I have been working with a city centre primary school on some extended farm based learning. I have just started visits with the new foundation children and spent the morning with them exploring vegetables, making parsnip crisps and discussing what a farm is before going off to visit The Barton in the afternoon.
Overwhelmingly the children felt that farms were places where animals were looked after in order to be safe such as "The farmer's wife is digging a hole for sheep to relax". Very few children make clear connections between animals and food or identifying vegetables as a farm feature. Of the 18 children 7 drew animals, farmers and simple features such as houses, fields and gates. The other 11 started to include more specific actions such as sheep dogs chasing sheep (not very much looking after them!) and cows eating hay. Only 2 children made reference to food one with a picture of pigs and a barbecue and the other with "This cow has udders. Milk comes out into the factory."
The farm visit including tasting salad from polytunnels, seeing eggs in the chicken coop and talking about milk and burgers as we watched the cattle in the barn. It will be interesting to see how the children's pictures and comments change as the year goes on. The group will have 5 visits over this time and will develop their ideas about farms as places where food comes from through a range of farm based activities and experiences.
Showing posts with label schools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label schools. Show all posts
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Friday, 23 July 2010
1000 Clay Cows
This is an exciting new project linking clay dug from the farm, cows, storytelling and sculpture. It is being carried out in partnership with organicARTS and West Town Farm.
We are looking to create a field of 1000 clay cows for Devon Open Studios in September. Any similarity to Gormley's Field for the British Isles is purely intentional!! Along with ceramic artist Lucy Rockliffe I am working on a mix of cow related storytelling from different cultures along with observation of real cows at the farm, digging up of clay from the meadow and creation of clay cow sculptures to take part in the Field of Cows.
This is connected to some earlier storytelling done last year. A clay session with Year Ones from Newtown Primary can be seen here.
These images come from a session with St David's Primary. I love the engagement between field, cows and calves, observant children and clay. This is true fieldwork!
Friday, 23 April 2010
Badger Tales!
A chance conversation with a teacher about a farm visit led to this project! Set in the red earth of the old railway cutting at West Town a mix of storytelling, drama, word play and environmental explorations and artworks will lead groups into the nocturnal world of Brock the Badger. Gill. the teacher, mentioned that her 7 year olds were writing about nocturnal creatures as part of their Literacy SATs. I wondered whether any other schools would like to explore Badger Tales as more sessions make it easier to justify a longer preparation time. The result was a series of sessions with over 200 children exploring the nocturnal world of the badger.
What the teachers said ....
Thank you so much for today. Everyone really enjoyed it. I have learnt so much about the badger. Your enthusiasm and excellent story telling skills make it a joy to listen to you! Ruth Briscoe St Davids PrimaryBadger Tales and Mind Maps
Click here to view the latest version of the map
This is a mind map based on Badger Tales. I have used MindMeister to create the map and generate the image file. If you would like to edit the map with your own badger facts then follow these simple steps
Easy!! If you would like to embed the map on your own website, maybe a school site to support writing and research, then email me for the code.
I am trialling the use of MindMeister as it seems to be very straightforward and easy to use. The process of sharing and editing mindmaps has a lot of potential and I would be very interested in your feedback.
Monday, 29 March 2010
tree creatures and the permeability of clay
Withycombe Raleigh Primary came to West Town to explore soils and clay on the farm. We tracked our journey using a satellite image, waded through the stream, crossed muddy fields and ended up at Tree Henge.[gallery link="file" columns="4"]
There is a really good link to be made with Science and Art! Along the journey we stopped to observe first hand, in the hand and a very muddy hand it was by the end! Particles, organic matter, rock, pebble and permeability all emerged as a working vocabulary. Tea strainers allowed us to test permeability out in the field and answer the question "Why was the water staying in the Tree Henge's moat?" Then clay became a resource for creation as we mixed different colours, added gathered materials and finally our Tree Creatures guarding the trees. I hope that, by the end, the children had a far deeper understanding of what clay is.
This is part of a developing series of stories about the resources we have on the farm. Wood, Water, Pumpkins, Pigs and more all have their story to tell of change and use through direct experience. Certainly this process is a good learning opportunity for me!
There is a really good link to be made with Science and Art! Along the journey we stopped to observe first hand, in the hand and a very muddy hand it was by the end! Particles, organic matter, rock, pebble and permeability all emerged as a working vocabulary. Tea strainers allowed us to test permeability out in the field and answer the question "Why was the water staying in the Tree Henge's moat?" Then clay became a resource for creation as we mixed different colours, added gathered materials and finally our Tree Creatures guarding the trees. I hope that, by the end, the children had a far deeper understanding of what clay is.
This is part of a developing series of stories about the resources we have on the farm. Wood, Water, Pumpkins, Pigs and more all have their story to tell of change and use through direct experience. Certainly this process is a good learning opportunity for me!
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Full Pot!
Take one very large stew pot, a collection of vegetable stories and an enthusiastic Priory Primary School, mix them all up and finish up with soup for 170, a retelling of stories and four rather beautiful banners.
This was an interesting brief from DAISI to link the SEAL theme of "Good to be me" with healthy cooking and storytelling over two days of workshops. I had a thoroughly good time. We explored how a school is made up of individuals who all have their own special qualities in the same way that a soup is made up of vegetables all with their own stories and properties.
I was impressed with the way Year 1 and 2 chopped, grated, scrubbed and peeled enough veg for the whole school, the Year 6 rap version of the story of Antoine Parmentier, the speaking and singing carrots of Year 6, the retelling of the "Old Woman and the Pumpkin" by Year 3 and 4 and foundation class' enacting of the "Tortoise the Hare and the Squash Field. So much sharing, creativity and teamwork. Fantastic. I hope to post the lyrics of the two songs soon.
I am intrigued by the way that food and stories can be linked, cooking and telling, sustaining body and mind. I feel I need to get researching and collecting snippets of story and fact to add into the recipe. It can be tricky finding the right stories to enhance and draw out a theme without being too contrived. There is a real lot of learning to do!
This was an interesting brief from DAISI to link the SEAL theme of "Good to be me" with healthy cooking and storytelling over two days of workshops. I had a thoroughly good time. We explored how a school is made up of individuals who all have their own special qualities in the same way that a soup is made up of vegetables all with their own stories and properties.
I was impressed with the way Year 1 and 2 chopped, grated, scrubbed and peeled enough veg for the whole school, the Year 6 rap version of the story of Antoine Parmentier, the speaking and singing carrots of Year 6, the retelling of the "Old Woman and the Pumpkin" by Year 3 and 4 and foundation class' enacting of the "Tortoise the Hare and the Squash Field. So much sharing, creativity and teamwork. Fantastic. I hope to post the lyrics of the two songs soon.
I am intrigued by the way that food and stories can be linked, cooking and telling, sustaining body and mind. I feel I need to get researching and collecting snippets of story and fact to add into the recipe. It can be tricky finding the right stories to enhance and draw out a theme without being too contrived. There is a real lot of learning to do!
Monday, 22 March 2010
Badger Tales!
A chance conversation with a teacher about a farm visit led to this project! Set in the red earth of the old railway cutting at West Town a mix of storytelling, drama, word play and environmental explorations and artworks will lead groups into the nocturnal world of Brock the Badger. Gill. the teacher, mentioned that her 7 year olds were writing about nocturnal creatures as part of their Literacy SATs. I am wondering whether any other schools would like to explore Badger Tales. More sessions make it easier to justify a longer preparation time.Time to go calling again!
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Chickens, tunnels and seeds!
Visits to the farms are go! We discovered that FACE was able to offer free coach travel for schools to visit farms during March. Suddenly March has got rather busy.
[gallery link="file"]
A series of weekly visits have started with St Davids Primary in Exeter. I am taking small groups out to The Barton every Monday to explore the farm and discover how it changes over the seasons. So often visits are Summer based one offs and whilst highly enjoyable rather give the impression that the farm is always green and growing. This project aims to gives a more balanced view. We fed the chickens, explored the polytunnels, dug the earth, planted seeds, sorted potatoes, talks to the farmers and generally had a very interesting 2 hours.
Also coming up is investigating soils, discovering orchards and managing 140 Year 7s around one farm. Should be fun!
[gallery link="file"]
A series of weekly visits have started with St Davids Primary in Exeter. I am taking small groups out to The Barton every Monday to explore the farm and discover how it changes over the seasons. So often visits are Summer based one offs and whilst highly enjoyable rather give the impression that the farm is always green and growing. This project aims to gives a more balanced view. We fed the chickens, explored the polytunnels, dug the earth, planted seeds, sorted potatoes, talks to the farmers and generally had a very interesting 2 hours.
Also coming up is investigating soils, discovering orchards and managing 140 Year 7s around one farm. Should be fun!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)