At the end of each session, attendees brainstormed ways in which to incorporate Fundama into their programs. Below is a compiled list of ideas generated by both groups:

• Use as an icebreaker or warm-up activity for teen meetings
• Parent/child craft activity
• Use at staff meetings for team building
• Use with Teen Advisory Groups for creativity and team building
• Use the models we’ve provided for K-5, but then have tweens/teens create their own design
• “Afternoon of Fun” program for grades 3 and up
• Games/Toy Program – history of toys and then “dream of a toy” (design their own) to fit with Dream Big theme
• Have fun audio book or music playing while creating
• Host competitions to see how many moves can be executed
• Design a fundama & create a routine to go with it
• Create videos to post to youtube (all players or just contest winners)
• Attach food to end of string and try to catch in mouth
• Build and design board game – use the six to indicate the number of moves forward
• Have group design their own, but then switch with another designer for the competition
• Play cup and ball games on a larger scale – participants hold buckets and toss beach balls back and forth
• Once older teens master skills, they can teach younger children and earn community service credit
• Relay races and minute to win it challenges
• Decorate the toys and create a Fundama Gallery to exhibit
• Product design and marketing – name your design and create sales pitch for it
• Invite local engineers/designers/marketers to talk about their work to teens and then be judges for Fundama design contest

If you would like to schedule a Fundama training session for your regional library meetings, please contact Dawn@flowcircus.com to check availability.

Flow Circus Kids – Skill Toys from Around the World

FlowCircusKids.com provides information about more than 25 different skill toys from around the world. In addition to learning about the history of the toy and how it is used, visitors can:

• Watch: Videos introducing some of the toys and demonstrating how they are used.
• Build: Do-It-Yourself instructional videos .
• Play: Activities encouraging families to use the site, visit their library, and have fun together.
• Teach: Activities for programmers like you. Ideas are broken down into passive programs such as a Skill Toy Bingo card, and active group activities such as a World Map Mural and 21st Century Hieroglyphs.
• Other: Original drawings and photographs of the skill toys, categories of toys to help visitors see connections between various toys, and ideas for skill based play with everyday objects.

We are so excited to have all of this in one easy to navigate site. We originally created this for the 2011 Summer Reading Program theme One World, Many Stories, but now realize that it serves as a year-round resource. Explore FlowCircusKids.com and see how you can use the resource to enhance your programs. Share it with your families, colleagues, and listservs.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions or comments about the site at dawn@flowcircus.com

Over 70 librarians from Northeastern Pennsylvania created and played with Fundama at their SRP workshop in Wilkes-Barre, PA. We had a blast working with the group and introducing them to the fun!

As one group identified, creating and playing with Fundama allows participants to practice dexterity, hand-eye coordination, social skills, creativity, and following directions. Below are some of the creative ideas they came up with for incorporating Fundama into their programs:

Programming Ideas:

• Games from Around the World: Make toys and play games from different countries including Fundama
• Intergenerational: Children and their parents or grandparents make and play fundama together
  
• Sibling Event: Bring your younger sibling to the library to make Fundama
• Timeline Activity: Follow the history of the toy around the world
• Special Olympics: Create events for special needs children
• Probability: Math lesson connected to the Fundama
• Geometry: Assemble cups in different shapes to promote geometric skills
• Japanese Cultural Program: Folktales, basic vocabulary, writing, and toys
• Musical Fundama: Use a bell at the end of the string instead of a tape ball; create different rhythms with patterns
• Scientific Method: Use different size cups, balls, and lengths of string to find the best combination for success

Contest Ideas:

• Design Contest: Award prizes for best decorated, most unique, most colorful, most cups used, etc,
• Olympics, Minute to Win It, Obstacle Course, Scavenger Hunt: Create different types of competitions using the different levels of difficulty
  
• Landmarks: Put small pictures of landmarks in each cup of the Six; when they catch the ball in a cup, they have to identify the landmark
• Raffle: Use the Six to determine how many raffle tickets a person gets to enter into a drawing

Teens:

• Community Service: Have tweens/teens cut string and prepare parts for younger age groups
• Icebreaker: Use Fundama as an icebreaker; Have questions in the Six that they have to answer when they catch the ball in that cup or have numbers and the person has to share that many fun facts about themselves
• Teens Perform: Teens create their own Fundama routines and perform them
• Book Discussion Prompt: Label each of the cups in the Six with different questions for a book talk (i.e. setting, plot, theme, favorite character, alternate ending). Participants take turns catching with the Six to determine the next discussion question

Contact us if you would like to have Flow Circus conduct a Fundama workshop for your library, camp, or afterschool staff.

Games/Activities with Six:

• Flag Game: have each cup painted a different color & using a book on country flags select a country and then try to get the ball in each color pictured on the flag (i.e. Italy would have to go from red to white to green
• Fortune Telling/Crazy 6: write a different prediction or variation to yes/no/maybe such as “highly unlikely” in each of the cups; kids can then ask the six a question
• Silly Six: Have silly things to do such as “walk like a duck” written in the cups and wherever the ball lands, the user has to do
• Write numbers in other languages
• Mad Lib type game with different words in the cups (could have a six for adjectives, a six for adverbs, etc)
• Storytelling activity
• Use the Six to select teams for activities

Games with any Fundama:

• Musical Fundama: see who can get the most in the time the music plays or when the music stops whoever has the ball in the cup stays in the game
• Relay Races
• Tournaments for teens

Programming Ideas:

• Fundama Station for kids to make & play while parents are using computers
• Fundama Station for Gaming Nights: activity for teens waiting to use gaming systems
• Art Day: Have different stations set up & have Fundama as one
• Stress Relief for Teens: During the months of April/May have teens make and use Fundama for stress relief/study breaks
• Teens Teach: have teen directed craft table for kids
• Design contest & display: have a program that teaches basic versions of Fundama and then have them go home to create their own; Display entries for a contest (maybe have patrons vote)
• Cultural storytime: read story about Japan and then make Fundama as a follow up craft; could use similar materials to make DIY den den (hand drum)
• Appalachian Storytime: folk toys
• Experimentation: make predictions on the outcome for different length string or length of stick or size of the ball and then test the hypothesis

Alternate Materials and Decorating Ideas:

• Decorate with different flags
• Create a Fundama for each continent
• Use recycled materials
• Use gumballs or marshmallows instead of tape

Other DIY:

• Coffee can stilts

After having a chance to play with the kendama, the librarians got creative making different versions of Fundama and in some cases inventing their own style! At the end of the session, we brainstormed different ways they might be able to incorporate Fundama into their programs or different populations that might enjoy making & playing Fundama. Below is a list of their ideas.

Alternate Materials:

• Different colors of masking tape
• Duct tape
• Cover the cups with small ripped up pieces of masking tape and then apply shoe polish. The polish gathers at the textured edges creating cool texture.

Populations:

• Tweens & Teens
• Afterschool groups
• Home school groups
• Special needs populations
• Tween/teen volunteer groups (they can help younger groups with the taping and cutting or oversee a passive programming station)
• Family or Parent/Child Programs or as one library called it: Playful Parenting

Program Ideas:

• Toy Club: Each week read a book from a different region and introduce the version of the toy from that region
• Inventor’s Series: read a book about an inventor and then have group make their own
• Vacation Day Craft
• Cinco de Mayo activity
• Teen Challenge: create different competitions for teens based on time, skill, or creativity
• Overnight/Lock-in Activity: make the fundama early in the event and then have competitions scheduled throughout the night
• Staff In-Service Activity
• Six: Use as a method for selecting items from prize shelf
• Design competitions

We will be conducting more workshops in March and April so look for more ideas to be posted next month. Feel free to add your own ideas and success stories about Fundama on the Programming Ideas page. To see more pictures from our workshops visit our Flow Circus Photo Gallery.

I have been doing a Fundama Club with 25 5th graders at my school.  We meet once a week for 50 minutes and we have the best time!  They absolutely LOVE making and playing with the toys.  I am so glad I found your fantastic program and website!  So far we’ve made the basic, freestyle, six and twist.  They are really excited about the ladder and plan to make Paul’s party before making their own parties.  Our final goal is to go on our school’s morning show and show off our toys and talent.   Thank you so much for this great resource. We’re having a wonderful time!

After making several of the fundama designs that we had come up with, the students finally had a chance to design their own. We couldn’t make the trip out to Rocky Point to see them in person, but we were able to set up a Skype session with the class so they could share their fundama with us. We were impressed by the designs and the fun names the students came up with such as the Rocket Ship, the Maze, and the Whatever. You can see a video of the different designs on the school’s website. After they each had a chance to showcase their work, Paul played a game of “Six” with a few of them and answered questions about how he came up with the idea for fundama.

The best part? Ms. Hudson created programming for 10 sessions for less than $20. As she said, you can’t beat that! But I think the fundama experience was best expressed by a student in a thank you note he wrote:

I think it’s so cool that you make Fundama. They’re fun, cool, and weird at the same time. I am so glad that I never missed a day of this club. You’re sooooooo cool and when I grow up I’m going to invent something like you.

As a kid, performer Paul Miller was always getting in trouble. Then one summer all that changed with the gift a Japanese kendama. That popular toy and a trip to the library led him to discover juggling and other skill toys from around the world.

As the performance took shape, we realized that we wanted to provide librarians with the opportunity to provide the same discovery of  new toys and skills for their patrons. We know that budgets are limited, so we sat down with string, masking tape, sticks, paper cups & fundama was born!

This website provides instructional videos on how to make and play with the different versions of fundama that we have created. You can also find resources about similar toys from all around the world. We have created suggested lesson plans for how you might incorporate this into your Summer Reading Program. Feel free to contact us with questions or fundama stories.

We hope to inspire kids to be creative and playful with whatever materials they might have laying around!

Flow Circus and the State Library of North Carolina have partnered to start Juggling and Skill Toy Clubs for tweens, teens, and young adults at libraries across North Carolina. This project will address the increased need for active young adult programs during after school and vacation hours by establishing juggling clubs in libraries across the state of North Carolina. We have submitted a proposal to the Pepsi Refresh Everything project and we need your votes during the month of June!

For more information, visit: http://www.flowcircus.com/refresh

or join our Facebook Refresh Everything Group

Click here to view the embedded video.

48 Lines About 24 Skill Toys

Play Fundama introduces fun, easy to make toys using just paper cups, string, tape, and in some cases sticks. Watch these videos to learn more and explore the site to discover the world of skill toys. Help your students/patrons develop 21st Century skills with the most basic of materials!

Click here to view the embedded video.