Day 4 Week 4 at Claremont

Another exciting day spent in the classroom. We had the privilege of hearing the children read their stories out from the front of the class and then to see lots of the artwork already produced. Not only are there some really great writers in the group, but there are also some really great artists!

Claremont - Day Three - Week three

We actually spent our session in the main classroom this time with the whole group (minus a couple that had gone on a trip), so this meant we had a lot more new recruits as well as the regular group. All the children had been working on this project during the week, taking ownership of it and coming up with some really great things. They had even made a display for the wall (see image below), thinking of words describing the forest, finding images around the theme and even displayed the photographs that we had taken of them hard at work. What was also exciting was the piece of writing that was displayed on the monitor and read out by one of the boys, which they had all worked on together. They had used some fabulous adjectives which helped to conjure up the imagery of the forest and Daisy's pending adventure.

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And now the next set of photographs needs to be in a separate grouping, as in the absence of Myra today, I broke photography rules and had the children 'show off' their drawings with 'big grins'- (sorry!) 

and then who could refuse getting the camera out again for this great t-shirt 

                                             and then finally to capture the classes 'toy rabbit'!

Claremont Day two - Week two

The children hadn't had much time to write up their stories from last week, so a few of them narrated theirs for us and the rest of the group. The stories contained a lot of exciting twists and turns with some vivid images springing to mind. This session we had two new pupils who were brought up to speed and very quickly started sharing their ideas and writing them down. The rest of the group started drawing, mostly examining what their characters would look like and some actually diving straight into some action scenes. A couple of children were keen to render their drawings only in pencil without any colour, which from an artist's point of view was quite interesting (especially in an age of digital technicolor). They will have some time next week to do some more work on this project and we are keen to see how their stories will become more rounded and perhaps see some more drawings or even paintings for next weeks session.

Claremont School - Day one - Week one

The project has now moved on to Claremont School.
Day one - a different school and a different group of children to introduce the project to. Ideas from the group were flowing backwards and forwards non-stop, which was fabulous (in fact one boy was bursting with ideas). They all agreed however, that they would help each other to develop the strongest stories within small groups and this way there wouldn't be too many themes, sending the narrative off-track. There are some really strong storylines coming through already which is really exciting. Kincraig school started a little slower, but gained momentum towards the end. And Claremont have definitely taken on the challenge. After all, this is a competition and only three schools have been invited to be involved and we are looking for the best stories and the best illustrations... so gauntlets on schools and pupils!

A couple of ' quick taster photos' (until Myra's beautifully framed, crisp photos arrive)

(and now for Myra's photos:)

Day three at Kincraig

Well done Kincraig! We now have some finished stories to put forward for the competition and what exciting reads they are. From castles to dolphins and big scary spiders to tornados…..plenty of things to sink your teeth into for the illustration side of the project, which is what comes next…...
We started visualising how we could describe the main action or key plots and what form it would take. It was suggested that it would be nice to have a blend of figurative and textural work. The artwork could be realistically represented or be more abstract and organic, possibly suggesting atmosphere or an emotional response.  Any other work could even be used to create backgrounds.

(apologies for the photography - we were all so busy, the small camera was brought out quickly towards the end of the session)

Day two of the project

Day two began with the children reading some of their 'dream' stories out.  There were some really imaginative and exciting ideas and the children are now starting to discuss things in a more concrete and tangible way. The main focus for this session was to look more closely at the story lines, getting to grips with the actual concepts and then following the story logically through to the next stage. The opening line after the introduction, was given extra consideration, as it is key to engaging the reader and drawing them into the story.

In the absence of Myra, the photography this week is courtesy of Ann Charlesworth
(who unfortunately has a much smaller camera!)

The girl who could paint dreams - the official start of the Fylde C.A.P Schools Project (Fylde Community Arts Projects)

Today is the first day of our new Fylde C.A.P Schools Project.  Our first School for this exciting writing and illustration venture is Kincraig Primary School.
The premise of this project is that 3 specially selected local schools take part in this creative competition helping to provide 'dreams' which will also be illustrated by the children. The chosen entries will then be published in book format.

We introduced our project to the children and Marjorie Nye read the introductory part of the story, which would begin the dreams sequence.  Everyone quickly engaged with the idea and were so excited to discuss initial ideas and some started exploring their images.

                                                (All images courtesy of Myra Boyle).

The Fylde C.A.P team: Maria Bertolone (Artist), Ann Charlesworth (Artist) and 
Marjorie Nye (Chairperson and Writer).
Myra Boyle is the missing member, as the resident Photographer (and retired teacher).

selected images of the children thinking about, discussing and planning their stories...