The 15th of November was our very first virtual learning experience. I got to work a little earlier than normal that day as I was a little nervous about using the technology and wanted to have everything set up before the children arrived.

With a little playing about and a lot of luck the technology worked well. Rhona was up on our interactive whiteboard by half past 9 and the children were amazed. She showed us around her studio, we chatted about art and the different things we might do over the coming weeks.

Rhona asked the children to write their names on mini whiteboards and come up to the screen so she could screenshot the child’s name with their photograph, so she is able to start putting names to faces, a difficult task with 29 children. The children stood on the portals Rhona made which was a nice touch as it made it feel more exciting for them.

We talked about creativity and the children had some very interesting opinions about what creativity is and how it can be fostered , then we looked at examples of useful designs and objects. The children split into groups and cut useful objects out of catalogues before placing them in the brain box.

Each group pulled out two objects and had to make a useful invention combining both objects . The children drew and labelled their ideas in their scrapbook before presenting their ideas in a Dragon’s Den fashion to Rhona and the rest of the class.

A very useful first session!