This session at university was a mixture between both art and ICT. We initially had an art lesson where we learnt a variety of new skills. Following this, we used the resources that we made in the art lesson, photographed them and transformed the photos into an interactive book.

I will begin by discussing the art lesson and the new skills we learnt. We were first taught about the technique of printing and the variety of styles and materials that go alongside this. For example, Using objects to print onto surfaces with; manmade objects, natural objects, sponge shapes, letters, numbers or body parts. Monoprinting; mark making or drawing into ink or paint and blocking out ink or paint with paper shapes. Using and making printing blocks; pre-made printing blocks, card prints and collagraphs and glue/String prints. Cutting into the printing block/tile; press print, linocut or woodcut. This is known as relief printing.

We were also advised that we could use a variety of materials to print with such as, paint and ink. Below is an example of a print I made and used to create snowflakes during this session. I created this print by carving the snowflake shape into polystyrene and painting over the top with paint.

Whilst half of the group were sent to work on creating a background using printing, the other half were sent to make characters using clay. We decided on a wintry Santa Claus scene and the models we made we of penguins and an elf. You can see these below!

Following this, we were then asked to put our background together with our characters and create a scene, I was so proud and impressed with our final piece and really feel it was so simple yet so effective. To do this with children over a term would be so much fun and they would gain so much from it. See our final piece below!

This is the point where ICT took over. Our task was to use our background and characters that we had created in our art session to make an interactive book. We used an app called ‘book creator’ to do this. We took lots of photos of our scene, moving our characters about to create different scenes. We could then insert it into a book with turning pages where we could add music and text to each page to create a story. From my experience children love using technology and being able to create a story using something they have made is so rewarding and will teach them invaluable skills.

You can see the story book that we created below:

I believe that using the iPads for books for children to read, create and look at whenever they want to is an excellent way to encourage young children to read and enjoy stories. As I have mentioned in an earlier post, Storybird is an excellent website which allows you to create your own stories using unique artwork. Another website which is a useful for online books is Oxford Owl.

As I have mentioned in a previous post, music is something which I really enjoy and feel is a very important aspect in early years education as it is something that all children can engage with. During our second music session we were shown not only how to make music with a variety of instruments, but also the vast range of apps that can be used to create music. The session started by us looking through a resource pack that contained a variety of ways to introduce music and song into early sessions in classroom. This resource pack was called ‘Sing up – breakfast club’. I really liked these songs as they are all short and simple. I will definitely be using them in my future practice as a teacher. You can download your free breakfast club sing up pack by clicking the picture below.

After looking through the resource pack and practicing some of the songs as a group, we were then shown some apps that can be used to create music. The app that was suggested to do this was called ‘garage band’. This app allowed you to play a variety of instruments such as guitar and drums and blend the sounds together to create a piece of music. The app also has a recording device so you can also add your voice to the music. I found that this app was relatively simple to use, however, if this was to be used with younger children, then adult supervision would be advised to ensure children could access all aspects of the app to their full potential.

Our task was then to use real instruments, our voices and the garage band app to create the sound effects of a moving train. This could be tailored in a classroom environment to suit a particular child’s interests. We worked in a group of three and we each had a role to ensure that our recording was successful. We used a mixture of instruments and our voices to create the sound of a train leaving a platform, travelling at speed and then arriving at its next platform and recorded this on the garage band app. It is suggested that if this task was being carried out with children, you would show them a video or sound effects of a train leaving a station to inspire them. To hear the train sound effects that we created, click on the picture of the train below!

The idea of getting children to create their own ‘sounds’ of every day objects is a brilliant idea and is a way of getting children to express themselves musically in a unique way. An important part of getting children to try unique and different activities is to model first. The BBC Website provides some excellent stimulus sounds to encourage listening skills.

Our second ICT lesson taught us about plugged and unplugged activities and how we could link these together to provide a serious of excellent learning opportunities for children. Before the session I had never heard the terms ‘plugged’ and ‘unplugged’ before, so this
session was a real learning opportunity for me. Plugged activities can be described as those that use a source of technology such as iPads, and cameras etc. Unplugged activities, therefore, are activities which don’t use any sources of technology. During this session we were introduced to a variety of different apps that we could use in the classroom for a plugged activity. For example, we were shown an app called ‘Build a train’. This app allows the player to build a train track for the train and decide on which direction the train will go, how fast or slow the train will go and when the train stops and starts. It was then suggested that this could be linked to an unplugged activity such as children working in pairs building their own train tracks, one child being in control of the toy train and the other child giving instructions for the train to go in certain directions, or to speed up and slow down etc. These activities would provide children with the opportunity to learn about directional language and giving or receiving instructions.

Working in groups of three, we were then asked to create our own linked plugged and unplugged activities as well as relating them to real life. As there were many groups choosing to use pre-made apps for their plugged activities, our group wanted to do something a little bit different. Therefore, we decided for our plugged activity, our source of technology would be remote control cars. The activity we chose was to have a maze set up in the outdoor area with dead ends and obstacles etc. Children would then work in pairs, one child would be controlling the remote control car, and the other child would be giving directions, as a pair they would have to work together to try and escape the maze in the quickest time. This was then linked to our unplugged activity which we decided would work best in P.E sessions, children would work in their same pairs, one child would pretend to be a car and the other child would have to direct them out of the maze in the quickest time. Again this would be working on their directional language, ability to give/receive instructions and working as part of a team. We then decided we could link this to real life by showing children a video of a satnav and showing how a satnav gives instructions and how it works.

This session was really informative and showed how easy it is to create a series of exciting lessons, using a healthy balance of technology. I will definitely use what I have learnt from this session in my future teaching practice.