See how we created the Big Green Footsteps' Game in Turin!

Almost two years ago we started to prepar the film "DeveLoop!" with the help of Museum of Cinema in Turin. This short film presents step by step our whole work: https://youtu.be/5rSSMGU8tRo

Here you can see the result of our effort: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd0T4uc2IuE

In February we presented ''DeveLoop!'' in Massimo Cinema, in the hearth of Turin:)

Then it was time to create Memory Cards associated with the film.

To do so, we prepared the project of cards and boxes.
We printed and plastificated the cards on our own.

To pack the cards we used boxes of old games, cork trivets and  printed stickers.

The last step was to add the CD with the film "DeveLoop!" and the digital version of Memory Game.

And here it is!

Our game REC-IM "RECYCLED IMAGINATION", was created to develope imagination. It was made mainly from recycled materials or using techniques in which we can use the same image many times.

and finally we could start playing :)

Today has been a special day: no lessons but games! In little groups we playedall your games. In real time a couple of pictures

Before the final conference in May 2015 we managed to complete the Timeline card game. Many variations on this type of card game have already been released offically under various themes, such as "Inventions", "Popular culture" and "Exploration" etc.  But our version involves animal diversity. We first thought of a timeline of extinct animals but soon found it a little too pessimistic on its own.  If we only present what is gone then there is little room for hope.  So we added "discovery" to the animal timeline. It is pretty exciting to realize that all kinds of animals are still being discovered, some large, some pretty unique.  Finally, we also added the category „rescued“ for animals that have at some point been on the edge of extinction, but their fate has been turned around by international organizations.

Our timeline card game is basically similar to other official Timeline games but differs slightly from the official format by not having identical picture on front and the back.  On the back of our timeline cards we decided to let our students provide illustrations, which contrast nicely with the picture on the front (usually photos or paintings).  With the generous help of the students in Krakow (after our visit in March 2015) we managed to complete more than fifty animals. The results are sometimes striking and the variety of the pictures form a rather pleasing whole, I think. Thanks to all who participated.

Our timeline also differs slightly from the official format by providing some basic information on each animal on the front side.  We thought the fact involved would be too obscure and the date much too difficult to guess without a hint on the front.  Besides, the story of each animal is simply too interesting to resist giving a glimpse into their fate, whether they survived, just emerged or vanished forever.

Finding the right animals, getting the information and setting the cards up was a lot of work and it  was only possible with a lot of enthusiasim, patience and time.  Originally we designed things rather primitively, gluing images to cardboard and writing the information with a pen in hand.  Later we realized that we might actually apply for a grant at the Reykjavik Children´s Cultural Festival, which is held each spring in Reykavik. Luckily we got just enough to print around thirty decks of cards.  But that involved a lot of extra work transferring our originals to a digital format and sending it to the printing factory. In the end it was well worth the trouble.  We learned a lot by going through this process.  Now the obvious benefit is that we can easily reprint the cards as well as repeating the process for other similar ideas in the near future.   

To symbolize we always have a choice Bjarni made the Othello game to play outdoors during the final conference. He used tree stubs from the recycle station. The players choose to be Green Footsteps or White. The aim of the game is to include the opponent between your own discs. If one can enclose the opponent horizontally, vertically or diagonally one may turn around the discs in your own colour. The game goes on until all playing fields are covered. The person with the most discs wins. For more detailed explanations see: Othello rules 

Hi everybody,

As promised some explanation for the Go-fish game. We made the game in four stages. First the group of 6 students, who were with us in the fall, made the original. Each student made two groups of cards cutting items from magazines. Then we discovered the website of kwartet cadeau and made the same game in English with another group of 6 students using the software on the site. After receiving the first print, we had several try outs in Iceland and Poland, and decided to translate the English game in Icelandic. One of our teenage students worked on that in Icelandic lessons. We ordered two games in the Icelandic version to be ready for the Chidren's Culture Festival. Unfortunately these games got lost in the post. Meanwhile we sought fundraisers. Sorpa the recycle company of Reykjavik was very enthusiast about the game and decided to support us and cooperate to make a final print run of 500 games to be used in the educational department of Sorpa. Of course we had to adjust the game to their wishes. One of our 10th grade students worked on the final version until Sorpa was satisfied. The company Kwartet Cadeau in Holland helped to adjust the colour scheme according to the recycle groups of Sorpa. All school parties who will visit Sorpa in the near future to learn all about recycling will get a game from them to take to their classroom. So our game will be all over Reykjavik and maybe Iceland. We were very happy and grateful with this opportunity. Sorpa supported us again to make 4 games in English for our partners. So now we can all play!

Rules Go fish- quartet

The goal of the game: the player who collects the most 4-card stashes wins.

Start mixing up all playing cards and divide them equally between all players. 

The youngest player may start to ask for a card.

He can only ask a card from a group of 4 he has himself.

He has to ask a specific card from a specific person.

For example: “Anna do you have from “General waste” – “Chewing gum”?

If Anna has the card she has to give it. After receiving a card the player can continue and ask any other person for another card.

If Anna does not have the card, it is her turn to ask someone a card from a group she has.

The game continues until all 4-card stashes have been collected. The player with the most stashes wins.

"A Trip", that is how we called our recycling game. The winner is the person, who first collects all capitals of all members of Comenius :)

We managed to create two copies of the game. The first one we gave our friends from United Kingdom, who hosted us recently. The second copy stayed with us in Krakow, where we played it with our guests from Iceland. I hope they liked it :)

On Thursday, March 19th our Kindergarten had hosted guests from Island.

Obviously we couldn’t wait to meet them and have a gift for them. But what could it be? We love games, and the Memory is our favorite, so we decided to make one of the kind sensory Memory. It’s a kind of Memory where you find pairs, using only sense of touch.

The cards were painted with colors of Polish Flag – red and white.

The sensory Memory was done with recycling material, naturally!

Our guests have told us about Island, presented us with coloring books, and then we played our game. One round was not enough!

We thank for the visit, interesting stories and the gifts.

It all was very nice.

Pupils from the St.Ludwik`s like playing chess. They decided to make their own, unique , recycle game.

And there it is:Szachy%20z%20odpad%C3%B3w%20%20II.pdf

                                               Invitation to the preview of DeveLOOP! on the 24th of February.

The cartoon was done from the pupils of our school with the cooperation of the Chelsea Hospital children.

We thank the Museum of Cinema in Torino, the director Vincenzo Gioanola and the STABILO factory for the big support

https://www.youtube.com/watchv=Jd0T4uc2IuE&list=UUiFNgIkFZYlGaigHQCrIpbQ

Hi everyone,

it is great to see how things are progressing.  "Bin it to win it" sounds like an exciting game (with a very marketable name :-)

We have thought about a few games as well and the one that´s closest to completion is Timeline card game with biodiversity and its protection as the theme.  I suppose most of you are aware of the card game involved because in recent years it has become something of a card game phonomenon.  If not, then here is a video link which explains how it works.  But basically the game constists of a hefty stack of cards, each card with the picture and a description of an historical "event" on the front side and a date of the event on the back side.  The purpose of the game is simply to get rid of one´s cards, one at a time, by placing it in the right spot on the "timeline" that the other cards have already formed. Only then you are allowed to turn the card to verify the date and if the location is wrong then you have to draw a new card and wait for the next round. Finding the right location is simple at first but it gets more difficult as the timeline grows and gets more compact. The game is immediate, simple and a lot of fun but also very informative.

Now, this card game has already been released offically under various themes, such as "Inventions", "Popular culture" and "Exploration" etc.  But our version involves animal diversity. We first though of a timeline of extinct animals but soon found it a little too pessimistic on its own.  If we only present what is gone then there is little room for hope.  So we added "discovery" to the animal timeline. It is pretty exciting to realize that all kinds of animals are still being discovered, some large, some pretty unique.  Technically we could have two cards for some animals, one covering their dicovery and the other, regrettably, dating their extinction.  Some animals "went out" only a few decades after they were discovered (like the Dodo and Steller´s Sea Cow).  But it doesn´t have to be that way.  That´s why we´ve added one more type of cards, a "rescue" card that dates the turning point in the history of the protection of a species. Sometimes it a clear-cut when an important environmental law is passed but occasionally it is more vague, like the lowest number of buffalos in the United States before they started picking up numbers again. 

The description on the front of each card in our version of Timeline is more detailed than the official Timeline. The history behind each animal is simply too interesting (and too little known in general) to pass it by.  In some cases we may even need it explain what exactly the date refers to.  But there is one more thing that differs sharply from the official Timeline: The picture on the front and the back are different.  The one on the front side is a photo or a well known painting but on the other side we have our students´ depiction of the animal.  The results are sometimes striking and the variety of the pictures form a rather pleasing whole, I think.

Take the Tasmanian Tiger for example.  An image from the internet and the artistic rendition of one of our student´s below.

This was a rather realistic and accurate depiction of the original.  But compare it to the version we have of the Dodo, which is more naive.

Just wonderful :-)

Our main emphasis these days is to complete the round of animals with the students´ versions. 

hope you enjoy,

Thorsteinn

As part of our Commenius project 'Big Green Footsteps', Sean and Angel have been working hard in the primary classroom to create 'Bin it to Win it', a game that is fun and can help you to learn about looking after the environment.

After lots of research and brainstorming of ideas they created a game called 'Bin it to Win it', which involves sorting items of rubbish into the correct recycling bin. They have also created a company logo, rules for the game and a fact sheet to accompany it! Children from the secondary classroom trialed the game today and confirmed that 'Bin it to Win it' is enjoyable and made them think about the environment, so well done Sean and Angel.

When I (Charlotte the primary teacher at CW) travel to Dublin next week I am going to take a copy of the game to play there - we may even Skype children in London and see if we can play against them.

We are so proud of the creativity, energy and commitment that Sean and Angel have brought to the project. Well done!

Download the pdf and try it out yourself here:

BIN%20IT%20TO%20WIN%20IT%20RULES.pdf

Last week we brainstormed with our kids in our attempt to find out what games are popular and how we might possibly tweak them so that they could carry an environmental message.  This resulted in a flow chart covering a range of different types of games.  Many of those classic games can be thematically adapted to our project without difficulty. 

This approach may not sound particularly interesting or challenging (and definitely not innovative) but it is a constructive way to start.  By covering what is "out there" we can have a better view of what kind of game we want to create and use the original idea a springboard towards something else.

Take the "Jigsaw puzzle", for example.  That idea is already in full swing, based on a classic model, using a collaborative input from all over that is likely to result in a very interesting game and one that will be aesthetically pleasing.  All of the elements in the picture are challenging for the user because they pose questions, like "why is there a dam in there?" or "what is that bee doing in our vision of the future?".  Would a booklet or a few notes of explanation be necessary as a part of the package?

Some of the schools have already mentioned Top Trumps as a starting point.  It is a very engaging card game where players exchange information about a subject.  Ideal, I would think.  Gathering the information is a lot of work, though, but doing it would be very useful.

Another example: Quartette (sometimes known as "Go Fish").  It is a card game that can easily be played with a regular deck of cards, "fishing" sevens or eights etc. from the other players that keep their cards hidden from veiw.  In an environmental quartette we have adapted it to the process of recycling.  Each "number" stands for a type of bin.  So there are four cards with an image of an item that has to be put in a particular bin.  So there are four "metal" items and four "plastic" items, four "electronic" things etc.  All in all thirteen categories.  Each card also contains a list of the other three items that belong to the same category.  As you can see, by using our "theme" a classic game can easily be adapted. 

Many of the other games could also easily work as environmental games. More about that and other ideas later.  I am personally very interested in making a memory game work as an environmental game in which the "pair" is not just two identical pictures but separate images of two different animals that have a relationship between them, as in predator and prey. 

Anyway, I hope the flow chart comes handy, even if only as a point of reference.  

Autumn is the best time to walk and observe the colourful changes around us. We accepted the invitation of the nature to look around the hospital with the children. 

We prepared a game simply connected with the environmental topics. We created a path in the park marked by red papers. During the way the children had to look for the little plastic boxes hidden under the benches, in the trees and in other places. In every box there was one question about environmentalism. The children responded right to all seven question, and at the end they could receive a prize - balloon, that was hidden inside the seventh box. Thanks to this we had the game also for the way back. 

The whole time in the park we were observed by the squirrels, that are always occupying this place in autumn.