On the first week of the arts module, we were asked to think about an evocative object. At first, I was unsure what the term evocative meant so spent a bit of time researching the term. I soon found out that evocative meant that something brings strong images, memories, or feelings to mind. Linking this word evocative and its meaning to an object was not challenging at all. The first thing that sprung to my mind was my late Grandad’s chain which I wear almost every day. 

We were asked to bring in our evocative object and share this with the class. Sharing the meaning of my evocative object made me feel very emotional and a  strong feeling of sadness took over. Here lies a simple chain, but on the chain is a photo of my “Granda” Terry who passed away many years ago. Attached to the chain is my Granda’s ring in which he left behind for me to carry. On the back of the love heart shape photograph chain, lies a message stating “forever in our hearts, Terry”.  Every member of the family received 0ne of these chains when my Granda passed away. The idea was so that we could wear the chain close to our heart everyday. This object I will keep forever.

It was interesting to explore feelings through the arts, something that can be done in the primary classroom. In the up coming weeks, we will have the chance to create our own piece of art through exploring the feelings and emotions from our evocative object.

During this session, we were also to think about exploring “the unknown”.  Primary teachers often do not like exploring the unknown which can be a negative experience for the learners in the classroom. Being free and allowing the unknown to  take over to allow creations is very important and a skill that I must master as a future educator. We were given a bunch of pipe cleaners and told to create anything we want. By the end of this session, everyone ended up with a different model.

Turkle, S. Evocative Objects