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
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