Peter H. Reynolds Joins Creativity Celebration with Norwood Extended Day

Creativity overflowed from the Savage Center Gym on Friday, June 16, as Norwood parents, kids, and Extended Day staff joined the celebration with Peter H. Reynolds and the FableVision Learning team.

Soaking in the artwork and animations, Peter H. Reynolds toured each station that highlighted student projects done around his beloved picture books.

Starting with a PD session in February, FableVision Learning worked with Norwood Extended Day to develop a custom program to activate the works of New York Times Best-Selling author and illustrator Peter H. Reynolds through SEL/STEM projects. During the after-school program, K-5 students across the six elementary schools (Balch, Callahan, Cleveland, Oldham, Prescott, and Willett), engaged with creative tools, including Animation-ish (a leveled animation program) and FabMaker Studio (a 3-D design and engineering tool) as they practiced the skills of communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity.

The audience at the Friday night celebration were treated to an interactive reading of The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. Riordan, a young girl from the audience, enthusiastically played the role of Vashti as Peter read along. Following the presentation, families lined up to meet Peter and have their books signed.

This entire night was made possible because of the vision of Debbie Holzendorf, director of the Norwood Public Schools Extended Day Services and Nevine Gadalla, assistant to the director. 

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If you are interested in learning more about custom programs, family nights, and author visits email the team at info@fablevisionlearning.com

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.

Dalton Schools Create Bravely with Peter H. Reynolds and FableVision Learning

Dalton Public Schools in Georgia opened its doors and arms to Peter H. Reynolds and the FableVision Learning team for three days of creativity starting with a family night.

Family Night with the Dalton Community

Hosted at the impressive Junior Achievement Discovery Center & The Hammond Creek Middle School Theater, the evening included a film festival, a reading of Peter’s new book “When Things Aren’t Going Right, Go Left,” and “dot and dots” of family activities. This unique evening brought together the entire community and inspired bursts of creativity.

School Visit: Westwood Elementary

Westwood Elementary IS a Peter H. Reynolds-inspired school! During the daylong visit that included two assemblies, student tour-guides led Peter through the hallways filled with projects based on his books. 

PD: The Creative Classroom

Rounding out the week in Georgia, Sara Smith, FableVision Learning’s Director of Creative Education, led 50 district teachers in a day of creativity. They dove into creativity research, played games, and explored their own creative strengths, leaving ready to ignite creativity in their classrooms.   

Educators also got a chance to explore FableVision Learning’s tools, FabMaker Studio & Animation-ish. 

The team was sad to leave the warmth of Georgia, but as we like to say - our dots are connected.

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Curious about how your school can host a family night and PD? Send an email to the team at info@fablevisionlearning.com, we would love to connect the dots.

FableVision Learning Connects with Gifted Educators in Georgia

FableVision Learning’s Sara Smith, Director of Creative Education, and Andrea Calvin, Vice President, roadtripped to Athens, Georgia to connect the dots at the Georgia Association for Gifted Educators conference. Held on the beautiful University of Georgia campus the conference saw over 500 educators from across the state. 

During three hands-on-sessions educators dove deeper into the works of Peter H. Reynolds and creativity skills.

At the Start With A Story session, participants explored the SEL and Creativity themes of Peter’s book The Dot as they made their mark in Animation-ish. 

Later in the day Sara encouraged attendees to Unbox Creativity and stretch their creative muscles as they explored divergent thinking and tools to bring into their teaching practice. If you weren’t able to attend the session, we encourage you to explore FableVision Learning’s Certified Creative Educator Course.

A special thank you to Lisa B. Hackney at the Georgia Department of Education for being an amazing host during the conference and  beyond. And to Desiree Isis Sharpe and the team at the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development (housed on the university’s campus), for hosting the FableVision Learning team, Georgia Department of Education’s gifted program manager Mary Jean Banter and program specialist Lisa Hackney, and Dalton gifted educator Molly Carlson for lunch and conversation.

FableVision Learning Launches After-School SEL/STEM Program with Norwood Public Schools

It may have started as a simple purchase of The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds and a stop to his bookstore The Blue Bunny in Dedham square, but Debbie Holzendorf, director of the Norwood Public Schools Extended Day Services, saw something more. 

A few phone calls and meetings later, FableVision Learning officially launched the after-school program with an educator PD on Saturday, Feb. 4. During this hands-on session, 40-ish teachers explored this unique after-school program that has been designed for K-5 students across Norwood’s six elementary schools: Balch, Callahan, Cleveland, Oldham, Prescott, and Willett (Kindergarten), Middle School and The Savage Center for school vacation programming. 

This custom program activates the works of New York Times Best-Selling author and illustrator Peter H. Reynolds through SEL/STEM projects. Through this program, students will engage with creative tools, including Animation-ish (a leveled animation program) and FabMaker Studio (a 3-D design and engineering tool) as they practice the skills of communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. 

As a culminating event for this school year, Norwood Public Schools Extended Day Services will host a creativity celebration with Peter H. Reynolds. During this time students and families will meet the author and be able to share projects from the after-school program.

FableVision Learning partners with school districts across the country to develop custom programs. If you have any questions send us an email at info@fablevisionlearning.com.

2022 – A Year in Review

If 2022 could be summed up in one word, it would be Joy. FableVision Learning had the JOY of traveling across the country working with educators and students as we launched new programs, celebrated family nights, and worked to spread creativity into every classroom. 

The team has pulled together their favorite moments from 2022. 

The Kindred Spirit Constellation

Andrea Calvin

Preparing for Dot Day at The MET in NYC!

I will often refer to the educators I work with as “my teachers.” This phrase confuses my husband as we met in high school and had the same teachers. But I truly do mean it, the teachers I connect with either through Zoom or at events are “my teachers.” The silver lining of the COVID years is we were all able to “connect” through technology. The highlight of this past year was finally connecting in person with “my teachers.” This really hit my heart  on International Dot Day when I was awkwardly dancing/standing on stage at The MET in New York City before the live stream with Flip launched. I looked into the audience filled with “my teachers” - my FableFamily - that traveled from states away and now sat shoulder to shoulder to celebrate the courage to create bravely. 

Fun for the whole family at Somerville Elementary.

FableVision Learning added some new spices to our cabinet this year with teacher PD, family nights, virtual visits with Peter H. Reynolds and workshops with students. Every school added their own flavor to the mix, but each adventure - whether it was at Brookstone School in Georgia or Somerville Elementary in New Jersey - had the same sparkle of creative energy. Yet one moment from the student workshops stands out: in New Jersey, during the last kindergarten writing session, a room of giggly 5-year-olds excitedly wrote a story about a chicken nugget king. The story didn’t make logical sense, but it had us all laughing. 

Getting hands-on in Beacon, NY with Going Places kits.

Continuing our mission to empower teachers with the creative SPARK, the FableVision team hit the road and headed to Beacon, NY for a hands-on PD event at the Clarkson Beacon Institute. Surrounded by the beauty of the Hudson Valley, educators from Georgia, Alabama, and across New York explored their creative strengths, created from “Going Places” kits, and were left recharged for the school year. Those that know me know I love to talk, and more specifically I LOVE to talk about science, space, Sci-Fi and television. Clarkson was where I met my people - the unique souls that love Star Trek and can talk Richard Feynman for days .

This is the point where I am going to get a bit sappy and personal. There were a few folks this year that brought great personal joy to the work. And here they are in no particular order:

Fun in the sun with Carly & Adam.

Carly & Adam. There is great overlap in the FableVision and Carly & Adam community, as we’ve been part of the STEM Teacher Summit since the beginning. I’ve had the pleasure of virtually collaborating with the creative couple, from mapping out sessions, to organizing logos and of course chatting about TV. This year, along with Jed Dearybury (a soul that brings me JOY every day) Carly & Adam ran the summit from Dedham, MA and then they all traveled to NYC for Dot Day. It truly felt like a family reunion. 

Eric Yoder, Jigar Patel, Melody Weintraub, Paul Branagan, Melissa McDonald, and Melissa-Ann Pero. A lot goes into planning conferences and the behind-the-scenes heroes that ensure everything runs smoothly. In 2022, the world was back in-person and I was able to hug the folks that made everything possible.    

At the Big Bang conference with some members of the amazing Big Picture Living team.

The Big Picture Living kids. I call everyone under the age of 35 a kid, and these amazing teenagers do fit that definition. For three years I’ve been working on the Big Picture Living program (if you haven’t checked it out, please do). For three years, I’ve been meeting through Zoom with the same group of teenagers - watching them grow, working on the website, and learning from them. This summer, we finally met face-to-face at Big Picture Learning’s Big Bang conference. Hopping on a flight from India, Alisha made the longest journey and I am blessed she did. She is an amazing young woman that is going to change the world. Over the past few months, I’ve worked directly with Angel and Jasmin, students from Rhode Island that have been traveling across the country presenting on their work around Big Picture Living. They each bring their own spark and passion to the project. Watching these three grow has been the highlight of my 2022. 

We appreciate you, Terry!

Terry Shay and Peggy Healy Stearns. FableFamily doesn’t accurately describe these two - they are family. Terry reminds me to show grace, kindness and to pause to laugh. His energy launched Dot Day ripples across this globe. I am blessed to have him as my “brother.” Peggy Healy Stearns, the brains behind FabMaker Studio, is the creative fuel for the program. She reminds me to stretch my engineering muscles and that a letter in the mail is better than an email. 

Mary Johnston, Deanna Braunlin and Pauline Connors. Three names and three faces I see everyday, and with their own creative skills, they are the power that makes FableVision Learning succeed.    

The people, the moments, the journey creates the Kindred Spirit Constellation that lit up the sky in 2022 and sent sparks of joy throughout the year.  

We laughed, we played, we saved some Zoombinis

Mary Johnston

How can kids learn through play? This year, FableVision Learning and TERC teamed up to answer this question. Members from both TERC and FVL collaborated to run several focus groups that would become the launchpad for Zoombinis Club, a gaming club for kids.

Zoombinis is an award-winning adventure game that takes players on a journey through 12 computational thinking puzzles. Zoombinis Club is no ordinary gaming club – it supplements playing time with live-action activities and group discussion.

I attended Zoombinis Club focus groups all over Massachusetts and met some awesome kids (and staff!) during their afterschool programs. In Hyde Park, we were lucky enough to have some parents try out the game, and found that it is just as effective on adults! One mom said, “I wish I could play this at home!” We asked participants their opinions of the game, the activities, and the marketing materials. We laughed, we played, we saved some Zoombinis! 

The Zoombinis Club focus groups taught TERC and FableVision Learning so much about how kids would choose to learn, offering a wealth of knowledge as we move forward into 2023. Look out for a Zoombinis Club near you!

On the Road Again

Sara Smith

Boots on the ground in Peekskill, NY.

This southern girl loved spending a gorgeous autumn day in Peekskill, NY animating with some extra fun teachers. People of all ages light up when they succeed in getting an animation to show what’s in their imagination, and this group was no exception! Now for the rest of the school year, they’ll get to watch their after-school kids light up in the same way with a full animation curriculum we customized for them.

The FVL team touring the DIA.

It’s hard to beat our visit to the Detroit Institute of Arts for eye candy, though. Standing in front of Diego Rivera’s fresco and so many beautiful Van Goghs was awe-inspiring. Even better were the 70+ art teachers from all over Detroit, so ready to engage in creativity. They fabricated rocking horses, animated their moods, and practiced possibility thinking. The energy from this group was exhilarating and only outdone by their students who piled into the DIA’s theater to start an impromptu singalong with Peter H. Reynolds!

A class constellation created as part of the North Star Classroom PD in Maine.

When not traveling, we still got to connect with groups via Zoom, like the educators of Maine’s special purpose private schools, who piloted our North Star Classroom this year. The goal of The North Star Classroom is to help students really explore who they are and where they want to be going, and the Maine teachers did some incredible work with students along the journey of our months-long PD. Each time we gathered, we discussed a new aspect of creativity, social-emotional learning, and best practices, and we all came out the other side more thoughtful about students and how to support them.

That brings me to my other favorite thing: all the fun learning experiences we get to create and share with schools. This year we launched our Start with a Story lesson packs that bring Peter’s books to life with activities that explore and celebrate creativity, collaboration, and compassion. When I develop these, I love imagining the young faces of students sharing their hearts and finding their creative strengths. It’s even better when I get to hear from teachers and camp counselors (Hi, MetroWest YMCA!) how much joy and growth their students experience reading Peter’s books and engaging with our lessons. I am currently writing more of these Start with a Story packs and can’t wait to put them out into the world to see what wonderful things come back from the classrooms that employ them!

Celebrating with Family & Friends

Deanna Braunlin

Our team is so thankful to have had an opportunity to meet new friends in 2022 and reconnect with so many of you at your family night events!

Students posing for the camera at a Creativity Family Night.

Imagine being able to transform gymnasiums in New Hampshire’s SAU #6 School District and New Jersey’s Somerville Elementary School, into Creativity Central family night events with selfie stations, collaborative murals, scavenger hunts, Peter H. Reynolds Film Festival and more. We enjoyed all of the rays of laughter, beams of creativity, and of course, lots of lots of dots! 

The fun and laughter continued in Colorado when we helped turn Challenge to Excellence Charter School’s STEM lab into an animation studio for their STEAM night celebration. Student ambassadors were helping family and friends between the ages of 3 and 75 animate a special design. The student ambassadors reminded everyone to just Start with a Dot! 

I  Am Brave!

One brave dot showing off his coding necklace!

In Claremont/Unity New Hampshire, Family Night led into a month-long celebration that included a dot-inspired coding activity at each elementary school. The students were all smiles and took such pride in their work! By creating and deciphering binary code necklaces, students carried an important message of bravery with them around their necks.

Off to San Antonio, Boston, and Wyoming

What a pleasure it was to meet so many accomplished educators in San Antonio, Boston, and Wyoming! We set sail with the North Star program this summer and spent a day with educators from the San Antonio Independent School District and ended our journey in Boston where we spent time with student activity advisors and educators at the National Conference on Student Activities. We focused on new strategies to help students explore their strengths and leadership skills, learn resilience, and discover their power to create. 

I journeyed to Wyoming’s beautiful Wind River Country in August for the Wyoming Native American Education Conference. It was wonderful to spend time with so many amazing educators as we looked at new ways to help students find their voices and make the world a better place using Peter H. Reynolds’ book, Say Something! We also explored the power of Animation-ish to help students capture and ignite their imaginations and then share their stories with their classmates, family, friends, and the world.

What a year! Thank you for being here with us in 2022, and we look forward to connecting more dots in the new year!

Peter H. Reynolds and FableVision Learning Create Bravely at the Detroit Institute of Arts

Our third collaboration with the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) brought excitement and laughter as we were in person celebrating the world of Van Gogh. Peter H. Reynolds and FableVision Learning teams’ time at the DIA in November included a visit with students followed by a PD day with teachers, as we connected the dots between digital storytelling, creativity and STEM.

Kicking off the event, eager Detroit-area students filtered into the DIA’s gorgeous, vintage theatre to spend an hour with Peter H. Reynolds. The room was filled with delight as Peter shared one of his most recent books, Our Table. Then, the students surprised him with a book they had created, inspired by his art and stories! 

Peter drew his favorite characters on large easel paper and passed them out to each class, and then the students got a turn with the microphone to ask questions. To everyone’s surprise, the question-and-answer time turned into a joyful singalong! Peter’s message to the students and teachers was encouragement to be brave, create, and never stop. The unanticipated message from the students ended up being just as important: a reminder that collaboration and creativity are always there, waiting to be uncovered, and that amazing things can happen when we are together.

The following day, despite the cold and snow, over 70 teachers came to participate in workshops aimed at creativity and digital storytelling, with the backdrop of the DIA’s new Van Gogh exhibition providing lots of inspiration along the way!

In the Animation-ish workshop, teachers were inspired to use animation as a new and motivating way for students to express themselves and show what they know. Teachers got to dive right in and create their own animations and experiment with ways to bring stories and concepts to life in the classroom.

The Creative Classroom workshop challenged teachers to think about creativity outside of the realm of art. They engaged a creative mindset, practiced creative skills, and learned creative tools to bring out the best in their students. The group collaboratively brainstormed ways to use the “5 magic words of possibility thinking” to foster divergent thinking in the classroom, no matter the subject, and they also played games and drew some silly pictures along the way!

Fortified with paper, glue, and digital fabricators, teachers joined the FabMaker Studio workshop to create a magical 3D world of art and engineering. Using the online, STEM tool, they designed 3D objects inspired by Van Gogh’s work and discovered the brain benefits of seeing objects with an engineer’s eye. Teachers left with tons of ideas for bringing hands-on creation into the classroom.

It was a great day, but don’t take our word for it! Here are some comments from participating teachers:

“What a very enjoyable and creative day we had together. Thank you for sharing your new inspirations and ideas for our classrooms and even our personal growth.”

“Thanks so much for the inspiration yesterday! I had so much fun.”

“I liked that the workshop introduced many new ideas but we also had time to talk to others, relax and create.”

“It was the most fun and useful PD that I have ever attended!”

Interested in bringing a dash of creative PD to your school district or program?

Contact the team at info@fablevisionlearning.com.

About DIA

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), one of the top 6 museums in the USA, has an absolutely amazing collection of works and currently has a magnificent Van Gogh exhibit on until January 23, 2023. They also have a fantastic educational program providing professional development for teachers and trips for students.

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.

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. 

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.

South Carolina Teacher Takes Classroom to Next Level With FableVision’s Creative Educator Certification Course

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

Molly Myer, a teacher at Saint John Catholic School, in South Carolina, has taken her teaching to the next level with FableVision Learning’s Creative Educator Certification Course. Myers shared that this course is helping her learn more about creative learning as has also been using Animation-ish and FabMaker Studio.

“The Certified Educator Course has been a lot of fun to work on. It is helping me to think more outside of the box. It ties in beautifully with my students’ Passion Projects which they are starting to work on. The student creativity guidebooks provided are an excellent tool to help my students come up with their Passion Projects topics. I love the self reflection that they are doing in these guidebooks,” Myer said.

Not only has the course provided her classroom with a lot of fun STEM activities, Myer says that it has changed her approach to teaching.

“The course offers such a great opportunity to go through it at my own pace and come back to materials. It is helping me to be more reflective as a teacher and to take my time, “she explained and added, “It has helped me to come up with ideas on how to best help and motivate a child who might be hesitant about trying.”

Students of Myer create their own original ideas and projects on applications such as FabMaker Studio and Animation-Ish, which are provided by FableVision Learning. Myer has loved watching every moment of it.

“The students love (the programs). It is so neat to see even the most hesitant student comfortably navigate this amazing tool. The creativity I have gotten out of my students using these amazing tools has been life changing,” she shared.

Check out the photos from her classroom.

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Big Picture Living: Tools to Start the Conversation around Lifestyle Wellness

This blog post was written by Katie Hurwitz, an intern at FableVision Learning. 

At FableVision Learning, we firmly believe in dreaming BIG. So does our partner, with BIG right in the name: Big Picture Learning. We are excited to announce that FableVision/The Reynolds Center and Big Picture Learning have partnered with American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) to embark on a student-driven movement: Big Picture Living. 

This program - packed with FREE Resources to start the conversation around lifestyle medicine and student projects to put the message into action.  We encourage you to read on to learn more about Lifestyle Medicine and Big Picture Living and to click here to sign up for the free resources.

Pilot Schools: We are also looking for a handful of schools/after-school programs to pilot the Big Picture Living Conversation Cards in the fall and provide feedback for future versions. If you are interested in learning more please email andrea@fablevision.com and we will get you started. 

What is Big Picture Living?

While young people in 2022 should be able to realize their true potential, there is a major setback: a crisis of higher-than-normal mental and physical health concerns. 

Our youth are experiencing:

• Increased mental health concerns 

• High death rates of COVID-19 that is disproportionately affecting families and children of color

• Rising youth isolation 

• Disengagement from school 

• Higher rates of pre-existing conditions (such as obesity and diabetes) -  especially with poor and Black and Latinx youth color

Education and health professionals have historically been siloed in their practices, so it was about time that we connected the dots in order to address blatant health inequities and the growing health crisis that affects the youth in our nation and our world. 

Big Picture Living is a movement intended to raise awareness of the day-to-day behaviors that impact our lives and how long we live it. This movement is intentionally designed to spark meaningful transformational change in young people’s lives through healthy lifestyle choices—so that they can dream big and create bravely. 

Just as FableVision Learning’s secret to success consists of the 4 Cs (plus 1)—creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and compassion—Big Picture Living harbors their own secret to success called Lifestyle Medicine. 

What is Lifestyle Medicine?

Lifestyle Medicine, as defined by ACLM, is an evidence-based approach to preventing, treating, and even reversing disease by replacing unhealthy behaviors with positive ones. Big Picture Living actively utilizes lifestyle medicine as the guide to educate and support positive behavior changes in young people by focusing on six lifestyle elements.

• Nourish (nutrition)

• Move (exercise & physical activity)

• Chill (stress management)

• Recharge (sleep health):

• Caution (avoiding risky substances)

• Social (relationships & emotional resiliency)

The medical community has made it clear that nearly 80% of chronic ailments are preventable and reversible through changes in lifestyle choices. By engaging with these 6 Measures, we can prevent diseases and ills that, through time and accumulation, can harm one’s life.

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Talking About Lifestyle Medicine With Students

Part of the Big Picture Living movement is utilizing The Big Picture Living Conversation Cards, which are designed as a way for schools/programs to introduce lifestyle medicine through discussion and activities for each of the 6 measures. Included in each measure are…

• Reflect & Consider Cards: 4 discussion prompts with information to guide the conversation. Each card includes a Quick Bite - a short extension activity inspired by the discussion.

• Activities: 4 activities to personalize the measure and activate community engagement.

The Big Picture Learning website (www.BPLiving.org) is the hub for educator resources, student work, webinars, social media challenges and so much more! 

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Ready to get started? We are looking for for a handful of schools/after-school programs to pilot the Big Picture Living Conversation Cards in the fall and provide feedback for future versions. If you are interested in learning more please email andrea@fablevision.com and we will get you started. 

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.