This term Dosbarth 5 have been reading ‘Letters from the Lighthouse’ a story of two evacuees in the Second World War. To develop the children’s understanding of the experience of evacuation and to help give them new ways of learning, and a chance to explore their creative ideas, we had a day working with Polly Snape, an outdoor learning and dram specialist.
Excited arrivals
Thank you for all the fantastic support with amazing costumes for the children – they were so excited when they arrived at school!
Warm up games and the inspiration
Polly started the day with some warm up games and then told the children the story of an original wartime diary she had found – the diary of Betty Lavender. After readings from the diary the children had the chance to ‘create a character‘ and thing about the feelings and emotions of an evacuee. They worked together to use movement to represent their feelings and emotions.
Soundscapes
The children had a great time working together to create soundscapes. They created a scene of recordings of the different characters as the children were evacuated from the station. They loved the opportunity to work together and to lead their own learning.
Extracts from the diary
Filming – ‘Hands, face and feet’ films
After soundscapes it was on to ‘Hands, face and feet films.’ Following on from the film project last summer, Mr Lewis Jones set the children up with ipads and Adobe Rush. They worked together to plan, act and record scenes around the lives and experiences of evacuees. We were so proud of how well the children worked – independently planning their ideas and filming, before editing it themselves! The feedback from the children was brilliant to see – they loved the morning and the opportunities they had to be creative and develop their own ideas!
Character carousels
After lunch it we used Polly’s collection of artefacts to create our own characters.
Freeze frame – A time we will never forget
The children finished the day working together to write a poem for Remembrance Day. They looked at the feelings of characters during the war, and represented these through freeze frame scenes. They then wrote and performed their poem and recorded it.
Reviewing learning and skills used
After the workshop, the children worked together to reflect on the ways they learned and how this linked to the Four Purposes of the Curriculum for Wales.
These purposes will ensure that children and young people develop as;
- ambitious, capable learners, ready to learn throughout their lives
- enterprising, creative contributors, ready to play a full part in life and work
- ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world
- healthy, confident individuals, ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society
The enjoyment and engagement from the day was wonderful to see, and it was clear it was lovely for us as staff to see the way the children learnt in different and more creative ways. Through out the day they had wonderful opportunities to demonstrate their oracy and drama skills, to work together and to use their fantastic IT skills to capture and present their work
We were so proud of them during the day -for the way they joined in and the confidence they showed in exploring their own ideas. They really were superstars!
