In todays music workshop we were introduced to Figurenotes. This is a simpler way of reading music for those who struggle reading notation. ‘It is a simple and clear system designed to demystify the first steps of learning music. There is no ‘dots or squiggles’ to be learned, just to simple concepts of matching and playing in pulse. (Drake Music 2010).

Different shapes are used for each octave these consist of crosses, squares, circles and triangles. For each note name there is a different colour, for instance all C notes would be Red, all D notes would be brown and so on. This way of learning music is a visual aid for pupils. I myself used this in high school when learning piano for both my national 5 and higher exam as I struggled to read notation due to being dyslexic.

In the Visual arts workshop we all made paint brushes out of different materials and textures.

A music lesson idea I thought on would be to create or play a piece of music with visual aids such as the figurenotes system. Therefore, pupils are grasping their own understanding of this material.

As an art lesson it could be to make paint brushes also as this will help pupils used different means of materials / resources to create the final product. This will eventually help in other areas of the curriculum as it helps with pencil grip/control.

Drake Music Scotland (2010) Introducing Figurenotes

In todays music workshop we were introduced to Figurenotes. This is a simpler way of reading music for those who struggle reading notation. ‘It is a simple and clear system designed to demystify the first steps of learning music. There is no ‘dots or squiggles’ to be learned, just to simple concepts of matching and playing in pulse. (Drake Music 2010).

Different shapes are used for each octave these consist of crosses, squares, circles and triangles. For each note name there is a different colour, for instance all C notes would be Red, all D notes would be brown and so on. This way of learning music is a visual aid for pupils. I myself used this in high school when learning piano for both my national 5 and higher exam as I struggled to read notation due to being dyslexic.

In the Visual arts workshop we all made paint brushes out of different materials and textures.

A music lesson idea I thought on would be to create or play a piece of music with visual aids such as the figurenotes system. Therefore, pupils are grasping their own understanding of this material.

As an art lesson it could be to make paint brushes also as this will help pupils used different means of materials / resources to create the final product. This will eventually help in other areas of the curriculum as it helps with pencil grip/control.

Drake Music Scotland (2010) Introducing Figurenotes

An ‘Urban Environment’ can be described as a districted which surrounds a city. The population living in urban do not have rural jobs. Urban areas are often very humanly structured due to the variety of houses, railways, buildings and roads. The town where I live would come under the Urban Environment as it has all the things listed in the what an urban area contains.

In Inverclyde, Greenock the buildings vary between old and modern builds. Some of the oldest buildings are used by many people, such as the local town hall, also known as the Municipal Buildings is used by Inverclyde Council and the local library. Another old building is the Mclean Museum and art gallery which has been around since the 1876 and is still open today. There are many old builds of church as well which are still located within Inverclyde, Greenock. Most school’s would come under as a new build as many within Inverclyde, Greenock have been refurbished and/or knocked down in the past years.

There is a variety of transport used in Inverclyde, Greenock such as, cars, trains and buses. All of these modes of transport are used on a daily bases but also allow people to get to the different places they needed to be such as work, school, university/college and many other places. However, cars are  probably the most common and used means of transport for many people because it tends to be quicker than the other types of transport. There is a variety of issues caused by all types of transport such as, traffic congestion, parking difficulties, longer commuting times, maintenance costs, loss of public space and many more.

Within Inverclyde Greenock there is around seven local Primary Schools and three High Schools all of which are sitting nearly at full capacity. There is not a community centre in the area as it is still in the process of being built. There is a local library, that is opened to everyone as a study space. Primary Schools take classes to the library for pupils to know the services available to them. The library offers classes such as ‘Book Bug’ and ‘Rhyme Time’  these is babies and toddlers showing services are open to all.

Inverclyde’s  population ranges from early years to adulthood. For young people there is space for football, tennis and badminton this is also open for the use of adults as well as gym. This allows people somewhere to go as a means of keeping people off the streets reducing temptation of trouble. Within Greenock we are fortunate enough to have a theatre, many different drama and dance schools use this facility. Those who take part in both drama and dance schools ages vary meaning it offers something for every person.

In Inverclyde, Greenock could be described as a roadside type environment, thus resulting in the air quality being vary low. Using ‘Air Quality Scotland’ helped to see air quality being low and this is due to the amount of pollution caused by the amount of cars that are on the road.

A lesson that could be done with a Primary 5 Class splitting the class into two different groups, one half of the class  research rural environments and the other half research urban environments trying to get as much detail as possible. In each of the groups create a presentation on what has been learned about both environments then present to the rest of the class. In doing this pupils will be working together and deciding what is essential to their presentation.

Todays lecture and visual arts workshop linked as it was about Making Marks Make Sense as this is the first instance of a child’s progression to write. ‘Scribbles are products of a systematic investigation rather than haphazard actions’- John Matthews (pg19) (1999) .

McAuliffe, 2007 is about children’s development in art and design. In this document it shares the multiple stage theories accountable for children’s cognitive development in education. Staged theory in education is liked to the works or Lowenfield and Brittain (1987). The stages of development are to identify the scribbling age (2-4 years), pre- schematic stage (4-7 years), schematic stage (7-9 years) and lastly the gang stage (9-12 years).

Scribble, colour and different textures are a variety if resources children can use in order to express themselves through the visual arts.

In this mornings lesson each individual took a page out of a reading and had to scribble down ideas on how we interpreted the piece of text given to us. I saw this as a good lesson idea as well as teaching point. This type of lesson could be done with a book relating to a certain topic or just any book a child is interested in. The aim of this would be to allow children to express themselves as well as interpret what they are reading through drawing images, which relate to the text.

Matthew. J (1999), The Art of Childhood and Adolescence. The Construction of Meaning. London: Falmer (pg19)

McAuliffe D (2007) Foundation and Primary Settings. In Teaching Arts and Design 3-11 (edited by Sue Cox, Robert Watts, Judy Grahame, Steve Herne and Diarmuid McAuliffe) London: Continum.

Today’s Lecture was about not knowing how artists think. Art is the way many people tend to express themselves without the written words. The expressive arts come under four categories; these are visual arts, dance, music and drama. In art it is vital as future educators to remember art it is not about the written word.

In the Visual Art’s workshop we focused on the positives and negatives of the Arts in schools. A lot of the negatives of arts revolve around the lack of resources schools have such as, paints, clay, paper, pencils and pens etc. Art is a way of making thinking visible through the use of pictures, videos, texts and different layouts and formats. Linking this to lesson ideas which could be used within the curriculum I would have asked pupils to draw whatever they like using many different colours such as bright or dull colours allowing them to express themselves and their feelings.

The music workshop was an introduction into how music makes people feel, the opportunities it offers to people and the different instruments used. In this workshop we listened to four short clips of music and had to decide how the music made us feel, happy, sad, scared and calm were many of the feelings people felt. Music offers many individual different opportunities that they may not get outside of school.. In this workshop we also listened to a piece of music and created a storyboard about what we thought was happening throughout the music from this we then presented our storyboard to our peers in the class listening to one another’s ideas from the music we listen to as our stimulus. As a lesson idea I would do a similar lesson as was done today. Allowing pupils to listen to different pieces of music will allow the to connect with different feelings. Another lesson idea could also me the same done with the storyboard and listening to a piece of music then allowing pupils to do a writing piece using the storyboards as a stimulus.

Both workshops linked together as they emphaisied the importance of the arts. As they offer opportunities to individuals to express themselves in a different way, which is not the written word.

Eisner. E (2002) The Arts and the Creation of Mind. 1^st edition. USA Yale University press

Thomas Tallis School (2017) Thomas Tallis Habits Pedogdgy wheel [Online]