Animaplates village

Not long ago, the Science and Technology Museum asked me if I could give workshops on the theme "architecture". Of course I said yes, and the ideas came flowing into my head right away.  Sometimes I wonder where these ideas come from. People around me were also intrigued: they know I make animals and puppets; they find a chess set a stretch; but houses made with paper plates, that was too much.

Well, it wasn't too much. Of course, going from the spark of an idea to a finished project takes some work but that's a part I find very exciting. To show the houses in context, I even made a scale model of a village complete with roads, pond, bridge and playground.

The workshops will be one hour each, so the projects could not be too complex. In order to make them netvertheless interesting and to allow the children to express their creativity, I am proposing several variants of round houses, of different heights and made with different colours of cardboard. The kids will design and cut their own windows and doors and put cellophane behind the windows if they want (I used to love that as a child).

If you live in the Ottawa-Gatineau area, take your kids to the museum and let them have fun with Animaplates on February 26 and 27 as well as March 5, 6, 12, 13 and 15 to 19. If you are elsewhere, you'll soon be able to organize your own workshop with your kids or with your students because I will be publishing these projects on the Animaplates website.