St. John The Baptist P.S.

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Session # 2 – Friday 18 November, 2016. Everyone was excited to see what was in store for our second session with Helen. Sophie and Sarah had the opportunity to introduce themselves to Helen as they were absent last week.

For a “Show and Tell” Sophie brought in a special doll and described how it had wings, just like the birds we had observed last week in the playground.

                                                

We talked about how the birds in the videos (which we had watched last week) used their wings when they were flying. One of the videos was in slow motion and it showed very clearly how the birds’ wings moved in flight. Then everyone had to imagine that they were birds and how it might feel to move their wings (arms). Some great demonstrations ensued!

          

The second video which we watched showed a murmuration of starlings. What magnificent patterns they made…….. Really amazing to watch! The boys and girls were in awe of the birds’ skills. How did they manage to be so close together, yet they did not bump into eachother?

A BIRD’S EYE VIEW – We also wondered what a bird would see as it flies around in the sky.. …………………Well maybe we’ll have to look into that!

Our “key words” to learn this week are: transparent and murmuration. 

                                   

Helen had sent a package which contained some transparent patterned vinyl. This material was used to cut out birds in flight, like a V shape. Helen showed the children some examples of what she had made in her studio.

   

Then the children got drawing and cutting. They found peeling the backing off the vinyl very tricky, so I had to be chief peeler! We made a flight pattern on the windows in our classroom. The windows  are large, so we had great scope to create a pretty fine murmuration.

                                         

                                                     

 The children showed Helen their birds. This is Oisin with his fine samples.

 

                                      Aoife wanted Helen to see her birds too. 

                                                              

As we were making our display in Belfast, Helen made a display in her home in Goatstown at the same time.

LI:  One of the aims of today’s session was to raise the children’s awareness of their bodies through movement and observation.

Helen sent us a wooden artist’s mannequin. We saw how the limbs can move, so the children moved different parts of their bodies –

• arms facing up to the ceiling
• straight out in front
• bending at the elbow
• moving the lowere part of the arm up to touch the shoulder and out stretched again. 
• Helen told the children to close their eyes with their feet firmly on the ground and their back straight against their chair. She went through a brief talk about key body parts They had to imagine that a piece of string was tied to the top of their head and that it was pulling them upwards stretching their spine a little. (I think this activity has a subliminal reference to Helen being a keen yoga exponent.)
• THAT WAS A VERY INTERESTING ACTIVITY.

         

         

                                              

HOMEWORK: Helen asked the children to draw an interesting building that could be seen from their house or on the way to school. They will show what they sketched in our next session.

The Lunch time bell brought our session to a close, but we knew that another journey into the imagination was heading our way next time……………………  

       

The murmuration got bigger and bigger in the days that followed our session, as the children insisted in making more birds until the very last piece of vinyl was used.

 

At 10 o’clock on Friday 9th. November, the boys and girls “met” Helen for the first time. She spoke to us from her studio in Goatstown. What a quaint name! Of course we had to ask how the town got its name, and sure enough…………. beautiful alpaca goats being in residence had a lot to do with it!

Helen talked to every child, finding out their names, and what their favourite animal was.

Ryan – A gorilla.                                 Cliodhna – A monkey.

Ciaran and Carl – A cheetah.           

Aoife – A horse.   Helen said that she rode a horse when she was young.                

Darragh – A monkey.                                   Eimear and Stephen – A lion.

Conal – A tiger.                                              Olivia – A koala bear.

Caitlinn – A pony.                                         Tia – A robin redbreast.

Ronan – A tiger, a lion and a fox.              Oisin – A hummingbird

Kella – A dolphin.                                         Laoise – A dog.

Charlie – Bull sharks, great white whale sharks and tiger sharks. Helen told us that she swam with baby sharks in Australia!

We found out some more interesting facts about Helen too:

• Fact #1: She loves collecting things, like bugs. She showed us some of her collection. She had a huge dung beetle which makes its nest from dry elephant poo! The children loved that! Helen told us that the beetle is in such a good condition because it is in a liquid called formaldehyde. She loves the smell of it and she enjoys going on visits to the Natural History Museum in Dublin. It is full of dead animals, many of which are preserved in formaldehyde.
• Our “key word” this week is: formaldehyde. Each week we are going to try to introduce a new word for the children to remember.

 

                                  

• Fact #2: She has 2 children. Her son Reuben, was 6 last week and she made him a jelly cake with jelly worms coming out of it. Yummy!

Helen uses a very kinaesthetic approach, so she started off by showing us a life size outline of her body on 2 different coloured papers. Helen drew our attention to the following: Did you know that your arm is the same length as 4 of your hands and that your height is the same as 7 of your heads. This is the same for EVERYONE, no matter how big or small you are.

                                     

Then the children started using body parts (hands) to measure the length, height and width of their tables.

  

                    

                                             

Next, the children measured the width and length of the classroom using their whole bodies. We found out that 32 children could sit back to back around the 4 sides of our classroom. The room is a rectangular shape, with 2 doors and 17 windows.

                   

                                          

The next activity involved tracing round the children’s hands on vinyl material and then cutting them out. The hand shapes were stuck on top of the tables. Some were more successful than others, as each child is at his/her own level of competence, but everyone enjoyed the activity.   

                                          

 

10:45am – BREAK-TIME: Helen asked the children to watch out for birds in the playground. She asked them to observe how they moved in the air and on the ground.

11:05am – When the children returned from break they told Helen that they had seen blackbirds and seagulls.

We had watched a murmuration of starlings, (what a lovely word) and we noticed how they made swooping and swirling movements in formation.

Helen asked the children to describe the movements that they had noticed at breaktime.

Charlie said that he had watched a seagull flapping and gliding. He gave a great demonstration!

Kella said some birds did a loop de loop.

Conal noticed a blackbird swooping round and round looking for worms.

Tia said that she saw a bird pecking at the grass and a bird was being blown around by the wind.

There were super observations and demonstrations given by Darragh and other children.

Helen copied some of the movements and complimented everyone on their great observation skills!

Eimear told us that her Grandad keeps pigeons.

Helen then asked the boys and girls to make marks in their notebooks to show the different bird movements which they had noticed.

                         

All too soon it was 12:15. Time for LUNCH and time to say GOODBYE to Helen until next week! We had a great first session and were looking forward to session number 2. 

My Primary 3 boys and girls have been very excited at the prospect of:

• Working with an artist.
• Using the IWB to communicate with her.
• Starting the “Virtually There” activities.
• Excitement was at fever pitch on Friday 11 November because…..
• Helen Barry who lives and works in Dublin, was going to magically appear on the screen and talk to everyone!                
•                                            TO BE CONTINUED……………………………