Cardboard Challenge 2016

Posted on October 12, 2016 by Lana

Tomorrow is our 4th Cardboard Challenge, the 5th Global Cardboard Challenge, as started by the Imagination Foundation back in 2012. The Global Cardboard Challenge was inspired by the short film Caine’s Arcade.

The Global Cardboard Challenge is a fun, playful and inspiring way to foster creativity in children through a simple process called Creative Play. Through creative play, kids engage their imaginations and open up their minds to what’s possible – and then they turn their ideas into something real. In this process, children learn to develop and test their own ideas, take chances, solve problems, get input from others and become better creative thinkers.

Many people have asked me how we have run the Cardboard Challenge here in Shanghai, so below (and linked here) is a fact sheet, which condenses much of the great information provided by the Imagination Foundation

Cardboard Challenge Fact Sheet

Decide on a date for your Cardboard Challenge, the official date for the Global Cardboard Challenge, this year, was October 1^st 2016; however you can run an event whenever you want; anytime, anyplace.

6 weeks before event:

Advertise event in your community by sharing the following links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faIFNkdq96U original Caine’s Arcade Movie made by Nirvan Mullick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul9c-4dX4Hk movie that shows launch of Global Cardboard Challenge and Imagination Foundation

http://imagination.is/our-projects/cardboard-challenge/ Imagination Foundation Website with full information on Global Cardboard Challenge

4 weeks before event:

Start collecting recycled materials from your community and appoint student leaders to set up an area for materials, and a plan for counting materials.

I found weekly challenges worked best in our school and prizes were awarded each Friday for the class that brought in the most of the following:

Week One: Small boxes, such as medicine packets, toothpaste, chocolate but nothing bigger than a granola box.

Week Two: Medium sized boxes, such as tissue and cereal boxes

Week Three: Tubes, toilet paper, kitchen towel, foil and plastic wrap tubes; these are essential to a successful Cardboard Challenge.

Week Four: Boxes, the bigger, or more unusual, the better. If you can contact any companies in the area ahead of time to ask for donations of any used (or new) bike/fridge/furniture/storage boxes, these will be a huge hit.

Hints for a Successful Cardboard Challenge

Plan Ahead

Where will you store the collected cardboard?
What will happen to the cardboard after the event?
Can children take things home? What about shared projects?
Will you work across classrooms, across grade levels, across divisions?
Do you want to use paint… for some grade levels? All grade levels?
Get Parents involved; the younger grades especially will need help with cutting and gluing.
Make sure you have enough materials, not just cardboard, but things to cut/glue/paint/stick things together with. Where will these things be stored? Who will have access to them?

News from the Library

Posted on September 17, 2016 by Lana

Visiting Author

Our author David Greenberg is here. Please see the attached schedule for the times he may be presenting to your child this week.

Also attached find the book order form that was sent home last week; it is not too late to order books anytime this coming week. If you want a book, fill out the form, make sure to neatly write who you want the book autographed to, and send in the exact money in an envelope to your child’s classroom teacher, or directly to the ES Library.

David Greenberg Schedule

ORDER FORM CHINA 2016 Greenberg Order Form

If you are interested in the Civil Rights presentation offered to grades 4^th-12^th please join the High School division in the PAC on Tuesday at 9.25 am. David’s father was the lawyer for Martin Luther King and this presentation is excellent. If you would like to join in on any of his poetry presentations, you are also always welcome, check the schedule for a time that suits you and talk to your child’s classroom teacher.

大卫-格林伯格将与9月19日-23日来访美校。查看具体日程表请转至Schoology或者我的博客。如果家长有兴趣出席他为四至十二年级所做的关于民权的演讲，请于9月20日早9：25移步演艺中心。格林伯格的父亲曾是马丁-路德-金的律师，这场演讲必定精彩绝伦。如果你对他其他的演讲感兴趣，请在查看具体日程表后告知您孩子的班主任您的出席时间。

We need Volunteers

Parents, please contact me via e mail kimbra.power@saschina.org if you think you can spare a few hours before October Break to volunteer in the Library. We always need volunteers and you will have the opportunity to discover many great resources our library offers, not just for your child, but also for you.

Cardboard Challenge

We are participating in the Global Cardboard Challenge on Thursday October 13th and we need your help. This week, please hold on to as many small cardboard items as you can and send them in with your child starting September 26th. We run a friendly competition between the 22 elementary classes to see who can bring in the most small cardboard items; think toilet rolls and tubes, granola and cereal boxes, tissue and cosmetic boxes etc. There will also be the opportunity to send in larger items after the October Break and talk to your homeroom teacher if you think you’d like to volunteer your time on the 13th; it is a LOT of fun. Search cardboard challenge into the search area above to see some of our past events.

纸箱大挑战”将于10月14日登陆，更多详情可在Schoology或者我的博客上查询。由于我们的仓储空间有限，请帮助我们尽可能地收藏些纸箱。9月26日起我们将以班级为单位回收这些纸箱。最受欢迎的纸箱是类似纸巾盒、牙膏盒、麦片盒这样的小包装，或者是卷筒纸卷芯。回收箱就在图书馆正门靠近小学小学走廊的一边，每天回收的数字最多的班级会获得小奖品。点击我的博客链接输入cardboard challenge搜索更多信息。

Kimbra Power

The Barefoot Librarian

And so it begins…

Posted on September 22, 2015 by Lana

There was movement in the hallway for the word had passed around, that the Cardboard Challenge had got underway…

Well, we have over 2,000 individual small cardboard items brought in by Prek-5th grade so far and the hallways are buzzing with the sound of ” who is winning?”

The truth is, we are all winners when our administration allows our children a full day of play, and these two weeks of our cardboard collection competition are just that, a chance to collect the cardboard, providing the incentive of a few little prizes for the kids who bring in the most. We are all really looking forward to October 9th, when we celebrate the imagination of our children who were so impressed when they learned about Caine’s Arcade and the Imagination Foundation.

Don’t forget to keep your eyes open for interesting cardboard over October Break, and have a wonderful, safe holiday.

Nitty Gritty Low Down

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Lana

1. Cardboard Challenge is on Friday October 9th (one month away, but only FIFTEEN school days away)

2. Students should be collecting and keeping EVERYTHING cardboard NOW!

Check out how much fun we had last year…

3. Students should bring in as much SMALL cardboard as possible next week, a 4 day week (SMALL is ANYTHING that will fit into an A4 photocopy box, e.g. toothpaste/granola/tissue/cereal/shoe boxes, toilet rolls, saran wrap/foil rolls)

This year, we will have three teams competing to collect the most cardboard.

PreK, 4th grade

K, 1st grade, 5th grade

2nd grade, 3rd grade

4. Between September 21st and 25th students will drop off their SMALL cardboard items in the labeled boxes outside the ES Library by 9 am

(At 9 am, cardboard will be counted, and a Daily Tally will be kept of the number of individual cardboard items submitted per team, a winning team will be announced at the end of the week, each member of that team will win a small prize)

4.a Students should collect as much big AND small cardboard over October Break

5. Between October 5th and 8th students will drop off ANY cardboard items in the labeled boxes outside the ES Library

6. Global Cardboard Challenge is on Friday October 9th, stay tuned for more details about what the day will look like.

Shoe Boxes

Cereal Boxes

Toilet Roll winners 3ED

One Month to Go…the Countdown begins

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Lana

Today we kick off the one month countdown to our Cardboard Challenge, being held on October 9th this year. Check out last year’s cardboard challenge here, thanks to Mr. Neill; we certainly had a lot of fun.

Below is an approximate schedule of what to expect in the weeks leading to the event.

From now-September 14th-we are all promoting the event, asking children and parents to start collecting things in their home, community or even parents workplace (e.g. ask colleagues to save their toilet rolls/tissue boxes etc)

September 15th-September 18th-Students bring small cardboard items into their classrooms, such as cereal boxes, toothpaste boxes, shoe boxes, granola boxes, tissue boxes etc

Weekly Challenge No 1- September 21st-September 25th

This year we are putting different grade levels together to collect materials. Grade Level Competitions to contribute the most small items into the boxes set up outside the ES Library, there will be giant boxes for these grade groupings:

Pre K and 4th Grade

K, 1st and 5th Grade

2nd and 3rd Grade

Between September 21st and September 25th, students will drop off their small cardboard items such as cereal boxes, toothpaste boxes, shoe boxes, granola boxes, tissue boxes in the giant boxes outside the library.

Each Day at 9 am, the items collected will be counted, and a running tally displayed on the wall. The Group with the most items contributed by Friday 9 am will be the winner and a small prize will be given to each student.

Weekly Challenge No 2- October 5-8th

Stay tuned for details

Friday October 9th

Global Cardboard Challenge

Stay tuned for details

If you’d like to know more about the origins of this challenge, have a look at the Imagination Foundation website here.

While this is an All Elementary Event, we also have an increasing number of helpers and participants from the Middle and High school which adds to the fun and great community feel. Parents and community members are not just welcome, but necessary, so please please e mail me at kimbra.power@saschina.org if you’d like to come along.

Magnificent Movie of Cardboard Challenge SAS 2014

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Lana

“Cardboard Challenge was awesome because it taught us teamwork and engineering” Michelle

“I liked the idea of cleaning up too because it made us more responsible” Daniel

“I really liked the teamwork” Vincent

“I liked destroying the boxes afterwards as it felt great on my feet” Zach

“I liked that all the grades did cardboard challenge” Elena

“You got to expand your imagination and think deeper than what you normally do” Malu

“It was a fun way of letting your imagination run wild” Kaitlyn D

“Playing with cardboard and your friends was great” Linh

“Working with friends was so cool for cardboard challenge and even when we argued, we still worked things out and had fun” Celine

“I was sad when it was over, can we do it two times a year?” Gracie

“We built a house with awesome features, including a door” Ludwig

“Getting to make anything you wanted was amazing” Chris L

“Cardboard challenge was fun because I tried my best and built so much” Fatime

“Building a lot of games was awesome and so much fun” Kaitlyn F

“The best thing about CC day was being able to create and build anything you want” Sean

“Cardboard challenge was awesome because we could build what we wanted to, and then the best thing was getting to play with it and show it to our friends” Max C

“Building things is so much fun, especially when you build them with your friends” Cleo

“We got to use our imagination to have fun, we thought of ideas and built our own projects” Han Rei

“Cardboard challenge was awesome because we made a blind bowling station and working with my friends was great” Rebecca

“Making things was so much fun, and then destroying them afterwards was cool too” Ali

Wow, thanks so much Davey Neill, a 5th grade homeroom teacher who took the time to video all of our activities on September 27th at Shanghai American School Pudong Campus.

http://videonew.saschina.org/player/pak_player/pakplayer.swf?config=http%3A%2F%2Fvideonew.saschina.org%2Fplayer%2Fpak_player%2Fembed_player.php%3Fvid%3D9402%26json%3Dtrue%26autoplay%3Dno

Cardboard Challenge Changes Children

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Lana

OK, well it’s not that the children are PHYSICALLY changed, or shorter now, or actually changed at all really… but doesn’t that alliteration sound great?

Thank you to Amy Hoosack for all the wonderful, no, BRILLIANT photos taken on Shanghai American School, Pudong Campus’s Elementary Cardboard Challenge.

You can see here what an amazing day the kids had from the smiles on their faces, it really was incredible to see students, teachers and parents having so much fun playing with cardboard… and using their imagination.The only complaint I kept hearing was that they were not allowed to take the materials home with them… and we did tell them why, but it’s hard when you’re 6 to not be able to take things home right.?

Apart from that, there was joy, laughter, teamwork, adaptability, enthusiasm, thinking on your feet, decision making and problem solving displayed EVERYWHERE to be seen.

Important Student Update

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Lana

Thanks for a fun week Elementary Students, your enthusiasm and excitement about the Cardboard Challenge is infectious. Sharing videos and ideas with you and seeing your reactions is one of the reasons I love my job so much. I know that with YOUR commitment to creativity, fun and using your imagination, next Friday will be a big success. Here is one of the amazing creations made in the 2012 Global Cardboard Challenge… what a cool looking car! There is NOTHING stopping you from creating something this wonderful students, you are only limited by your imagination…

Here is a great list of some facts and figures about the Global Cardboard Challenge and Caine’s Arcade and this is a link to many of the videos that were made during last years challenge…(you’ll need a VPN to watch these) or you can come by the library and see them on the t.v.

This is a list of the other countries participating so far… help spread the word, tell your friends… we are the ONLY people in China participating right now.

Some of you asked me why we are doing the Global Cardboard Challenge, and then we talked about Caine’s Arcade, which started it all, and Nirvan, and The Imagination Foundation… but then I found this graphic which really sums up why we are getting creative with cardboard on Friday September 27th.

…that sums it up nicely don’t you think?

So don’t forget to collect cardboard, foil, wrapping paper, string, recyclable materials and LOTS OF COOL STUFF to make our day a big success.

the barefoot librarian