One of the main priorities the school has for their Victorian project is to increase collaboration skills in the class, as well as the other Creative Habits of Mind (Imaginative, Inquisitive, Persistent, and Disciplined). As the creative practitioner working with the teacher and class over five weeks, I have tried to make the activities as … More Collaboration: Week Three
Week two of working with children from a primary school in Llanrumney on their Victorian project. Emma, their teacher split the class into six groups so that they could collaborate on a section of the story they devised last week. The day was divided between writing, creating artwork, and drama, beginning with character development. The … More Character Development: Week Two
I’m really excited to be working with Year 5 & 6 and their teacher Emma at a primary school in Llanrumney. Over the next four weeks, we’ll be developing a story set in Victorian times through the mediums of role play, script writing, story writing, and painting and printing. One aim is for the children … More Creative Schools: The Victorians
Workshops for children and families at Llanover Hall and Wales Millennium Centre this summer. Participants learnt how to fold a little book in which to write and illustrate a story. Some children came with ideas for their story: a brother and sister brought along their favourite toys to be the protagonists, and one girl knew … More Little Books
The after-school Creative Writing and Art course at Llanover Hall finally started again on Thursday after months of lockdown with three new participants and three returning, aged between 8 and 11. A while ago, a friend (see her blog here), showed me how to make an eight page mini book, and it was great to … More Dragon Bloom and Other Magical Tales
Week three of working with Year 4 and 5 children on the ACW Cynefin project. We had planned to go on a walk to Penllwyn Manor, a local house that was known until recently as the Penllwyn Arms. It was built in the 16th century by Thomas Morgan of the infamous Morgan Family of Tredegar. … More Freedom: Cynefin – Week Three
A student from the BA Creative and Therapeutic Arts course based in Treforest is joining my class for the next twelve weeks, and as his mentor, I will be overseeing 14 sessions that he has planned and facilitated. As the student is a visual artist, his first session was based around his own practice, which … More Mentoring Role
On the after-school Storytelling and Art course at Llanover Hall, the children decided to create a theatre out of cardboard. As our theme for that week was Sci-fi, everyone made alien characters to star in the show. On the first week, the parents got a preview of act one, with one boy being narrator, others … More Animating the Aliens
Exploring the amazingly magical Iceland this week on the Children’s Storytelling and Art Course, where an elf expert is consulted before routing a new road through rock piles that may be elf habitats, and trolls are everywhere in the landscape if you know where to look. Ghost Mazes by George and Caius, and poltergist by … More Elves and Trolls
Travelling back in time to Ancient Greece this week, the children of the Storytelling and Art course heard about the many chimeric creatures that inhabit the myths: Minotaur, Satyr, Harpy, Sphinx, and Chimera. Inspired, they created their own hybrid monsters, cutting up old magazines to produce these fantastic collages.
Sarah J Featherstone 