Create a monster and make it talk!

Summary: Have fun with modelling materials to create a monster, and then use Chatterpix Kids to make it talk!

Set-up: 10 mins

Play: 30 mins – 1 hour

Complexity: Easy

Materials

• Playdough (see recipe here)
• Plasticine or clay, or recycled boxes tins
• Packets and tubes
• Or you can even use fruit and vegetables such as swedes, potatoes and oranges for modelling your monster.

As well as items such as:

• Buttons
• Shells
• Sticks
• Toothpicks
• Wiggly eyes
• Straws and card to add details.

• Download Chatterpix Kids (free app) to your device.

What to do

Challenge your child to make a monster with your supply of resources. Talk about how to make the monster truly monstrous – how many eyes will it have? Will the eyes be the same size and colour, or different? What sort of expression will it have? Explain that because when the monster is finished we are going to make it talk, it is really important that the monster has a clearly outlined mouth!

Use Chatterpix Kids to make it talk (warning: once your child learns how to use this app, they will probably want to try taking photos of all sorts of things to make them talk). The app will direct you to take a photo, then draw a line across it in the place that you want the picture to talk. Then its time to record a voice for your monster. What will it say? What kind of voice will it have – scary, stupid, trembling, etc.?

Extensions

Use your monster to send messages to family and friends. 

Invent two monsters and have your child script a dialogue between them.

Use a stiff piece of cardboard to create a “set” or scene behind your monster as it talks.

What learning does this activity promote?

Creativity, imagination, fine motor skills, problem-solving, communication and language

By Dr Vicki Hargraves

PREPARED FOR THE EDUCATION HUB BY

Dr Vicki Hargraves

Dr Vicki Hargraves runs our early childhood education webinar series and also is responsible for the creation of many of our early childhood research reviews. Vicki is a teacher-educator and researcher living in Wellington. Her PhD drew on posthumanist philosophy to understand early childhood education as a deeply materialist practice, and her research and writing interests demonstrate her commitment to creative child- and community-centred approaches to education focused on social justice and participation, as well as attention to multiple ways of knowing and being in early childhood education.