Squiggle Monsters
Dream Together Set
A shared space for imagination, where possibilities are explored before judgement arrives. In the Spark stage of practice, we shape possibility together by asking what could this become? Children (4-10) and adults work as creative partners, building confidence through shared exploration and making. There are no right or wrong answers, only infinite ideas to explore. Start with what you have, right where you are.
Practice
Time guide: 10-20 minutes.
As you grow
4-6 years: Discover pictures hiding inside simple squiggles and enjoy adding playful details.
7-10 years: Look for more than one possibility before choosing what to create, then keep evolving the idea as you go.
Mixed aged children: Everyone notices different possibilities, discovering there are many ways to see the same shape.
Start
Warm up by filling part of your page with large figure-eight squiggles. Let your pencil move smoothly up and down without stopping.
Try drawing them slowly, quickly, big, small, and overlapping.
When you're ready, close your eyes and do this again across a fresh space on the page.
Open your eyes and slowly turn the page in different directions.
Make
Transform your squiggle into a monster by shading or colouring in eyes, teeth, fur, scales, wings, feet, horns, or anything else it might need.
Keep adding details as your monster begins to reveal its own personality.
Build
Give your monster a name.
Draw where it lives and add anything that belongs in its world.
Include friends, favourite food, pets, inventions, hiding places, or treasures.
Play
Introduce your monster and its world.
Give it a voice, movement, or special power.
Visit each other's monster worlds and imagine what happens when the creatures meet.
Create another squiggle and discover an entirely different monster.
Variations
Swap squiggles before anyone starts transforming into their monsters.
Create a whole monster family or community.
Draw the same squiggle several times and discover how many different monsters it could become.
Work from one giant shared squiggle and each create a different creature.
Notice
What was the first thing you noticed in your squiggle?
Did you discover more than one possibility?
Which detail brought your monster to life?
What might someone else see in the very same squiggle?
Practice Notes
Dream Together Set: Designed around divergent thinking and draws on how creative thinking develops in practice. Spark opens up possibilities and Switch builds on what is already there by reframing it into something new.
Practice inspired by: Artists, illustrators, and designers who use simple marks and chance gestures as starting points for creative ideas. Unexpected shapes often become the foundation for something entirely new.
Builds
Capabilities (what the practice builds internally): Imagination, visual thinking, creative confidence, experimentation, and comfort with ambiguity.
Future skills (what the practice develops externally): Creative thinking, adaptability, and innovation (aligned with the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2025).
