I recently attended a teachers CPD event run by Children and the Arts focusing on visual arts and storytelling.
The morning hands-on session consisted of a format easily replicable in class for second level which I wanted to share.
We took Greek gods and goddesses as the theme and started by looking at a real painting of a scene depicting Hercules rising through the clouds being greeted by Zeus etc.
We then broke into teams to undertake the following tasks:
colouring in pre-printed line drawings of different gods
drawing clouds, lightning and animals
planning a family tree and drawing it out using small versions of the printed god images
placing the gods onto a large sheet of paper replicating the original painting.

At the end of the session we had a formidable mural depicting the relationships between the gods and their special powers, favourite animals etc.

As a research tool the process was successful. I found I retained a lot of information, much more than if I hadn’t had the visual interaction with the subject.
There was something for everyone within the tasks and some veered naturally towards organising the data (family tree) and others felt more comfortable taking a more arts based approach. No body was left out.
The activity covered: researching a topic and building knowledge, organisation of information, drawing skills, design and layout skills and could be used for any topic.
The finished mural could be a catalyst for other areas of learning ie single word vocabulary, creative writing, researching other paintings, or even to illustrate staff in your school!

Fiona Blakey ( Cultural Co-ordinator)