‘Now, as soon as Tom had left Peacepool, he came to the white lap of the great sea-mother, ten thousand fathoms deep; where she makes world-pap all day long, for the steam-giants to knead, and the fire-giants to bake, till it has risen and hardened into mountain-loaves and island cakes.‘
This excerpt from Charles Kingsley’s ‘The Waterbabies’ allowed all in 4HK to do some stretched thinking as well as provide the setting and characters for our own fantasy story. Our initial illustrations certainly captured the different imaginative responses and provided the stimulus for own stories where the problems and resolutions were fantastical!
On their iPads, 4HK also created their own sea-creature that would feature in their own fantasy story and the class dance. There were many weird and wonderful features.
In order to take the two dimensional image to a three dimensional model, we worked collaboratively in small groups and imitated some marine life made from ‘rubbish’ by Leeds Beckett Graphic and Design students. Masking tape became a best friend as junk modelling rubbish was cut and bent, stuffed and painted and ultimately joined together. The process was certainly a challenge, but gave us a head start when we made our own sea creature.
Well done 4HK for your perseverance and ingenuity as you wrestled and upcycled rubbish. They look fantastic and you should be very proud. As you know, your creatures may accompany the students’ creations at the exhibition coming shortly to Leeds central Library.
Thank you to all the parents and interested adults who joined us for Friday’s celebration. The children do love an audience and someone to share their learning with.
As the comments below testify, many of you enjoy sharing, listening to and participating in their learning too and value this opportunity.
‘Extremely enjoyable and engaging. I love the enthusiasm of the children. It was obvious that a great deal of preparation and hard work from staff and children had been applied. Very positive afternoon indeed!’
‘I enjoyed watching the children perform and getting to see all the hard work they had put into their work. I enjoyed getting to see how my child’s confidence has grown. Thank you for inviting us to see what has been happening.’
‘Really enjoyable and fun afternoon. Always love being able to come and see what the children have been doing and also being able to join in. Thank you.’ Nihal’s mum
‘Very nice time. Thanks for everything.’ Nura’s dad
‘The combination of art, dance, writing and cooking brought the whole thing to life-wonderful!’
‘The arts journey was really impressive. I am really happy that Jemima is doing things like this in school.She is really excited to share her story.’
‘Really impressed with Jayden’s work and Miss Kallend mentioned how she has seen a change in him since doing art. He seems very interested and excited about his art work and dancing. I’m very impressed!’
‘Excellent learning. Really impressed in the way the arts work progresses. Keep it up!’