 Celebrates Dot Week With FableVision Learning

I Am Brave! This special message was celebrated by every student in Claremont/Unity New Hampshire during the FableVision Learning week of creativity that launched with the Creatrilogy Family Night and continued during the week with a coding activity at each elementary school.

I Am Brave!

This special message was celebrated by every student in Claremont/Unity New Hampshire during the FableVision Learning week of creativity that launched with the Creatrilogy Family Night and continued during the week with a coding activity at each elementary school.

To activate the district’s goal of student growth, the team at FableVision Learning helped SAU #6 kick-off the year with energy and joy through a hands-on student activity to remind them that they are brave and they can do hard things. By creating and deciphering binary code necklaces, students carried the important message of bravery with them around their necks.

The most exciting part of the week, though, was The Creatrilogy Family Night. All of the families in the district were invited to come to the high school for a Stories that Matter, Stories that Move animated film festival followed by activities all related to Peter H. Reynolds’s Creatrilogy of books The Dot, Ish, and Sky Color. Families worked on collaborative art, searched for hidden dots, and stretched their minds with brain teasers and challenges.

There is a lot more in store for SAU#6 Claremont/Unity this year. We are so happy to be part of their year of growth. If you’d like to bring exciting programs like this one to your school or district, contact us at info@fablevisionlearning.com.

Guest User 7/19/22 Guest User 7/19/22

Footbridge Students Tackle "Going Places" STEAM Challenge at BridgeWater State University

This blog post was written by Katie Hurwitz, an intern at FableVision Learning. Katie is entering her senior year at the University of Rochester. She is studying World Music, Creative Writing & World Literature, Childhood Education, and TESOL.

Walking around the Bridgewater State University classroom, I saw a plethora of innovations. Some students were thinking collectively; some, individually. And some…forky? Yes, some students had taken the popsicle sticks from their “Going Places Kits” (which I’ll explain in a bit), made arms out of pipe cleaners, dressed them up with clothes made from the boxes themselves, and drew very characteristic faces on them. “Wait a minute,” I asked the group of friends working together. “Is that Forky from ‘Toy Story 4?’” They smiled at me, made their own forkies dance, and humored me as I took a picture of their creations.

Growing up, I have always been friends with “the STEM kids.” STEM—meaning science, technology, engineering, and math—has never been my forte…at least that’s what I perpetually told myself. Priding myself in my interdisciplinary studies of the arts and humanities, I’ve shied away from STEM. This all changed when I started my internship with FableVision Learning and learned that STEM and art are not binary. In fact, they can be combined, simply by adding an A for “arts” into STEM to become STEAM.

Because I aspire to enter a career in elementary education after college, I am now fueled to utilize the concept of STEAM as a core part of my pedagogy. I recently had the experiential-learning opportunity to teach STEAM by helping to run a workshop for the Footbridge Program at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts.

The Footbridge Program, run by Bridgewater State University’s College of Education and Allied Studies, is a two-week summer program focused on STEAM education and enrichment for Brockton Public Schools fourth and fifth grade students.

With the forty students who attended the program on Thursday, July 14, we worked on “Going Places Kits.” First, we read the award-winning book “Going Places,” by Paul and Peter H. Reynolds. Encouraging students to assume the role of Maya or Raphael, we passed out the kits to all the students and gave them one simple instruction: “Make something that moves.”

The other interns and I had previously assembled these kits. We fabricated each of these small, blue cereal-box-shaped boxes using FabMaker Studio—and inside each of the boxes we stuffed materials including buttons, brads, paper clips, pom poms, pipe cleaners, coffee filters, popsicle sticks, and aluminum foil. Back when we were putting these kits together at the FableVision Learning office, I could have never fathomed what kinds of “things that move” that the students would end up engineering.

On the day, some students emptied out their boxes and glued four buttons to the sides. Bam! They made cars. Other students used the coffee filters to make parachutes. There were a few kids who had an inkling towards aviation (since they learned all about airplanes during another part of the program), so they decided to fold the aluminum foil into an airplane. A couple of the creations truly exhibited divergent thinking. For instance, one of the students used a popsicle stick to create a skateboard.

There were no rules for this project, other than “make something that moves.” Thus, the students could become dreamers like Maya and think outside the box! We demonstrated FabMaker Studio, and students that did not have all the parts they needed inside their box could design new parts themselves. To me, this calibration of creativity certainly encompasses the A for “art” in STEAM. At the same time, it covers the E for “engineering.” Needless to say, the arts and humanities and STEM are not mutually exclusive.

FableVision Learning 7/1/22 FableVision Learning 7/1/22

Teachers Recharge at SPARK! Retreat with FableVision Learning and Clarkson University

Relax and reboot - that was the goal of the Spark: Recharge your Creativity retreat held at The Clarkson Beacon Institute in New York. Educators from nearby New York and New Jersey joined fellow creatives from Georgia and Arkansas for the hands-on workshop held Monday June 27.

Click the video below to watch a video from the day!

In the beautiful space along the Hudson River, we created a space for teachers to decompress, connect, and explore creativity together. The Creatrilogy (The Dot, Ish and Sky Color), by Peter H. Reynolds was our guide.

Starting with the message of The Dot, we rolled up our sleeves and donned our courage to begin - to open ourselves to creativity. It was such a delight to see each teacher’s representation of their unique mix of creative strengths of heart, mind, spirit, and action. And watching them employ those strengths to make their very own novel creations was inspiring.

Ish opened a discussion into the creative climate and how to be open, playful, and motivated enough to engage in divergent thinking. We put these skills to work to solve the age-old question of how to get a walrus out of a library and give each other invisible gifts!

Sky Color inspired us to look at problems in new ways, and we discovered the magic words of possibility thinking.

It’s a joy to connect the dots with educators from around the country that are driven by a creative spark. We hope to see more and more of you in the next year! In the meantime, we encourage you to take some time to recharge somehow.

Here’s three ideas for your own creative recharge:

Get out into nature. Like Marisol in Sky Color, try noticing the things around you as you go about your day. Mindfulness is a creative skill and can even help you to solve problems you’ve been dealing with by helping you to see things in new and interesting ways. Try this mindfulness exercise we created.
Get playful. Humor is a creative strength and playfulness invites new ideas and openness. Plus, allowing ourselves to be silly and imperfect, quiets that critic that lives inside us, like Ramon does in Ish. Create a fun character to be for a day, play a game, or sing your favorite song from high school at the top of your lungs.
Find someone to connect with. At the end of The Dot, our main character shares her new-found creative courage with someone else - and that boy goes on to star in Ish! Finding someone to share your creative interests with builds you both up and feeds your creative spirits. You can also try connecting online with other teachers in The Creativity Circle.

If you would like to bring the Creative Spark to your school/district, send us an email at creativity@fablevisionlearning.com .

Guest User 6/7/22 Guest User 6/7/22

Paul and Peter H. Reynolds Share Stories That Matter During 3-Part Literacy Event

Peter and Paul Reynolds had a packed dance card on their recent trip to Washington, DC & Maryland, as they celebrated their love of books, films and “stories that matter” with thousands of kindred spirits in Montgomery County.

Their first stop - Flower Hill Elementary in Gaithersburg, MD, with Library Media Specialist Melissa McDonald, who is also on the Gaithersburg Book Festival Planning Committee, and was the original “dot connector” who pitched the Reynolds brothers to attend the book festival.

The brothers presented to a group of very enthusiastic Flower Hill students from grades 3 to 5. Peter and Paul shared their stories and offered encouraging messages about using one’s creativity and compassion to move the world to a better place. This was the culmination event of a week-long Scholastic Book Fair, which was funded through support from Educational Systems Federal Credit Union, Lafayette Federal Credit Union and the Reynolds Center TLC. The funding, which Melissa McDonald worked alongside the Reynolds brothers to secure, allowed every one of the 430 students in the elementary school to take home two new books.

In addition to each child getting free books to take home, Flower Hill Elementary School received Scholastic Dollars™ to enhance the school’s educational resources - from bookshelves, rugs, and STEM materials, to additional books.

The following day, the brothers set off for the Gaithersburg Book Fest, where Peter was a featured speaker, and both brothers signed books for nearly two hours. Book sales were handled by DC’s beloved independent bookshop Politics and Prose. Since its inception in 2010, the Gaithersburg Book Festival has quickly become one of the nation’s top literary events, attracting hundreds of award-winning and best-selling authors, poets and songwriters from across the country to its beautiful park setting. A little over half an hour from Washington, DC, the GBF event now attracts more than 20,000 attendees each year.

The following day, the Reynolds were featured presenters at the Gaithersburg Public Library. Friends of the Library, Montgomery County (FOLMC) handled book sales, which went to support the work of the library. The event featured story readings, hands-on creativity activities, and a book signing.

Later that day, the Reynolds brothers hosted the inaugural unveiling of the STORIES THAT MATTER/STORIES THAT MOVE Animated Film Festival, which features film adaptations of many of Peter’s best-selling picture books, including The Dot, Ish, Sky Color, The Word Collector. Be You!, and Say Something!

The animated films, which were co-produced by FableVision Studios and Scholastic Weston Woods, were shown at the Black Rock Center for the Arts’ Main Stage, the leading venue for the performing and visual arts in Upper Montgomery County, MD. Reaching more than 40,000 people per year, BlackRock presents performances featuring top regional, national, and international touring talent from the worlds of jazz, blues, Celtic, folk, world, and bluegrass, as well as a contemporary theater for audiences of all ages, along with free gallery exhibitions, and arts education classes.

Along with generous financial support from Educational Systems Federal Credit Union and Lafayette Federal Credit Union, the weekend’s events were also made possible by the generosity of educational entrepreneur and author (“InnovatHERS”) Dr. Bobbi Kurshan.

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For more information about the STORIES THAT MATTER/STORIES THAT MOVE Animated Film Festival, as well as bringing the Peter H. Reynolds Collection to your school or district, contact info@fablevisionlearning.com.

Guest User 5/6/22 Guest User 5/6/22

Paul and Peter H. Reynolds Create Bravely with Hosmer Elementary School Students

The following blog post was written by Tyler Stott, an intern at FableVision Learning.

New York Times best-selling author/illustrator Peter H. Reynolds, and his twin brother and creative counterpart, Paul, spent a special day with the students at Hosmer Elementary School in Watertown. During the assemblies and classroom visits, they encouraged students to use their creativity to make their mark on the world.

The students started by painting their own dot inspired by “The Dot” by Peter H. Reynolds.

As you can see, they’re already starting to create bravely. Check out some of their cool creations below!

Would you like to bring Peter H. Reynolds to your school? Click here to learn more about the different speaking engagement options.

Guest User 5/2/22 Guest User 5/2/22

Oak Lawn Middle Schoolers Create Digital Picture Books to Share Messages of Peter H. Reynolds

The following blog post was written by Tyler Stott, an intern at FableVision Learning.

Students from Oak Lawn Middle School create a painting activity for the book *Sky Color.*

At Oak Lawn-Hometown Middle School in Oak Lawn, Illinois community service is at the center of everything they do.

Heather McCarthy, a media specialist at the school works with over 1,100 middle school students and shares, “My library centers around empathy, inclusion, and service learning…Throughout the years, they have raised over $50,000 for clean water projects in Africa, have packaged over 250,000 meals for families in need, and host an annual walkathon to raise money for pediatric cancer patients. We even host a ‘Day of Service’ where the entire school spends the whole day completing community service projects. “

This passion for helping others didn’t slow down during the pandemic. McCarthy and her students kicked into high gear. As recipients of a Hershey's Heartwarming Action Grant, McCarthy and her students got to work creating interactive story books using the stories and messages of their favorite author Peter H. Reynolds. These books were then donated for children at Child Life at Hope Children’s Hospital.

“Peter H. Reynolds is one of our favorite authors since his books and illustrations encompass the themes of resilience, bravery, confidence, patience, and individuality,” McCarthy shared. “These are all qualities our middle school students strive for. We use Peter H. Reynolds’s books for our SEL work, STEM projects, and to read for enjoyment. When we wanted to send picture books over to the children’s hospital, we knew Peter’s books would be the perfect fit.”

For this project, students selected books by Peter H. Reynolds, and filmed a reading of the book and a video of a project. By adding QR codes to each book, recipients could follow along from anywhere.

We recently connected with McCarthy and her students to learn more about the project and school. Read on to learn more.

Your students created interactive story books for children in the hospital, how did that journey begin?

McCarthy: “The idea for this project came about when we were remote learning. We had a classmate whose little sister was in need of a heart transplant. The class of students really bonded over this experience. They showed great empathy and love for their classmate and her sister. We decided that as soon as we were back at school in person, we would put together a project to support the local children’s hospital. When we saw the Hershey’s Heartwarming Grant, everything fell into place.”

What has the response been from these children and their families when they were given the books, videos, and podcasts?

Angel Swiatek and Sophia Falcon read *The Dot*

McCarthy: “We delivered the books to the staff of Child Life at Hope Children’s Hospital. Then they chose which patients would receive our books. They reported the patients absolutely loving the books, videos, and projects. Many of the children watched the videos over and over again. The parents and families were grateful that there were children outside of the hospital thinking about their child in the hospital.”

What has been your favorite part about this project?

McCarthy: “I love that this entire project was student led. The students came up with the idea, collaborated together, and did all the creating, filming, and editing. This project really showcases the power of allowing student voice and choice. I believe when you give students the freedom to design their own thinking, they can come up with amazing ideas. I loved how this project highlighted how empathic, kind, and caring our students are.”

Isabel Bello, a 7th grade student at OLHMS: “My favorite part of this process was the filming. Me and my friends were all able to collaborate with each other and filming together. I also loved that it was for a good cause. It was amazing!”

Selena Garza Prieto, a 7th grader at OLHMS: “My favorite part of this process was imagining the smiles on the kids' faces as they listened to our videos of us reading to them.”

ZZ Cabanas and Selena Garcia create a STEM project to go with the book *Going Places.*

What advice would you give to other students wanting to do a similar project?

Sophia Falcon, a 7th grader at OLHMS: “If you want to do this, I would recommend talking to someone that could help you and pitching the idea to them. For example, maybe you should talk to your principal, librarian, or even someone on the school board. They could help you with getting together the community, and help you get the things you need to do something like this.”

Isabel Bello: “Whoever wants to get involved in this, if you're doing this for the "fame" don't. I was doing this only out of good spirit. All the attention this project has received was never the original intention. It was all done out of the kindness of our hearts.”

Angel Swiatek, a 7th grader at OLHMS: “If someone wanted to do this in their community or school I would tell them to have fun with it and to express themselves in any way they want. They should feel free to be open to enjoying this experience knowing how others will benefit.”

Selena Garza Prieto: “My advice to others working on a project like this would be - Don’t be nervous while you're reading. Instead just think of the smiles you are giving to kids who need an extra smile right now.”

Principal Dr. Sean McNichols, Aidan Zak, Kendall Phipps, and Grady Gilhooly do the Cow Pose for guided meditation and yoga for *I Am Love.*

What is your favorite Peter H. Reynolds book?

Angel Swiatek: “My favorite book by Peter H. Reynolds was 'The Dot' because to me the book was teaching about no matter what you think you can't do, you can always do it and it's a way to express yourself.”

Selena Garza Prieto: “My Favorite book by Peter H. Reynolds is ‘The North Star’. I enjoyed reading this book with my best friends because it really shows you that you experience difficulties but you should never let it pull you away from following your own path to happiness.”

What’s next?

McCarthy: “Our school motto is, ‘Create a dream; make it a reality.’ The students of OLHMS know that in the library, anything is possible. We strive to make the world a better place through our community service, creativity, and empathy. If they have an idea, we will do everything we can to help them bring their ideas to life. April 29th is our Day of Service and we will host our annual walkathon for Live Like Abby to raise money for pediatric cancer patients in May.”

Guest User 4/13/22 Guest User 4/13/22

Celebrate Earth Day with FableVision Learning

The following blog post is by Tyler Stott.

Held every year on April 22, Earth Day is an opportunity for people around the world to celebrate our beautiful Earth.

Earth Day is a reminder that we must protect our planet if we want it to remain beautiful for generations to come. We can do this in small ways by recycling, conserving electricity, and not littering. We can also do this in bigger ways by supporting global efforts to reduce harm and increase protection of our natural resources. We only have one Earth!

Looking for a way to begin celebrating Earth Day? Explore these classroom activities:

Animation-Ish Earth Day Activity

One way to celebrate Earth Day is by creating an animated message.

Here are a few Earth Day animations made in Animation-ish to inspire you.

Earth Day ROCKS!

Begin by reading “Rose’s Garden” by Peter H. Reynolds. This book explores the beauty of nature and the power of imagination. “Rose’s Garden” also shows how nature can make our world a much more colorful place.

For this activity, break students into small groups but allow each student to have their own rock. Give your students some time to paint their rock with an inspiring message tied to nature or kindness. Have students share their rock designs and messages with their small group. Once you have given them some time to finish, instruct them to return to their groups and share what they have made! Invite everyone to go around and say one nice thing about someone else's rock. Once the sharing is complete, have your students go outside and place the rocks next to something like a tree or a garden!

When your students are done with this project, we encourage you to do a reflection time. Ask your students: What did you decide to paint and why? When else during the week do you get the chance to be creative? What is your favorite thing about nature?

Click here to download the Earth Day Challenge Card: Earth Day Rocks!

Trash vs. Recycling:

Begin by reading “Sydney and Simon: Go Green!” by Paul and Peter H. Reynolds, a book about the dangers of pollution and the power of recycling. In this book, Sydney and Simon meet a sea turtle who has been harmed by garbage due to littering. This book will help show students the implications of littering and why it is necessary to start recycling.

For this activity, you will need to prepare kits for each group in your classroom. Each group will need a kit of different materials. These items could include: a plastic water bottle, a plastic straw, a plastic grocery bag, a glass bottle, a paper towel, a newspaper, and a piece of wrapping paper. Feel free to switch out for any items that you might not have, these are just some suggestions.

Working in teams, students will sort the items by what can go in a recycling bin. The team in the end who gets the most items correct is the winner. 1 point for each item in the correct spot! If you have enough different types of items, you can rotate them between groups.

Answer Key:

Plastic Water Bottle - recyclable
Plastic Straw- non-recyclable
Plastic grocery bag- recyclable-ish (Can be returned to grocery store for recycling)
Glass Bottle- recyclable
Paper Towel - non-recyclable
Newspaper- recyclable
Wrapping paper - non-recyclable

At the end of the activity we encourage you to do a reflection. Ask your students: What made this activity difficult? Were there any items you debated whether to recycle vs. throw out? Do your families recycle at home? At home do you ever struggle to know what to recycle vs. what to throw out?

Click here to download the Earth Day Challenge Card: Trash Vs. Recycling.

FabMaker Studio: Animal Masks

Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh My! - This Earth Day create a classroom zoo using FabMaker Studio. Students can explore the 2D ready-made masks from within the program to fabricate and create their own animal masks. Encourage each student to create their own unique animal and research a bit about that creature and where they live.

There are so many different types of animals on our beautiful Earth! However, we must continue to protect our planet if we want to keep it this way. Scientists declared 22 species extinct in the year 2021 alone.

How will you celebrate Earth Day? Share your animations, rock gardens, and classroom zoos with us on social media. Use #EarthDay and #InvestInOurPlanet and tag us @FableLearn.

Andrea Calvin 11/23/21 Andrea Calvin 11/23/21

FableVision Celebrates Civics at Bridgewater State University

FableVision’s co-founders Paul and Peter H. Reynolds were delighted to join Bridgewater State University’s College of Education and Health Sciences and the Martin Richard Institute for Social Justice for a Universal Children’s Day celebration focused on civics and student voice.

Kicking off the day, Paul Reynolds and FableVision Learning’s Andrea Calvin Zoomed with middle school students that have been using Civics! An American Musical in their studies. The free game available through FableVision Games, is a production of FableVision Studios, Maryland Public Television, Maryland Humanities, and Tufts’ Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. A part of the Library of Congress’ Teaching with Primary Sources Program, Civics! Is designed to teach middle school students how to analyze primary sources and have fun while doing it.

@unitycharter, we have been integrating the game, Civic! An American Musical during ss while learning to become informed citizens to affect change. Today, we got to meet with the game developers- @FablePaul and Andrea, from @FableLearn! Thank you for your inspirational words! pic.twitter.com/nOy2qJAp8Y
— Amy Mercado (@amyteachtech) November 18, 2021

In Civics! An American Musical, players work with the different theatrical departments to learn about a number of important aspects of creating a musical, such as costuming, set design, writing, and music. As the producer, players select the subject matter for their musical from four historical topics: the desegregation of public schools, the National Parks, the FDA, and the Chinese Exclusion Act. It’s then up to them to create a new smash Broadway musical hit that is historically accurate and celebrates the power of everyday citizens in creating change.

The afternoon continued with a fireside chat. BSU pre-service teachers and Martin Richard Institute for Social Justice Fellows had an intimate conversation with Paul Reynolds as he shared FableVision’s message of creating bravely they shared their experiences from the classroom.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by BSU CEHS (@bsu_cehs)

A highlight of the conversation included a video, from the education music department at BSU. Using the lyrics from Civics! An American Musical, students put their spin on The Poison Squad song. Check it out below (and play the game to hear the original).

The evening concluded with the MRISJ Civic Speaker Series chat Using Creative Arts to Spark Civic Action in Youth. The virtual conversation was moderated by Dr. Sheena Manuel, Assistant Professor of Special Education, and featured Paul Reynolds and Peter H. Reynolds. Peter, who was on his national tour for his new book Our Table, zoomed from LA and read from his best-selling picture book Say Something, which includes an illustration that pays homage to Martin Richard holding his now world-famous poster, which reads “No more hurting people. Peace.”

Martin was the youngest victim of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, and the son of Bridgewater alumni Bill and Denise Richard, who met each at the university.

To play Civics! An American Musical, create your free account here. Read more about the research study behind Civics! An American Musical.

Guest User 11/1/21 Guest User 11/1/21

FabMaker Project: Our Table Challenge

The following blog post is by Peggy Healy Stearns, Lead Software Designer, FabMaker Studio.

Peter H. Reynolds’ new picture book for all ages, Our Table, tells the story of a young girl named Violet who notices that, as her dad, mom and brother spend more and more time on their devices, their once lively dining table is shrinking! Violet longs to bring her family back together and dreams up a project on which they can all collaborate –- designing and building a new table!

This timely story provides an opportunity for children to consider the importance of gathering with family and friends – and to engage in a meaningful engineering design process.

To get ready and set context for the challenge, after reading Our Table, discuss students’ memories dining with family and friends. What made those times special? Where did they eat? Was there anything special about their table?

Peter’s Creative Challenge!

Peter loves using his imagination to design and make things - drawings, paintings, sculptures, and paper mache animals! And so, Peter is excited to present a special maker challenge to your students: “Using FabMaker Studio, imagine, design and fabricate your own table and/or chairs to send to me!” Peter will select some finished projects to feature on the FableVision Learning websites and social media.

So, let’s get started! Have students work collaboratively to Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Test and Improve a paper or cardstock prototype.

Ask: What kind of table would you like? How big should it be? What shape? Does it matter how it looks? Use questions like these to define the criteria. Students may want to research images of tables and interview family members. Then outline constraints – e.g., the final prototype must be designed with FabMaker Studio and constructed with paper or cardstock.

Now it’s time to Imagine. Have students brainstorm and sketch different designs and consider each option based on the criteria they set earlier. A single design may not meet all the criteria. Which criteria are most important? Once students choose a favorite design, they’re ready for the next step.

Tell students to use a ruler to draw a Plan for their table and label dimensions.

Then have them use FabMaker Studio to Create their prototype. They can use the Chair design found in the FabMaker Ready-Made 3D projects. This starter project shows how Shapes can be combined to create a flat pattern that folds into a 3-dimensional object. Their tables might be constructed of a single flat net like the chair or made of multiple elements folded and constructed individually and then combined.

Encourage students to be inspired by Peter’s creativity. Suggest they use FabMaker’s color and texture tool -- or use plain white cardstock and color by hand.

If there’s time, ask students to consider how they would Test their prototype? Tell them to refer back to the criteria they set at the start. If their table’s not quite right, ask them how they would Improve their design.

You can adapt this activity to different grade levels by challenging students to use FabMaker Studio to design other 2D and 3D objects from the book. Younger students can weld shapes to create fruits and vegetables. More experienced makers may want to design bowls or glasses or even the vegetable cart.

Need more tips and tricks on how to use FabMaker Studio? Check out the Tutorials page.

Send your students’ designs to info@fablevisionlearning.com or use the #FabMakerChair in your social posts . We’ll feature the best designs on the FableVision Learning Spotlight Blog!

Andrea Calvin 9/27/21 Andrea Calvin 9/27/21

Beal School Opens with Mural by Peter H. Reynolds

“Reach for your own words. Tell the world who you are and how you will make it better.”
- Peter Hamilton Reynolds

Every day when students enter the new Beal Elementary School in Shrewsbury, MA, they are welcomed by the characters and messages of New York Times best-selling author/illustrator Peter H. Reynolds.

The colorful mural spans the lobby and two floors of the new school, and, thanks to digital capture and printing technology, includes an exact replica of the original mural created at the old Beal School.

Attending the new school dedication was educator Kathy Rivenburg who first “connected the dots” with Peter while she was teaching at the Floral Street School in Shrewsbury back in 2002 when the school was performing the Massachusetts-debut of The North Star Musical (based on Peter’s storybook The North Star).

Interestingly, Joe Sawyer, who now serves as. Superintendent of the Shrewsbury School District, was principal at the Floral Street School - and served as narrator for The North Star Musical performance, along with Assistant Principal Mary Beth Banios.

Thanks to their original “dot connecting” with Peter at FableVision, this extraordinary, school-length mural now adorns the brand new Beal School.

To create this massive and complex, multi-paneled mural, Peter and his studio manager Julia Young Cuffe worked with the extraordinarily talented team at Worcester-based Lamoureux Pagano Associates Architects, which included President and Lead Architect, Katie Crockett, along with Project Architects Sean Brennan and Natalie Gabrielle.

On Friday, Sept. 24, 2021, Peter H. Reynolds joined the school community for a dedication ceremony for the new school building. Several fourth grade students from Beal served as the program's presenters for the ceremony, that included Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito; Beal Building Committee Chair and Vice Chair of the Board of Selectman John Lebeaux; Executive Director of the Massachusetts School Building Authority Jack McCarthy; Representative Hannah Kane; Senator Michael Moore; and Vice Chair of the School Committee, Beal Building Committee Member Sandra Fryc, Beal Principal Chris Girardi, Assistant Principal Shelley Hoey and Peter H. Reynolds.

The audience was also treated to two recorded student musical performances: the updated school song Cheer Cheer for 'New' Beal School and The Dot Song, which was co-written by Emily Arrow and Peter, based upon his famous book The Dot.