Our Workshops.

Workshop 3- January 23rd 2019.

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During workshop 3 the children took apart more complex electrical equipment to use for decorating their robots. They had gained further experience using screw drivers and other tools and were more confident. 

After collecting a wide variety of items that they liked and had ideas for they redesigned their initial design to incorporate the new equipment found. 

  

Redesigning their original ideas.

          

     
















In the afternoon we went outside to practice our Animal orchestra we did a great deal of work modifying our conducting and experimented with dual conductors. 

We also conducted a survey based on our speaking and listening skills and what we thought about being creative. We had a great deal of discussion about language and how we talk to people in different situations. 

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Workshop 2- January 16th 2019

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During workshop 2 the children used a soldering iron and soldered their voice changers. They added a speaker to amplify their voices and then had a practise using them.

Taking toys apart.

Using a soldering iron to attach a larger speaker.

Disconnecting wires to the original speakers in the voice changer.

Deconstructing toys.

 

 

 

They also started to investigate the electrical equipment and a variety of toys by taking them apart. This was really a great way to see how things worked, what components were inside and how to use basic tools such as screw drivers and pliers- a completely new experience for most of them.

In the afternoon we worked outside using our voice in many ways, through games, as an ensemble and directed by a conductor. We discussed formal and informal language and where you would use it. We warmed up our vocal chords and thought about how we actually speak and listen to others. 

At the end of the day the children were given opportunity to discuss their day. 

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Workshop 1- January 9th 2019
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Activity 1

Introduction of the 'Spinny Microphone.' Every workshop will open with an opportunity for speaking and listening. There will be a topic open for discussion. The aim of this activity is to encourage everyone to speak and develop skills in using a microphone and listening, taking turns to talk and feeding back appropriately.

Activity 2

The children were given voice changers. They were asked to open them, place batteries inside and figure out how to operate them. As you can see from the video they had great fun speaking through them but they only managed to think of very basic things to say such as 'hello' or 'goodbye.' The voice changers will become a component of the robots they make.

Activity 3

The children were given a toy dog and as you can see they were delighted with it. They were asked to deconstruct the toy ready for modification. This was a delicate operation that required collaborative working and care. The components of the toy will be used for their own robots so they had to ensure that they didn't break anything.

Activity 5.

Paul took us outside to investigate using our voices. We plan on investigating how we can use our voice and to record the audio to accompany the work we are doing to develop our speaking and listening. We have started off mimicking animal noises. The children were a little apprehensive at first as you can see. Later Paul demonstrated how to use a soldering iron because we will be using it during workshop 2. The children also gave an account of how they thought the day went and how they felt being involved in the project. 

WANTED!! Please Help.

Can you help us?

Some of our Year 4 children are working on a Lead Creative School project where they are making robots to help develop their speaking skills. 

They need lots of broken electrical equipment and old toys to use in the construction of their robots.

We need...

old toys, laser inkjet printers, vcr players, dvd players, hifi units with speakers, pc towers, laptops, keyboards, computer mouse.

NO screens/monitors, hoovers, toasters, or any other kitchen appliances.

Please send in any equipment you have as soon as possible.

Many thanks, 

Mrs James

Our New Project.

This year our Lead Creative School Project has been created to help develop our speaking skills. The project is focussing on Year 4 children (Miss Parfitt's) class. 

We are working with Paul Granjon, an Artist, who is going to help us to make talking robots.

Paul has a website where you can see his work. Click on the link below.

Paul's Website. 

As part of the project process the children invited Paul for an interview in the Autumn. They were very impressed with him and believed that he would be fun, interesting and helpful in helping us to develop our speaking skills.

Over the next ten weeks on a Wednesday we are going to work with Paul. You can follow our progress by looking at this blog page.

We are very excited to be working with Paul and can't wait to see where this project will take us.

Mrs James.

OUR NEW LEAD CREATIVE SCHOOLS PROJECT 2018 - 2019

We are currently planning our next project. The focus for the next phase of our Lead Creative School programme is to raise standards in oracy and in particular to target boys. We have some exciting things in the pipeline and cannot wait to share them with you.

Keep an eye on the blog page.

Mrs James

Our School Magazine Launch Day.

Today we celebrated a first for Penygawsi Primary School. We launched our very own digital school magazine called 'Shout Aloud.' We hope families and the wider community will support our project. If you would like to contribute to our school magazine then please speak to one of the editorial team by emailing our school. 

The children - our editorial team, wrote and presented an assembly for the launch and did a great job of introducing it to the school.

 

 

Above are screen shots of our Shout Aloud web pages. 

Our school magazine can be found at 

www.shoutaloud.wales

The children have thoroughly enjoyed participating in this years Lead Creative School project. The funding from the Arts Council of Wales, Welsh Government and National Lottery has helped them to create, design and implement an innovative piece of work.  The children involved in the project had the opportunity to develop their Literacy skills in a fun, interesting and cross curricular way. Shout Aloud magazine belongs to everyone in our school and all of our children can submit content, be involved and develop their own Literacy skills. 

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The ethos behind the Lead Creative School programme has also helped support the children to become risk takers with their learning and be ambitious in their thoughts. The children showed a growing importance of how being persistent and working collaboratively was an advantage in producing their platform.

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The opportunity to research, present information differently via a website and multi media platforms such as animation and green screen film was fundamental in developing their literacy and digital literacy skills. They enjoyed it! From our project evaluation discussions they also realised that it doesn't matter how you decide to present information to the world, it needs a lot of thought, careful and exciting words and starts with the writing.

It has been exciting to work with Carl, our Creative Agent and Glen from Winding Snake and we would like to thank them both for their help and support. Mrs Udy, Mrs Farrell and I have enjoyed being part of the Lead Creative School team and the learning journey. 

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Well done to the editorial team who are so proud of what they have made for their friends, peers and our school. I think we should all 'shout aloud' and praise them for their huge success.

The Shout Aloud Editorial Team and Creators.

Showing the Shout Aloud news desk vlog to the school.

Carl, our creative agent speaking at our launch.

Mrs James

Lead Creative School Coordinator,  Leader of Digital Literacy & Creativity.

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Our School Magazine Launch Day Soon!

We are launching our digital school magazine 'Shout Aloud' on May 24th 2018. Make sure you save our school magazine website link on your device. 

Our school magazine website that has been designed, created and written by our children for our children.

Green Screen Work.

We participated in a workshop to learn how to green screen, speaking with a script and without one! You can see from the videos which way works the best and which format was the easiest to use. This style of delivering articles and news will be fun to do and it will make our Shout Aloud magazine website fun and interesting. We could even interview people and upload it. The fun part would be adding backgrounds that link to the stories and topics we discuss.