Learning Parade

Children's Mind Maps for Creative Planning

Well, what a fantastic couple of weeks we've had full of family fun before school starts up again! And my super husband treated us both to a quiet couple of days in Co. Monaghan at Castle Leslie. How I loved our copper bathtub!!

 

Relaxation: Just what was needed with only two months left now before we have our new baby keeping us ultra busy! :) Anyway... back to blogging!

One of the most viewed pictures on my photostream is this planning board that my class created together after watching an episode of Sesame Tree. (Rubbish and recycling)

It's fun to encourage children to take responsibility for their own experiences in a creative, collaborative way. Planning like this promotes the development of thinking skills too. Here is proof that even really young children can direct their learning; their own activity ideas included:

• interviewing the school 'bin men' 
• designing new bins for the playground 
• litter picking 
• rubbish sorting 
• junk art - making musical instruments 
• visiting the local recycling centre 

Your starting point for investigating a theme could be a story, poem, piece of music or even a special visitor. Here is another planning board we created together after reading this fantastic book: Pirate Pete by Kim Kennedy. 

Try using a mix of resources to present your ideas: drawings, internet images, children's writing, photographs, etc. Pipe cleaners work well for connections.

We often use KWL templates in our planning too. But what I really love about the whole mind mapping process is that children tend to focus on the activities they want to do.... not what they want to know, but how they are going to find out more.

Take a photo of the finished mind map and insert it into your own planning. Display it during the weeks of your topic so children can add any new thoughts too! Have fun! :)

Further Reading to inspire your children:

 

What a find Wednesday: Making Story Maps

Many thanks to Cassie at Crafty Crow for featuring our listening walk project! The first month of Learning Parade has been really exciting and successful... all your super comments are very encouraging and much appreciated! 

Thanks also to Linda at Classroom Displays for highlighting our Take One Picture artwork. :)

I am amazed at the abundance of graphic organizers on the web to help children retell familiar stories in sequence.  Yet often these blank templates seem very unfriendly for our early years children. 

Story Maps are a welcomed alternative!

From top left (clockwise)

3D story map featured in Childhood Education Magazine Sept. 2006

Bear Hunt story map with finger puppets at Brookfield Nursery

Scaffolding learning with visual support aids when story mapping at S.I.P. (Super site!)

Great examples of literacy work from Chets Creek Elementary School in Jacksonville, FL.

And here is a story map completed in my own class this year after reading Handa's Surprise by Eileen Browne. Sometimes printing off pictures to colour really helps, especially if the plot involves lots of characters! :) 

I love the way you can see how this child has illustrated features of the African setting, with the long grass and huts in the villages. Brilliant! :)

 

Building creativity: A city scene project

Yesterday I watched with pleasure as Rebecca poured over Richard Scarry's Busytown. It reminded me of the appeal that city settings hold for children in picture books. Illustrations with a retro feel seem to capture our interest the most, with layers of buildings and lots of hustle.

 

Here is an art project we tried out earlier this year to recreate these city images in 3D form using a selection of materials, mostly recycled junk. My class are aged five, but the skills and processes involved work with older children and allow for progression.

First decide on your city. This will help your children to focus on a specific style of architecture and enable them to research the culture of the setting.

Here the boys are looking at buildings in Montmartre,  Paris. Compare these actual photos with the later models and you can see the observations really helped!

We covered old cereal boxes and shoe boxes with plain paper and tried mixing paint to match the colours we found. The children then had a good old rummage in the art cupboard and used different smaller materials, like straws and tissue paper to recreate balconies and window boxes. 

To mould domes on roof tops, scrunch up the same plain paper then cover with masking tape to hold the desired shape. We went through lots of PVA glue, paint, paper and polystyrene balls.

We added some finishing touches by printing off some Toulouse Lautrec posters and French street signs. Here is our finished diorama. The children are really so proud of it.

If you decide to give the whole buildings and city theme a go, these super links are also very inspirational. Thanks for reading. :)

 Tiny Buildings                       Two Little Birds                

                  Build a Paper Chicago

Creativity in the Classroom

I am aware that my blog is unashamedly in danger of becoming a shrine to new Children's Laureate Anthony Browne..... but I just had to share this recent article from the Guardian with all of you! 

Creativity in schools:

Every story needs a picture.

Isn't it wonderful to have someone in the public eye who is talking sense about creativity and learning for a change? After witnessing creative skills being squashed out of the curriculum for so long, we now see the beginnings of an artistic avalanche washing over our primary schools.

Hurray!

For creative contributions across the UK: 

Hope this inspires you!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

 

This classic picture book is always a wonderful story to read during the summer months! The learning possibilities are endless and we never tire of revisiting these pages!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is actually celebrating its 40th year in publication and there are lots of toys and games circulating at present to help bring the story to life. You can visit the author's website (I've posted a link opposite) and watch him at work while he creates amazing collages for his books. My class watched the video of Eric demonstrating step by step how he achieved the look of his caterpillar illustrations in his own home studio. They then borrowed his technique!  

 

Aren't these fabulous?

Children can retell the story in sequence using the fabulous story props available at Kiz Club

or why not use their black and white images to create mini books? My class made mini caterpillar books and pasted the food images along the pages in alphabetical order.

If you are into first hand experiences as much as we are, you can find miniature butterfly farms at this site, a store that also has a special 40th anniversary butterfly bundle on sale! Insect Lore Store

We recorded our learning of the life cycle of a butterfly on paper plates as shown below:

I also threw together some interactive resources for our SMARTboard to help the children revise the days of the week, data handling, reading non-fiction for a purpose etc. I put some song words on there too.... there are so many brilliant songs to be found online about caterpillars!