An outdoor activity, and a tinge of DT - "Expression Sketch"

When was the last time our children went out to play? The year 2020 restricted us. Moreover, it was an emotional roller coaster ride last year. Isn't it? So now, in the brighter days, let our children get a breath of fresh air. Let them push open the doors, and run to the nearby garden. And, as the emotions run high, we will record them in a visual representation, playing upon the concept of DT.

What's DT? Those who are aware of or use Design Thinking (DT) in their professions, know, that, the Empathy Map helps to decode a User's view, thinking and feeling about your product or service. No, we are not making an Empathy Map to decipher what the child wants (just as a User wants in DT parlance). But, our activity does have a tinge of DT. The child will draw up an "Expression Sketch" of her actions and emotions.

Why do this activity? Experience it and you will know ! And once you know, share with me your emotions, feelings about the same.

Here it goes!
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## eleze# 5 An outdoor activity, and a tinge of DT - "Expression Sketch"

# Material Used #
1) A4 sheets
2) Standard stationary items, crayons/oil pastels, sketch pens, color ball pens and writing pad
3) Post-it - 1 pack, preferably multi-color

# Venue for Outdoor
1) Garden/park

# Time for the activity
1) This is important. I chose 4:30 PM. As I know that, it’s pretty much quiet in the garden just at the opposite block of my society. Although a couple of individuals were there, it didn't matter. And since its winter, it was pleasantly sunny.

# The Activity #
1) Choose a place to sit - a bench or on the grass.
2) Handover a sheet. Ask the child to go around the garden. (you can join her in the walk if you wish. I chose to sit and watch my girl moving around in a small garden)
3) Once back, ask the child to draw and color whatever she saw. It could be the various trees, leaves, flowers- of different type and color, and the grass etc.
4) If there is a problem in remembering, go with the child to see the respective object again.
5) Now it’s your time - the Parent. Pull up a sheet and make four quadrants. (Shown in attached image).

a) What did you SEE?

b) What did you DO? 

c) What did you THINK? 

d) What did you FEEL?

6) Take up each question one by one. E.g. Ask the child what she saw. Now, this part will take a good long time. Asking all questions and getting answers. This is a conversation time.

Answers will not come up in a flash. Ask more questions, go deeper, and give clues at times. As you start getting ONE WORD replies, ask the child to write those in Post-its and stick in the respective quadrant. Keep doing this, and once you are done with last quadrant, you have the EXPRESSION SKETCH ready!

In these steps 5 and 6, when I asked Zeel, whether she liked me throwing up a lot of questions, she said she enjoyed those because she liked to talk. "गर्ल्स को बातें करना, गप्पे मारना अच्छा लगता है!"

She had a great joy too, in writing with the color ball pens and sticking the post-its.

As a mother, I felt it was a good exercise for her to try and find out one word, an adjective that described what she felt, about what she saw and did there in the garden. It was a wonderful conversation, back and forth, sometimes trying to explain her in Hindi too to help her to come out with the 'feeling' words. Additionally, the action words derived in the "What did you DO?" quadrant are a bonus! In grade 1, they are taught the action words.

This entire activity should be done outdoors. If it doesn't work out that way, you can execute steps 5 and 6 indoors. Mostly, it will turn out the latter way. In my case, after steps 1 to 4, Zeel said she wanted a break to roam around. So, off she went running in the garden, climbing up a tree (without my knowledge :)) and watching from up there. On the next day we took up the Expression sketch. It was a sort of memory test also for her to recollect what all she saw and did.:)