Using a stimulus of any means, such as the house in the painting discussed, gives learners a context which they can first relate to real-life, and then which they can attack with their imagination. Jonah Lehrer (2012) believes that when we imagine things, we take inspiration from real-life and from things in our own minds. The relatable yet ambiguous nature of a house makes it a perfect stimulus for children to consider the real life aspects and also to let their imaginations run wild about what could be happening in the house, as apart from the artist, nobody can tell them that they are wrong. I think that this also encourages Anna Craft’s (2007) ‘possibility thinking’ as we are essentially providing children with a stimulus to ask questions about; we are encouraging them to wonder and then to solve a problem. Craft also discusses her belief of the importance of taking the ideas of learners seriously. I believe that there could not be one idea about what is going on within a big house which could be written off – the element of mystery means that we are not telling learners what is going on but that they are finding out for themselves through critical thinking.
After considering this painting we were given A5 polystyrene sheets and were asked to choose a section of the painting to draw on to our sheets. 
The only requirement was that the drawing filled the piece of polystyrene.
I chose to attempt to replicate the right hand side of the painting. We then used rollers and paint to cover the polystyrene before transferring the paint on to a folded piece of coloured A4 paper to make a print.
We repeated this process four times before slightly changing our polystyrene drawings – for example by cutting out some of the windows or adding more detail such as brick work. We then used a different colour of paint and transferred this different colour on top of our original copies. This made a range of different 
prints which had different contrasting colours. Although we were all given the same instructions and the same stimulus, each person’s prints were different. To me, this represented the fact that we all have different perceptions and we all interpret things differently. By using this as a follow up activity to looking into the house in the painting and considering the different people who may live there and the different stories that the house has to tell may encourage children to use certain colours and lines within their prints which to them, represent the mood which the house now conveys due to their imaginary stories of what goes on within it. This could encourage them to think critically about pieces of art instead of passively glancing at them. By allowing them to represent their own thoughts and feelings through careful consideration of the subject matter, we would be improving their higher order thinking skills in many ways.
The process of creating multiple prints in this way would also allow children to amend their work if they were not happy with it, for example they could choose different colours or add more detail to the polystyrene as they made their four prints. This ability to redraft is named by Jonah Lehrer (2012) as essential when making something which has never been made before. If we are teaching a generation of learners to become inventors and to be able to adapt to the demands of a changing environment then I would agree that we must help them to develop the skill of looking at what they have done before and considering how they can improve it. Also, by allowing them to make these changes we will help them to feel proud and happy with their work and to get the most out of the activity.
We then moved on to drama where we used the story of the dragon as a stimulus. As this was our first drama input we started off by discussing our previous experiences of drama and current feelings about it. I did not have much drama experience at school, however I was part of a drama youth group until I was 16 and I found this to be my main escape from the new found pressures of secondary school teenage life. It boosted my self-confidence unbelievably so I have witnessed the power of it in these ways first-hand and hope to be able to affectively use it as such for the learners in my classroom. We considered the fact that drama provides the opportunity for us to be someone else and for us to take on the role of a different character. It was suggested that this is the element of drama which makes it such an excellent escape mechanism as, sadly, for many children their life at home is not as they would wish for it to be.
Also, as Smith (2009) suggests, use of the arts in schools can assist in closing the attainment gap. Children from different backgrounds will have had varying experiences of the arts, and by teaching them in schools we are providing a more even starting point as learners from all backgrounds will have the skills developed by the arts as well as being able to benefit from the escapism of them. The lesson today allowed me to see how drama can be used to convey important messages to children without directly saying, for example, “we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, things are not always as they seem”. Conveying messages in this way allows the children to understand them rather than to passively listen to them.
As Teresa Grainger (2003, p.45) says “[Drama] is essentially orientated towards both creating and solving social problems.” Today we created a social problem within the context of relationships in a child-friendly way as we took the role of villagers who were worried and upset because a dragon was flying lowly over their village and breathing fire. 
The villagers took part in a meeting, lead by the mayor of the village (who in this case would be played by the teacher to introduce the drama using Teacher In Role). We discussed and decided on the action we were going to take to stop the dragon from causing more destruction to our village and in groups, we came up with freeze frames which we explained to the group. We all froze doing tribal dances to try to scare away the dragon. However, the dances did not work so we had to have another meeting and decide what to do next. All this time, the teacher should be asking the pupils what they want to do and letting them lead the drama, as this is what will allow them to discover the messages of the drama for themselves, and as Anna Craft (2007) believes, it is when learners discover messages and the meaning of lessons for themselves, that they take that knowledge for their own. After the second meeting we decided to find out where the dragon lived and went to her house to speak to her. This allowed for improvisation as we climbed the mountain to the dragon’s cave and then ‘hot seated’ her by asking her questions about why she was flying so low in the village and breathing fire. It was through this process that the children discovered that the dragon was not trying to terrorise the village – but that she was lonely and was flying so low to get a closer look at the villagers because she loved seeing them so happy and she breathed fire when she got excited. They also found out that she didn’t have enough food to feed her baby dragon. We then considered how we could help the dragon and decided to invite her to the village party, to give her the food we don’t use, and to build her and her baby a home in the village so that she won’t be lonely anymore.
This is where the main lesson lies – it allows learners to see for themselves that things and people are not always as they seem and that sometimes when we think people are trying to cause us harm they are actually lonely and want to get our attention. It also allows children to consider how they can help people like this. Furthermore, if children are engaged in a drama exercise such as this, it can be used by myself as the teacher to relate back to if I find myself having to explain the behaviour of one of their classmates for example. Finally, we considered the use of a thought tunnel. This is where children stand facing one another in two lines and a character, who in this case could have been the dragon walks down the middle of the two lines. As the character walks past them the children have to say exactly what they think of them. This could be done at the beginning of the project/lesson and then again at the end as a way to measure how well the children have grasped the concept and have learned from the main themes, as their feelings towards the character should at least slightly change.
Overall, I think that using a stimulus for creation is a fantastic way to engage children and to put valuable lessons into context. It encourages learners to be thoughtful and critical of how different things work and make them feel, while it also allows them to explore their imagination and to solve problems as well as escape from them. When reading for this session, I came across a quote which refers to drama but which I think perfectly sums up the use of our imagination when given a stimulus of any sort and the main lesson I learned today:
“[Drama] represents an opportunity to construct powerful and imaginary worlds together and enables speculation, modification and transformation of our understandings.” (Grainger, 2003, p.45)
References
Craft, A. (2007) Creativity and possibility in the Early Years. [Online] Available: www.tactyc.org.uk/pdfs/reflection-craft.pdf [Accessed: 1 October 2017].
Grainger, T. (2003) Creative teachers and the language arts: Possibilities and potential. Education 3-13: The International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education. Vol.31(1), pp.43-47.
Lehrer, J. (2012). Imagine: How Creativity Works. [Online] Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufnp89NOrel&feature=youtu.be [Accessed: 2 October 2017].
Smith, F. (2009) Why Arts Education Is Crucial, and Who’s Doing It Best. [Online] Available: https://www.edutopia.org/arts-music-curriculum-child-development [Accessed: 2 October 2017].
