Ardfert’s Project Begins

Our project began on January 22nd 2015 with a visit from our artist Vanya. The children had been looking forward to her visit since virtually meeting her at the launch of the Virtually There Project on the 24th October in the Tralee Education Centre. During the three intervening months I was often asked the question ‘When will we be starting our art project?’

So the 22nd of January finally arrived for the twenty eight enthusiastic third class children. The children were delighted and full of anticipation when Vanya walked into the classroom. After the introductions the class began their first activity – making a book! Vanya told them that she was a book binder and they were all going to make a little booklet that they would use to record details of their ‘Virtually There’ project. This was something that was completely new to all the children and they were delighted with the thought of it.

making a booklet1

making a booklet2The next thing was what would we put into the booklets??

I had spoken to Vanya about picking a start point for the project and seeing where it might lead to so the area that was chosen was the strand ‘Local History’, strand unit ‘My school’. I felt this was a good starting point as our school is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

Our school is an amalgamation of four schools in the parish – the old Ardfert school, Banna School, Barrow School and Tubrid School. The old Ardfert school is situated very close to our school – about ten minutes walk. Vanya expressed an interest in buildings and architecture so this seemed to suit both sides.

It was a lovely morning so everybody welcomed the opportunity to go for a walk! The old school is situated very close to the middle of the village and next door to the church. The old school has been renovated in recent years but the exterior is as it was when it was used as a school

old school1

old school4

We all had a good look around and even counted our steps to get an idea of the distance around the building. The children also counted the windows on the front of the building and their attention was drawn to the number of trees growing on the site. They looked at interesting and unusual features such as the object in the next picture….

old school6

Many questions were asked and answers suggested by the children.

After all that investigating we returned to the school. Vanya spoke to the children about the estimated measurement of the perimeter of the old school. She also showed them an instrument for measuring the length and width of a room. It had a laser on it. She measured the classroom and the children drew a rough diagram of it.

class measurement

Vanya then introduced the class to origami! She showed them how to make a box using a square piece of paper. Some children found this difficult but they were assured that with a bit of practice they would all be able to manage it.

                                                                                 origami box1

And that concluded our first session and Vanya’s visit.

 

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *