In the visual arts workshop, we added to our work from last week. To begin with, we chose one of our prints from last week and photocopied it smaller, and in black and white. We then added to our prints by either copying the original painting (which learners who are not confident in their abilities may choose to do) or imagining what might be around it and drawing it in colour. This could easily be repeated in a classroom as children have the option to either copy or use their imagination.

We also looked at a variety of colouring books. The book “Oodles of doodles” particularly grabbed my attention as children are provided with a starting point and they must use their creativity to complete a drawing.

 

Next, in the music workshop we used garage band to create our own piece of music. We experimented with many instruments and tunes before selecting a few and adding them together to make an eight-bar tune. We then varied the tempo and pitch as well as adding fade outs and sound effects. This activity would be engaging and educational if repeated with a primary school class and would cover different areas of the curriculum such as IT. Bloomfield (2000) discusses that the teaching and learning of music should allow children to: learn how to make music as well as develop ICT skills in music and it is evident that this workshop would certainly enable children to develop these techniques.

For our next activity, we chose a silent animation and created our own ‘movie’ thinking about what feeling we wanted to convey and picking our sounds accordingly. I was surprised with how much I was able to do in the workshop and think that children would really benefit from this activity as they could build their confidence in their music ability in addition to improving their IT skills.

 

Overall, I found this week’s inputs to be very engaging due to their interactive nature which is beneficial to me, as it is clear to see how the workshops can be used in a classroom.

 

 

Reference List

Bloomfield, A and Childs, J (2000) Teaching Integrated Arts in the Primary School. Oxon: David Fulton Publishers.