Kerplunk!

Today´s workshop led to the creation of many amazing adaptations and inventions, but my favorite was ¨Kerplunk.¨

During our brainstorm session, parents asked about ways they could interact and bond with their child with a disability--a game or some activity they could do together.

I was determined to find a game that could match the developmental and physical abilities and be a meaningful activity for a parent and child.  An exciting game about cause and effect seemed like a good fit!

Looking around at the materials, I chose a soda bottle, skewers (or, for the second version, I used popsicle sticks), and made the ¨marbles¨out of scraps of foam. To assemble the juego (game) de ¨Kerplunk¨, I cut off the top of the soda bottle and poked holes in the sides of the bottle to insert the sticks.  It took a surprising amount of trial and error: breaking the skewers so they were the appropriate length para la botella led to a lot of splinter opportunities for me, which is why I switched to popsicle sticks for the assembly of ¨Kerplunk 2.0.¨

Por fin, ¨Kerplunk¨was ready and I got to play with a certain special gentleman--it made my day.  Due to the language barrier, I had to mine how to play and my exaggerated facial expressions cracked both of us up.  He kept playing all afternoon, demonstrating to the other attendees and by the time the workshop ended, I saw that two other sets had been created as well.

It was truly amazing to see such an active exchange of information and I can´t wait to see what I learn at the next one!

--Andrea Muffly