Skill Toy Residency at Newcomer Center

This year we returned to the Chapel Hill High School’s Newcomer Center to conduct a Skill Toy residency. The center provides middle school ESL students with a smaller classroom environment to help with the transition to US language and culture. The majority of the students are refugees from Burma and have spent time in Thai refugee camps before coming to the US. The residency is coordinated by the Durham Arts Council.

Over the course of six visits we introduced juggling, flower sticks, Japanese kendama, spinning plates, diabolo, yo-yo, jitter ring, and footbag. Visit the Flow Circus photo gallery to see more pictures of the students using the different skill toys.

The students also introduced us to two common games from their cultures. The first involved a wicker ball called the chelo that gets kicked. The other is a rope game that involves a variety of intricate jumps over an ever-rising rope. We always  enjoy learning about new games!

Skill Toys From Around the World - 5th Grade Workshops

As part of the 5th grade Global Awareness Technology Project, Flow Circus recently visited Newington Forest Elementary School in Fairfax County, Virginia to introduce students to skill toys that have traveled the Silk Road. Students learned the history of 4 different toys and then had a chance to test their own skills with the various props. As one students commented while playing with a set of flower sticks, "I bet people that had these were never bored!"

In addition to using toys to illustrate how cultures interacted and influenced each other, we discussed how the materials used to make the toys varied based on resources available and/or new inventions. Below are excerpts from thank you cards/letters written by the students after the workshop:

I never knew that history could be about toys! Today really inspired me.

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The best part was when you taught us about how they were made and how they got from place to place on the Silk Road. Thank you!

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You were entertaining and you made learning a blast. I have gotten lots of ideas for my project.