Once upon a time in a little class in a little school in a little village just outside a little town in the lovely county of Cheshire, there was a (not so) little teacher who was diligently preparing a unit of work for the next term – Spring 2011 – based on a (not so) little set of resources from Hamilton Trust Topics called Once Upon a Time. Over the last few years, this unit has been tweaked and tweaked – some of the original Hamilton Plans remain, some have evolved. Not all of the (not so) little Hamilton plan is used. There have been little bits added. There is stop-frame animation in the little revisions we added to the plan. There were little forays into using online collaborative writing tools. There were little explorations into enhancing the learning by sharing some of the work with other classes. And now we are looking to develop our topic still further.
I wrote a few weeks ago about the amazing opportunity I had to meet other teachers from around Europe at an e-twinning contact seminar. I had gone to the weekend with no pre-conceptions of what I wanted to do as a collaborative project. I was very open minded. Then on the Sunday morning of our seminar, I sat down with some lovely ladies from Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary and Poland. And I asked what they had in mind for a project that we could develop together – and they all wanted to look at traditional tales across Europe!!! I couldn’t have planned it better for next term! How well does that fit with what we wanted to do in our curriculum and our own experiences of using a cross curricular approach! How well does that fit with our goal of developing collaborations that will enhance learning! The ideas we shared together can be found here. Search by subject at the bottom right (language and literature); then search projects for Traditional Tales from Europe.
The project will involve:
- a friendship forum to find out about life other countries
- sharing traditional tales from our own cultures by re-telling them – there is potential for using a wide range of tools for this!
- developing and sharing our own illustrations and/or giant 3D objects
- developing and sharing music for our stories and animations
- Stop-frame animations (similar to Wallace and Gromit) to re-tell stories
- using wikis/voicetheread to give eachother feedback on our work so we can improve it
- shared science experiment – e.g. to measure the forces when a turnip/other vegetables are pulled across different surfaces (friction, gravity in context of a fairy story such as the Enormous Turnip/modern version of the tale)
- hopefully some collaborative story telling too….. “consequences” (the traditional paper-based game adapted to use technology so we can use across different classrooms….)
I have been putting together some suggestions to describe what we want to do in a bit more detail and put them to my lovely partners to see how they snowball . We’re aiming to start the project with a friendship forum, so children could ask/answer questions about life/school in another country. Then we’d use a variety of tools. Why not take a look at the initial thoughts below. (Unfortunately the layout of the page means it isn’t all easily seen but let me know if you’d like to see more….)
What do you think? What would you do to develop these ideas further? I wonder who else will want to join in the project!
It’s definitely not a little project – it may be that some people join in parts of the project as it fits with their curriculum. Some may want to join in with more elements.
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| Favourite Fairy Stories |
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Pupils could choose their favourite traditional tale to share with others; decide how they want to present it – powerpoint, myebook, voice recording using a tool such as audacity or digital voice recorder so it plays back on a tool like Windows media player; we could share these re-told stories on a wiki, allowing each pupil to have a page for publishing their work and then we could use the discuss/version comment tools for them to give each other feedback about their stories – we use 2 stars and a wish so pupils can say two things they liked about the work and one thing that could be improved….
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| Science Focus | Mr Wolf and the Enormous Turnip
Diagrams to show forces acting on turnip Heave – experiment to pull up turnip Use forcemeter to measure force in newtons Science friction – science experiment to compare friction on different surfaces |
Understand how to measure forces and identify the direction in which they act.
Understand that when objects are pulled or pushed an opposing pull or push can be felt. Look at a range of domestic & environmental contexts that are familiar and of interest to them. Use appropriate scientific language. Understand friction as a force that slows moving objects and that it may prevent objects from starting moving. Understand how to measure forces and identify the direction in which they act. Carry out a range of scientific investigations, including complete investigations Understand that friction including air resistance is a force that slows moving objects and may prevent objects from starting to move. Understand that objects are pulled downwards because of the gravitational attraction between them and the earth. Look at the part science has played in the development of many useful things. Carry out a range of scientific investigations. Understand that friction including water resistance (adapted) is a force that slows moving objects and may prevent them from starting to move. Make a fair test or comparison by changing one factor and observing or measuring the effect while keeping other factors the same. Use a wide range of methods including bar charts to communicate data in an appropriate and systematic manner. |
We used a story based on the Enormous Turnip to look at forces and friction – the forces that make it hard to pull the turnip up; then the friction that makes it difficult to pull the turnip back to the kitchen – we investigated the effect of different surfaces – pulled different vegetables (in the nets that fruit sometimes is found in) using newton meters/force meters
We could get the students to design a fair test and share their methods with others; then collect everyone’s data on e.g. an excel spreadsheet, use the data to draw conclusions, discuss our answers on e.g. a forum….. |
Handling Data – designing survey re favourite fairy stories |
| Children used online survey tools – survey monkey, google forms and others to find out what everyone’s favourite stories were – we could maybe develop surveys towards the end of the project so our students can ask questions about their favourite stories from the project….
It might also be useful when trying to find similarities/differences between traditional tales in other countries – eg are the same animals/creatures/people involved – wolves? Giants? Witches?Princesses? |
| Art focus (– giants) |
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We’ve done this with Jack and the Beanstalk and made giant paintings of giants before now, but we could use the art focus to:
We’ve also made 3D giant objects that we might find in the house of a giant….. What about using a tool like Voicethread to publish images of the pictures, then pupils can comment on other peoples’ work? We’ve found that works very well for feedback about artwork – children say what their picture is about then others add 2 stars and a wish…. we use 2 stars and a wish so pupils can say two things they liked about the work and one thing that could be improved…. |
| Animation
(we did this as a week long project) |
Mon am 2: retelling story in pairs
Mon pm: sketches to show development of ideas re. characters and scenery; beginning to prepare characters and scenery Tues am 2: beginning to add to group script/narration; continuing to prepare characters and scenery Tues pm 2: Learning to use the digiblue cameras and produce a test sequence of animation Weds am 2: notes on features needed to suit audience; completing script Thurs: using the digiblue cameras to film sequence; begin using digiblue software Fri am 2: using the digiblue software to prepare film; using movimaker to add script/narration Fri pm: finishing off film editing; evaluation of own work; discussion of effectiveness; suggested improvements
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We used this as an extended project – groups of children took one scene each from one of the fairy stories we had been looking at; they designed and prepared the scenery for the story; then they prepared plasticine/clay models of the characters for their part of the story (and props); they used cameras to take photos (changing one small bit each time) then putting the photos into windows moviemaker to make their stop-frame animations (similar method to films like Wallace and Gromit); all the scenes were then put together to make a whole class film of the story….. we then published the film on our vle…..
We could do this type of activity and share the films with each other for feedback…. |
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We’ve used friendship forums to teach issues of e-safety – what information is appropriate to share, with whom, on which sites, etc;
We can also use it to develop understanding of life in another country – ask questions about school life, home life, local area, etc
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What about adding pins to different places where record-breaking giant structures are located?
Or we could use google/bing maps to tell a story – part one on one pin, part two on another pin, etc…. We have looked at a controversial giant sculpture in Manchester – the B of the Bang – and discussed why some people are for/against the artwork – this could be adapted using some of the tools we have for children to share their ideas with each other – what about wallwisher or linoit to add post it notes as ideas? |
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Using what they have learnt about the features of traditional tales, pupils could collaborate to write shared stories – what about using e.g. Skype or scribbld to plan, then e.g. an office live doc/google shared doc to write story collaboratively? | ||||||||
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We have looked at Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf music in the past and talked about how he creates different effects for different animals – we could discuss this with each other and/or develop the ideas to compose backing music for our stop-frame animations – using a free download tool such as Microsoft Songsmith or other online music tools…. | ||||||||
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| Art as part of animation project – designing backgrounds, making 3D models (similar to Wallace and Gromit) for animating | |
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| ICT – as part of the animation project |
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This sound really cool!
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Wow! Thias looks both amazing & exciting. I do hope you keep me updated with your progress!
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Thanks for this share m8!
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There is a great book called The uses of Enchantment, by Bruno Bettelheim who analyses fairy tales in terms of Freudian psychology.
In the book, Bettelheim discusses the emotional and symbolic importance of fairy tales for children, including traditional tales at one time considered too dark, such as those collected and published by the Brothers Grimm. Bettelheim suggested that traditional fairy tales, with the darkness of abandonment, death, witches, and injuries, allowed children to grapple with their fears in remote, symbolic terms. If they could read and interpret these fairy tales in their own way, he believed, they would get a greater sense of meaning and purpose. Bettelheim thought that by engaging with these socially-evolved stories, children would go through emotional growth that would better prepare them for their own futures. [courtesy wikidpedia]
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Lets hope that engaging in activities like this will have just that desired effect! Thanks for the comment Ben!
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