Arts for Hearts, Year 3

Year three (7-8 year olds)

After lunch I worked with the year three children. This group seemed much more advanced so I adapted the session accordingly. We started with a discussion about health- foods, drinks, activities, sports, staying clean, etc. This group had a good concept of how to be healthy and where able to discuss this confidently in a group.

I decided to give them more ownership over the banner they would create and I split the class into team of 3 and 4 to come up with designs using the themes we had discussed. This worked really well. I called the class back to the floor after 15 minutes of drawing to discuss what they had come up with. I then explained that we had various colours of large squares of felt and that they must decide in their group what colour would be best for their designs. This was a great opportunity to develop their decision-making and negotiating skills whilst in a team. They responded very well and although some team picked the same colour, they were able to come up with solutions that worked for everybody.

The next challenge for the teams was to decide how each person in their team would contribute to the design on the felt square. Each team took an individual approach to this. Some took it turns to do their own picture, some clearly divided up the square into four of three, some gathered around and all drew at the same time, and some where happy to instruct the others in the group and not take part in the actual drawing themselves.

After some time I demonstrated how to cut a hole in the felt to attached it to the banner and called on a volunteer to demonstrate it also and after they had completed this we decided on the layout of the banner by voting and some of the group helped to attach the squares to the banner.

Feedback: ‘That was good’