Autumn 2018
Mrs. Mahmood had the privilege to take four lucky Year 5 children to attend an Arts day at Bablake School. The children attended the event which consisted of them participating in drama, music and art activities.
The first session was a ‘drama’ session in which they worked with students from different schools to share what ‘creative’ means. They created movements to show certain concepts whilst focusing on showing creativity and individuality. Children started off, by putting their movements in to a freeze frame, then making it live and then showing extreme movement by showing how their concept would look with higher level intensity. Finally they collaborated the concepts and brought them to the centre of the stage to create final performances. This consisted of movement, sound and lights. It was a wonderful experience for the children and really got them to think out of the box.
This was a fantastic session in which the children played the african drums. Children discussed how the drums are made and so understood how the sounds differ as you tap the drum in different places. They then practised following a beat and making a beat. After some practise, children were given a certain beat to play for a certain time. They then sang a short song and followed the beat accordingly to the timings given which was quite challenging as they had to multitask. After some practise, they showed great confidence and teamwork and delivered a fantastic performance.
For the final session, children took part in craft activities in which they made some minibeasts using wires and fabric. They thoroughly enjoyed this session and were taught how to make, bugs, dragonflies and spiders. It was a challenge at first but with practise and great perseverance, they all succeeded and had some amazing final pieces to take away with them.
After lunch, children met an actual artist, Emma O’Brien who shared her journey of becoming an artist. Through this session children learnt about her work and the different routes she had to take to get to where she is today. She shared the obstacles she faced and how she overcame those as well as the importance of having a growth mindset. Children completed their interview sheet and then had a question and answer session before looking at some of the work by the artist.
Overall, it was an eventful day which children loved. They all participated enthusiastically and returned back to the school, wanting to share their experience and also attend more arts related events. The children gained an official Arts Award certificate as a reward for participating in all the events. They can continue the arts awards by participating out of school and can work up the levels.
We hope to select other children and give them an opportunity to take part in such events. Children who attended will share their experiences with the school via an assembly.