Featured Resource:

Tools and Materials

-Regular paper (8.5x11) (white or construction) -Markers -Scissors

-Tape

Prepare ahead of time

1. Pull & set up the above Tools and Materials.

2. Read over the overview on Magical Realism and visit some of the resources.

3. Create a sample of Paper Imagination Stretcher in order

to show participants & create excitement.

Can you Imagine?

Paper Imagination Stretchers

Difficulty Grade levels Estimated time

1-12 30 - 60 mins.

Description

Skills Checklist Every Child Ready to Read

☒ Talking

☐ Singing

☒Reading

☐Writing

☒Playing 21st Century Skills

☒ Flexibility and adaptability

☒ Initiative and self-direction

☐ Teamwork and collaboration

☐ Critical thinking and problem solving

☒ Diversity

☒ Creativity and innovation

STEM ☐ Science

☐ Technology

☒ Engineering

☐ Math

We’ve checked off skills

incorporated in the curriculum.

If your version of the activity

utilizes more skills, check those

off as well!

My Name is Gabito

By Monica Brown

Tracing the imaginary-rich life of Gabriel

Garcia Marquez.

Call Number: J863 G165B

Copies: 13

OVERVIEW OF MAGICAL REALISM:

Magical Realism is…

Magic Realism is… defined as having

magical elements integrated in everyday

life. It differs from books that deal with

strictly fantasy or magic in that the magic

elements are real to the characters.

Magical Realism is… DIFFERENT than

fantasy b/c Magical Realism BLENDS and is

accepted as part of the natural, familiar

words. In fantasy, supernatural is a separate

layer. In Magical Realism, supernatural is

homogeneous with reality, all mashed

together and never questioned.

Magical Realism is… DIFFERENT than

realism b/c while it is based in the real

world. It relies upon realism, but only so

that it can stretch what is acceptable as real

to it limits.

Magical Realism is… where magical events

are presented as ordinary occurrences,

there for the reader accepts the marvelous

as normal & common.

Magical Realism… comes from the reality of

Latin America and from a movement of

writers in the 1940's.

GUIDING QUESTIONS:

1. What is imagination? How do we imagine?

What's the difference between real 'stuff'

and imagined stuff?

2. Discuss ordinary, daily, realistic scenes.

What does the environment look like when

you are eating your breakfast in the

morning? What does it look like when you

are learning in school? What does it look

like when you are going to bed? Establish a

pattern of identifying "real life scenes".

3. Ask about how every day, ordinary scenes

could be made a little magical. How could

we "sprinkle" a little magic into these

everyday situations? What if we had

butterflies in our cereal? What if we were

sitting on dinosaur eggs instead of desks at

school? What if we had a blanket made of

marshmallows to fall asleep under at night?

4. For slightly older kids, propose figuring out

the difference between extending your

ability to believe versus suspending your

ability to believe. What if you only stretch

what is real, what does that look like? Or,

what if you have to completely change what

you know is real; what does that look like?

ACTIVITY:

1. Magical Realism is a literary genre and might be a little complex to convey to younger audiences. However,

it's great to expose the participants to this in digestible bits! Evaluate your audience and be prepared to scale

up & scale down the activity.

2. Start by warming up/stretching the imaginations of the children. Begin with a series of questions

establishing what is Imagination, Real, Magical, Ordinary, and Extraordinary. You can also ask the children to

close their eyes, just like they did while listening to My Name is Gabito. Ask them a series of questions starting

with "Can you imagine?" Remember to root your questions in the plausible and then extend them to the

magical. For example, "Can you imagine a man who turned into a dragon during a fit of rage?" Not, "Can you

imagine a fire-breathing dragon?"

3. Now that you've given them examples of "Can you Imagine" Ask them to reverse the process and come up

with their own. "Coach them on the subtle differences of Magical Realism as they are spouting off ideas.

Remember to start with something real that you know can be part of your everyday life. What if you started

with a real car, but then something happened to that car that made it extraordinary? What if you started with

an ordinary butterfly, but then the butterfly picked you up with their antenna and began flying you around?

4. Once they seem to be grasping Magical Realism in the simplest of ways, show the children the sample

you've made in advance and explain what the project is going to represent. Explain how the project we are

going to make is all about creating layers of real life and when we're done creating a scene of real life then we

are going to add a sprinkle of magic afterwards to create our own Magical Realism.

5. Begin making the Paper Imagination Stretcher with participants:

01. CREATE THE EDGES

Fold pleats back and forth for two sheets of paper, six folds spaced evenly will work best.

02. DRAW THE INNER LAYERS

At minimum, you will need a front, middle, and

back to create a substantial scene. Draw separate

elements on three separate sheets of paper.

For the back sheet,

draw a large landscape

element, like a

mountain. This should

fill up the entire page.

For the middle, draw a

character, like a rabbit.

This should be drawn in

the middle of the page

and have lots of empty

space surrounding it.

For the front, draw an

article or an item that

relates to the

landscape & character,

like carrots in a

garden. This should be

drawn on the lower

part of the page only, leaving lots of empty space

above.

03. CUT OUT LAYERS

Cut out negative space around the elements, being

sure to preserve the width of the paper.

For the back sheet, do

not cut anything. This

should fill up the entire

back.

For the middle, cut out

the negative space

above the character.

This should have a

good amount of paper

cut away in order to

see through the

multiple layers.

For the front, cut out

the negative space

above the article/item.

This should have a

substantial amount of

paper cut away in

order to see through the multiple layers.

04. ADD A PINCH OF MAGIC

Choose to make just one of the elements special. It can be any component. Ask

the participants "What surprising or marvelous way could I push this real scene

into something unexpected?" It should only be a single element that is colored

or added. For example, rabbits are never blue in the real world, so I colored my

rabbit blue.

05. ATTACH LAYERS TO EDGES

Tape all layers into

the accordion edges.

Start from the back

and work your way

forward.

First, attach the

Back. Attach the

left and right side to

the back of the

accordion edges.

Next, attach the

Middle. Attach the

left and right side to

the middle of the

accordion edges.

Finally, attach the

Front. Attach the

left and right side to

the middle of the

accordion edges

06. FINISHED PROJECT

This what the final Paper Imagination

Stretcher should look like. It will be able to

stand independently on a flat surface. It can

collapse and easily fit inside a folder and re-

extended later.

Do a simple version for younger children by

doing a single drawing. Ask the participant to

draw on single object in the middle of the page.

Perhaps a piece of furniture or transportation,

something they might use every day. Next, ask

them to add a "silly" or "unbelievable" part to

the drawing. For example, first they draw a

bath tub, and then they add a whale in that

bathtub. Or, first they draw a car, and then they

add butterfly wings to that car. The idea here is

to take an ordinary object from everyday life

and extend it just a little.

Make the activity more challenging by making a more elaborate scene with more advanced materials. For example, by using a cardboard box as the framework, you can add in different layers of cut up cardboard with in to achieve a diorama result. This could include using hot glue, paint, and special scissors to cut the cardboard more easily.

Scale it Up

Scale it Down

RELATED LIBRARY RESOURCES:

Biblioburro : A True Story from Colombia

By Jeanette Winter

The true tale of a man who brings his trusty donkeys

far and wide to bring treasured books to eager

children in the remote villages of rural Colombia.

Call Number: JE 020.92 W734B

Copies: 9

Yes! We are Latinos

By Alma Flor Ada & F. Isabel Campoy

Twelve distinctive narrative poems chronicle the rich

diversity of the Latino & Latina experience in the

United States.

Call Number: J

Copies: 9

How do you say?

By Angela Dominguez

We may speak different languages, but friendship is

universal! A bilingual book exploring friendship.

Call Number: JE SP

Copies: 23

H.O.R.S.E. : a game of basketball and imagination

By Christopher Myers

When two boys with big imaginations and lots of

bravado meet on the basketball court and agree to

play a game of H.O.R.S.E.the game quickly gets out

of hand.

Call Number: J

Copies: 37

ONLINE RESOURCES:

LEAP Wiki:

Check the LEAP wiki for related activities! http://leap.freelibrary.wikispaces.net/

LEAP YouTube:

Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCydthjmrZsh3Gsn7e1aKa3Q

Other Online Resources:

Include websites that can help expand or explain the activity. Use these resources yourself before doing the program or sharing them with the students so it has more value. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Short Video of him as Magical Realism Master https://www.nytimes.com/video/books/100000002832625/garcia-marquez-master-of-magical-realism-dies.html The Biblioburro Video: http://www.pbs.org/pov/biblioburro/video/a-visit-from-biblioburro/ Read about what Gabriel Garcia Marquez's work & how he felt about it fitting into Magical Realism: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/05/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-50-years-later/527118/ Free Library’s Games & Apps for Kids:

Always check out the Free Library’s resources for children https://libwww.freelibrary.org/kids/games.cfm

Viva Frida!

by Yuyi Morales

An exploration of imagery of artist Frida Kahlo, brief two-

or three-word sentences provide dreamlike narration, and

mixed-media images follow Frida as she discovers and

opens a bright yellow wooden chest, releasing a fantasy in

which playfulness leads to a knowledge, love, creativity,

and ultimately, to her embrace of life.

Call Number: JE 759.972 K121M

Copies: 46

¡Olinguito, de la A a la Z! : descubriendo el bosque nublado = Olinguito, from A to Z! : unveiling the cloud forest

By Lulu Delacre

A Bilingual Book exploring what a zoologist finds while searching in the forest for the illusive Olinguito.

Call Number: JE 599.763 AD371O

Copies: 10