28 Dec Knowledge – Brain Games – January 2017; Our Plan

Life App: Knowledge—learning something new so you can be better at whatever you do.
Theme: Brain Games- Know More, Do more
Date: January 2017

Pinterest Board

Here is a look at some things we pinned to jog our ideas about Brain Games:

Brain Games Pinterest Board

Our Initial Ideas

We went through a lot of ideas about this set. We knew we wanted it to be simple since we were constructing it the week between Christmas and New Years Day. I really wanted to save the team from a big build this month. So, we started with small, simple ideas. But in true fashion, my awesome set design team continued to think… and the ideas got bigger… and bigger. After some reflection, we decided to reign it in a bit and found a good balance. I think! Here are a few things we considered (watch how they build):

• Decorate the focal wall with various board games.
• Use each panel of the focal wall (we have 5 insulation foam panels that make up our backdrop) into a different board game.
• Use pizza boxes and spray paint them to create Scrabble tiles.
• Construct an oversized Scrabble board on the focal wall spelling out the words Knowledge, Brain Games, etc.
• Create a large Rubik’s cube, Jenga game, etc to stack on stage.
• Use the concept behind the “old-school” Spirograph game to create oversized images on the backdrop.
• Decorate the stage with games stacked on tables of various heights. Some would be assembled (i.e. Mouse Trap, Tinker Toys, Marble Maze) to add height and variety from flat boxes. Plus these games require thought and brainy type work to assemble, create, and play.
• Create a large maze on the backdrop that the host would try to solve each week during the closer.
• Create a large head on the backdrop and have the maze be part of the brain inside the head.
• Create the large head with brain maze inside and then 4 thought bubbles coming from the head. Each bubble would have a maze in it giving 5 total mazes (one for each week of the month).
• Create 5 mazes (each on a 4×4 peice of insulation foam) for the host to go through each week. The maze that would be completed on Week 1 would open the way to Week 2’s maze, etc. Each would reveal the bottom line for the week as we unlocked the new level (maze per week).

Here were a few images we shared during our brainstorm session. Of course, Sheldon and Leonard’s apartment in the Big Bang Theory provides great inspiration. Love the Rubik’s cube tissue box and DNA strand made from marbles.

Our 1st Plan

Originally, our plan was to go with the last bullet point from above. We were going to use mazes as a way to reveal the bottom line each week and emphasize the “Brain Game” theme. It took us a while to land on how we would do it, but we were set! We were going to create 5 mazes and the host would solve one each week to unlock the level to the next week’s maze. As it was solved, the bottom line would be revealed for that week. But then…

As I was writing this post, 252 Basics Partner page on Facebook shared a “Christmas Gift” with its members. It was the graphics, themes, and Life Apps for the months of March, April, and May in 2017. They have never done this before and I was so thankful they did because I noticed that May was all about mazes. I quickly got in touch with the leaders of my set design team and asked what they thought. They responded and said exactly what I was thinking… “Do we need to rethink this?” I definitely felt that we needed to save the maze idea for May, but did not want to overload my team. It had taken us a while to get to this idea and it’s the holiday season and I didn’t want to start over and create more work. BUT – my awesome team came through again and immediately started thinking through which of our previous ideas we could use. You should have seen our text thread! At any rate, we decided to go with one of our previous ideas and construction began yesterday. 

Our Actual Plan

We all loved the idea of an oversized Scrabble board originally, but we went with the maze idea because of the theme graphics. Now that we decided to save our maze ideas for May – we went back to our Scrabble board plan. Here is what we are doing:

• Our Scrabble board will be 7’x7′ and will be painted directly onto the backdrop
• A 7’x7′ square will be painted gray across three of our insulation foam panels
• Crazy math ensued to figure out how to create a 15×15 tile board 
• Black tape will create a border around the 7’x7′ square
• White tape will create the lines for the 15×15 tile board
• Insulation foam will be cut into 5″x5″ pieces to create 50 tiles
• Tiles will be painted tan
• We’ll print score tiles and a star tile onto red, pink, and blue cardstock and glue them in their proper places to create the colorful pattern seen on a Scrabble board
• A Cricut will be used to cut the letters for each tile
• Words will be created out of the tiles for the main theme and Life App, as well as a word from the bottom line each week:
  • Brain Games
  • Knowledge
  • Discover
  • Most Important
  • Follow
  • Wise
  • Ask
• The host will pin the tiles for the Bottom Line word onto the scrabble board each week at the end of Large Group. 
• We will pin various board game boards (Backgammon, Parchesi, Cranium, etc) on either side of the oversized Scrabble board.
• We’ll use tables, shelving, etc. to display various games (tinker toys, marble maze, etc) around the stage

So, while this month felt a lot like two steps forward, six steps back – we finally have a plan and construction is underway. Look for photos of our process and finished product soon!

What are you planning for January’s environment? Be sure to share your pictures in the comment section below or on our Facebook and/or Twitter pages.