"Power Pop!": A Paper Engineering & Pop Up Workshop Empowering Children’s Creative Expression
Starting the year with “Power Pop!". I was invited by HCHS to talk with Grade 1 students about self-expression through art.
I facilitated an activity inspired by Kandinsky’s Form and Color Exercise, taught them how to create a basic pop up triangle, and just let them create and play.
Interestingly, after seeing Several Circles (1926), a seemingly dark and blue painting, a student expressed they felt happy and liked it the most out of all the selected works of Kandinsky.
Memorable reactions to Kandinsky’s are as follows:
“I feel normal.”“I feel amazing.”
“I feel fantastic.”
One of them named their shape as “bleh bleh bleh”and another as “bleh bleh bleh”, fully aware of the humorous confusion. Some named it just “Jason”. Some of the group expressed how they like Sonic Hedgehog. Some of them proudly drew as many circles as they could.
Revisiting the core idea of my thesis, I always like to create an open-ended approach in making activities for kids (and those kids at heart.) Beyond just teaching fundamental techniques of paper engineering and drawing – step by step instructions and so on – I want to remind them to simply play. To encourage kids to freely express whatever stories they wish to tell, exploring the materiality of paper by cutting, folding, and even tearing it with their teeny hands.
Back in 2023, I defended my idea to esteemed panelists. The night after Sablay Season, I received an award and an invitation to cross the pacific ocean to present my study and meet inspiring people from all over the world. And even up until now, it feels surreal. I’m still trying my best to embrace the endless possibilities of what this pursuit of a creative life might bring. But the crowd of Grade 1 students, 72 of them that day, reminded me to reflect about how I was when I was about their age…and what I truly needed back then.
Writing this feels like I’m also talking to my Grade 1 self. [and other redacted personal entries.]
One of the most interesting interactions that day was with Q. He quietly showed me his work, interacted with the pop up and slid another paper through the cut out. It might seem simple, but I found it amazing to see how they discover these playful observations with the material on their own.
Q also asked me to draw on the piece of paper he had just cut out and came back to show an April paper portrait (green hair looks nice on me, I guess!). I’ll have it framed soon :)
I did my best to prepare with the time I had. As part of the presentation, I shared a photo of a six-year-old April. I told them a story about how I used to cry a lot* back then and planned to transition the talk about expressing ourselves. However, I wasn’t prepared when they empathetically asked in between: “Why are you sad?”, “Why did you cry?”, “Are you okay?”.
Again, to everyone who has been rooting for whatever I’ve been trying to do, and to those who patiently remind me to get some sleep while keeping up with the “April Timezone”…
Thank you so much. Here’s to another year. Let’s see what unfolds next.
‘Til then :)
April 🌞
*Allegedly. I will neither confirm nor deny if I still cry a lot haha
**Special thanks to Teacher Andy and Teacher Sham 🐵 for helping me out!
