PTA Project Proposal: Creative Foundation Course Primary KS1 & KS2

Transcription

1 PTA Project Proposal: Creative Foundation Course Primary KS1 & KS2 Prepared for: PTA, Coppermill Primary School Prepared by: Hannah Ford, Parent/PTA Member and Hannah Webster, Parent/PTA Treasurer 24 February 2016

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Objective For the PTA to support the Governing Body and Teaching staff in making Coppermill Primary School an Outstanding School, by providing the mechanism for children to express their understanding of the world around them and their burgeoning knowledge through a Creative Foundation Course. The PTA is actively seeking members who can contribute to the course, whether as local working artists, teachers and/or parents of students at Coppermill who have worked and studied in the creative field. This proposed Creative Foundation Course aims to provide a balanced and considered foundation to creative expression, to nourish a child s knowledge of the curriculum through different media, modified for KS1 and KS2. This course, carried out for the duration of one term (and can be repeated termly for new groups) will enable children to reflect on what they have learnt so far, and to provide the building blocks to problem solving in all aspects of the school s curriculum and home life. The course provides the nourishment for children who approach their learning and problem solving in a creative way, who lean towards a visual style of learning, using pictures, images and spatial understanding. This approach links closely with logical, social and solitary modes of learning, whether using a visual method for discovering a userexperience in computing, for example, or for designing levels in games, or telling a story for users to navigate through a local council s website, for example; and to think about empathy on a user s journey, in order to solve a problem. Many creative and artistic activities using different media require many sets of skills learned in KS1 and KS2; coding = abstract thinking and logic; animation = number, counting and time-based activities using images as frames per second; pinhole camera = number and time-based activity in processing and making images; print-making = preparing and visualising images to fit an image size (A4/A3 etc) using measuring and number skills with processing and solution based thinking.

3 Goals 1. This course is very much aimed at using the literacy and mathematical knowledge gained in KS1 by allowing the freedom to use design thinking in order to process ideas through to KS2. 2. Over 10 sessions, students will be introduced to different media and design processes, and for the final session, the children will chose their best piece to display in an exhibition to showcase their learning journey to the school, parents and the wider community. The exhibition could dovetail with the E17 Art Trail, which takes place every Summer. Project Outline 1. To take the student on a journey to broaden their ability to think creatively, process ideas, understand problems and overcome mistakes to enable confidence in reaching a solution. 2. Length of each session: 90 minutes (to be confirmed) 3. The following sessions are all open to further discussion and refining. All sessions will be facilitated by one member of the PTA throughout, while the content has been proposed by local working artists and parents of students at Coppermill who have worked and studied in the creative field. 4. We would like to see those teachers who have expertise in areas outlined below to get involved too.

4 Session 1 Aim Introduction: Be Excellent to Each Other - The Marshmallow and Spaghetti Challenge In this first lesson, students get to know each other. The children are put into teams of four and have a limited period of time to build the tallest free-standing spaghetti structure that can support a marshmallow. The Marshmallow and Spaghetti Challenge is borrowed from MIT University (Peter Skillman) and has proven to be a great exercise for children (and adults) to think in different ways. They learn how to collaborate to design, test, and improve on their ideas, as well as examine hidden assumptions that can derail the creative process and final product. Learning objectives 1. Communicate the process of design, review and describe pice of work; 2. Identify the stages of problems and solutions, how ideas were implemented; 3. Prototyping, testing, failing, redesigning, retesting, problem solving; 4. Spatial awareness, engineering and building process; 5. Brain-storming, negotiation, team-working, strategy

5 The Marshmallow and Spaghetti Challenge continued: Materials (each team): 20 pieces uncooked spaghetti; 3 ft. of string (and pair of scissor); 1 fresh marshmallow; 3 ft. of masking tape The Challenge Build the tallest free-standing structure using no more than 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. The marshmallow must be on top and cannot be deformed to hold it in place. The structure has to stand firmly on its own; it cannot be propped up, held, or suspended from the ceiling. Some findings from past challenges: Kids do Better than Business Students: On virtually every measure of innovation, infants create taller and more interesting structures. Prototyping Matters: The reason kids do better than business school students is kids spend more time playing and prototyping. They naturally start with the marshmallow and stick in the sticks. Business School students spend a vast amount of time planning, then executing on the plan, with almost no time to fix the design once they put the marshmallow on top. References:

6 Session 2 Story-telling Part 1 Making a comic book: Superheroes. Story telling, narrative, character definition. Writing and drawing, page layouts, printing and publishing. Guest creative/speaker: Jason Ford, Illustrator Session 3 Story-telling Part 2 Making animation: Stop-frame animation using characters, creating a narrative and short story using moving images Guest creative/speaker: Animator (from The Mill)

7 PROJECT PROPOSAL: PRIMARY KS2 CREATIVE FOUNDATION COURSE Session 4 Story-telling Part 3 Making a mask: Start session by creating an ideas tree using post it notes. Cultural, historical or thematic influences and context. Big tree, students post notes with their ideas written on based on the following sets of questions 1. what do masks mean? when do people wear masks? how big can a mask be? what does a mask hide? how does the mask make you feel? 2. choose ideas for a mask you would like to make. what will it be for? think about how you felt on the way to school this morning. If you put a mask on how would be able see, or breath? Would you need a mouth? what shape could it be? 3. Prototyping designs for a mask and start making a mask using different materials provided 4. Give mask a title, explain what it s about Guest creative/speaker: Bex Ward, Artist & Maskmaker

8 Session 5 Image-making Part 1 Screen-printing: Fabric-printing, etching, screenprinting, portraits of each other on t-shirts/tote bags, name to describe each other Session 9 Engineering a journey a) Design Engineering: Design a squishy circuit (see link/tbc) (Coppermill Science teacher) Guest creative/speaker: Gnome House print tutor/bex Ward Session 6 Image-making Part 2 Basic letter-press workshop: making images out of letters, challenge to rebrand school or class name, design a poster for the exhibition? Guest creative/speaker: Joanna Niemeyer, Graphic Designer Session 7 Image-making Part 3 Making an image with analogue photography: making and using a pin-hole camera to create images Guest creative/speaker: tbc Session 8 Image-making Part 4 Making a pattern on fabric: Pattern making on fabric, textile making, weaving, looms, tapestry, print-making repeat patterns using found object, vegetables etc Guest creative/speaker: Esther Firman, parent/textile designer b) Design a user-experience (Teacher: Mr Edwards/Minecraft) Take a user on a journey, mapping out a game on paper and transfer into the digital world

9 Session 10 Completing a piece of work for an exhibition Choose and finish one piece of work. Design an exhibition as a team, how to best display the work, caption for display. Invitations to parents and posters for school (use image making skills) The children will chose their best piece to display in an exhibition to showcase their learning journey to the school, parents and the wider community. The exhibition could dovetail with the E17 Art Trail, which takes place every Summer.

10 BUDGET To include: 1. Guest artist daily fees. 2. Materials and books for each class 3. Materials for display in a final exhibition 4. Posters and invitations for final exhibition, promotion via social media Number of sessions: 10 over the course of a week The aim is to work with the school to run a Creative Foundation Week, like Book Week, Science Week or Maths Week to enable all children to takes turns and have a go at each session. Description Quantity Unit Price Cost Item 1 Guest artist fees ( Max 6 visiting artists) Item 2 Materials for each session Item 3 Materials for display in final exhibition Item 4 Posters, invitations, print costs 50 Total 1,650

11 EXAMPLE TIMETABLE TO RUN: THE CREATIVE FOUNDATION COURSE OVER ONE WEEK How to run the sessions: 10 over the course of a week The aim is to work with the school to run a Creative Foundation Week, like Book Week, Science Week or Maths Week to enable all children to takes turns and have a go at each session, for example: Monday Tuesday Weds Thursday Friday Morning Morning Morning Morning Morning Intro: Marshmallow Challenge x 2 sessions Story-telling: Comic-book Story-telling: Animation Story-telling: Mask-Making Image-making: Letterpress Image-making: Screenprinting Image-making: Textiles Engineering: Squishy Circuit Image-making: Pinhole Camera Intro: Marshmallow Challenge x 2 sessions Story-telling: Comic-book Story-telling: Animation Story-telling: Mask-Making Image-making: Letterpress Image-making: Screenprinting Image-making: Textiles Engineering: Squishy Circuit Image-making: Pinhole Camera Afternoon Afternoon Afternoon Afternoon Afternoon Intro: Marshmallow Challenge x 2 sessions Story-telling: Comic-book Story-telling: Animation Story-telling: Mask-Making Image-making: Letterpress Image-making: Screenprinting Image-making: Textiles Engineering: Squishy Circuit Image-making: Pinhole Camera Intro: Marshmallow Challenge x 2 sessions Story-telling: Comic-book Story-telling: Animation Story-telling: Mask-Making Image-making: Letterpress Image-making: Screenprinting Image-making: Textiles Engineering: Squishy Circuit Image-making: Pinhole Camera Organisor: Select best work for exhibtion Organisor: Select best work for exhibtion Organisor: Select best work for exhibtion Organisor: Select best work for exhibtion