Scrap
SPOT WHAT'S BROKEN - *first you notice exactly what is broken, then you can make a rule for it.*
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Scrap is a curious boy with bouncy curly hair and a stripy green top, and he always carries something. Today he carries a wooden board in one hand and a big white dice in the other. But the thing he is really excited about is in his pocket.
"OddBits! OddBits!" he calls. "I found a broken one!"
Out comes Scrap's spinner. It is a round card with colours all around, and an arrow in the middle. You flick the arrow, and it should spin, spin, spin, and stop on a colour.
But this arrow is stuck. It only ever points UP.
Flick. Up. Flick. Up. Flick. Still up.
"See?" says Scrap. "It's stuck. It always points up."
OddBits leans in close. "Good looking, Scrap! You found exactly what's broken. The arrow only points up. Now we know what we need a rule for."
That is Scrap's special job. He doesn't just say "it's broken." He looks carefully and says what is broken. Because when you know exactly what's wrong, you can think of a rule to fix it.
They think together. Then Scrap says, "What if... UP means you take a jump?"
"Up means jump!" laughs OddBits. "Every flick is a jump! Let's try it!"
Flick. Up. JUMP! Flick. Up. JUMP! It isn't broken anymore. It's a jumping game!
That's Scrap's clever idea.
Look, look, this bit is broken - what rule will make it fun?
A grown-up can play too! Take turns finding something a bit wrong, like a sock with a hole or a crayon that's snapped. Say exactly what's wrong: "The crayon is in two pieces." Then think up a fun way to use it anyway.
Scrap puts his spinner back in his pocket and pats it. He loves finding broken things. Every broken thing is a new game waiting to be made.
The OddBitsPals ensemble
Scrap is part of OddBitsPals's distributed-narrative cast. Each character embodies a different curricular primitive; together they teach the full subject.
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OddBits
(Guide) loves what's broken — a toy that doesn't work is an invitation to invent the rule (constraint-as-invitation)
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Mop
Brings another broken bit — there is always something odd to make a rule for (more constraints to invent around)
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Nib
Tries your invented rule and plays it WRONG, so you get to correct it — teaching the rule is how you know it (protégé loop)
