Guisely Infant School

Session 1
Introduce artist to the class. Told the story of Rumplestiltskin without showing the children pictures, and encouraged them to visualise and record their own images of setting and characters. Introduce the idea of a circular story mat and how/why this might help us to have class story time and discussions.

Session 2
The children made playdoh models of characters from Rumpelstiltskin, with enough detail to identify which characters they were portraying.

Session 3
Pupils explored the locations that the fairytale is set in through large-scale drawing that followed the journey Rumpelstiltskin made from the forest to the castle. Children were encouraged to use a wide range of media to draw things he might have seen in the way and to record his feelings and thoughts.

Session 4
The children explored outdoor space to find settings for the story.

Session 5
A large-scale map was installed in the classroom based on the work the children have completed. One side of the classroom is the castle area, linking with the forest area on the other side. The link is the journey of Rumplestiltskin that the children created on wallpaper, displayed high up on the wall, up and over the middle archway in the classroom.

The children have had the experience of seeing the artist making and solving problems as he designed and made the 3D castle installation and the woodland scene, working on his own or with two or three children at a time.

After this, the children were able to design their own castle or cottage out of cakes and sweets. This linked nicely with the idea of the witch’s edible cottage in the Hansel and Gretel story that we have also been studying.

Session 6
The children made character puppets and used the scenery in the art installations in the classroom to re-tell the story of Rumpelstiltskin. This lesson addressed literacy targets of:

• Being able to order a story.
• Being able to distinguish between the beginning, middle and end of a story.
• Using different voices to interpret different characters.
• Speaking clearly for an audience.

The project created a journey into visualising the world of Rumpelstiltskin, building in momentum as it progressed. The children saw all their work being used and transformed into the display and found new ways to play with it. They were then able to add to and interact with their work.

Drawing across the curriculum
Drawing helped to support the science topic on magnetism by giving the children a range of drawing skills to record the details of objects that they found to be magnetic. The children knew they were able to spend time looking carefully at the form and shape of objects around the classroom. The outcome was some very clear and detailed drawings of magnetic and non-magnetic objects on the children’s experiment results sheet. It helped the teacher to see whether the children had achieved the learning outcomes and whether they really did know the difference between magnetic and non- magnetic.  

Drawing helped to support the geography topic on mapping by giving the children a much better idea on perspective, distance and space. They were also more inventive and confident about using symbols to represent places.  

Drawing also helped to assess children’s knowledge and understanding in English. They were asked to record the beginning, middle and ends of traditional tales through pictures. The detail of characters and settings they illustrated were excellent, and the emotions of certain scenes were portrayed carefully, using colour and different pressure of strokes. This gave the teacher a greater insight into the children’s understanding of the stories and helped with assessment data.   

Reflection
One of the key achievements was that the project raised the status of drawing in the classroom, so that for the children drawing is now not just a thing to do after they finish their writing, but it has become a really important way of engaging with ideas, exploring feelings and creating work to be proud of.

Another key achievement was the creation of a huge art installation in the classroom made entirely from the work of the children. They were so excited and proud of the finished piece. The layered details in the installation showed just how hard the children had worked and how much they had achieved. The children used drawing to help them visualise characters, plots and settings. They used it to help them express ideas, thoughts and feelings and to help them engage with others in a creative and positive way. They learnt that drawing does not just have to be representational or true to real life. They found ways of expressing emotions through mark-marking, colour and texture. From the children’s work and from what they said, it is evident that they found the activities exciting, challenging and meaningful.

Overall the attitude to drawing in the classroom and the status placed upon it by the children was the most perceptible change. Drawing has become a way for the children to record their ideas and understanding across the curriculum. They use many more details in their drawing in a range of curriculum areas, so drawing as an assessment tool has become extremely valuable. However this change in attitude has also affected the way in which the children engage with learning. They are less likely to become bored or distracted and simply enjoy using this expressive outlet to connect and explore new ideas.

Inter-professional collaboration
The artist and teacher explain that this was an equal partnership, where they were able to spend most of the time working with children, supported with very quick and focused planning conversations in between.  They both owned the project and had equal creative input into it.

The teacher felt that they worked very well together, with each using their strengths effectively to lead and support as appropriate.  One of the most valuable things they did was to allow the project to be fluid and adapt plans to suit the children and the time constraints. She explains:

Working with an artist gave me confidence to experiment and to try new, innovative and exciting ideas that she had not ever done before. The introductory session and discussions with the artist opened my eyes to the possibility of what could be done to help the children engage with the ideas through drawing and recording, not only the world around them, but also their own thoughts and feelings. This programme gave me the freedom and justification to try out a range of exciting new activities with the children that are not the normal paper and pencil activities so often associated with art and design lessons. The new activities and ways of working that I have learned during this programme will stay with me throughout my career and support my teaching methods in the future.

The artist explains:

For me it was a chance to work in a more integrated way with a teacher in the classroom setting and being able to observe the cycles of work i.e. the length of time children spend on activities. I am still thinking about this, but one of the biggest impacts was a boy who came up to me and said he had finished the task and once I had acknowledged that, he relaxed, went back to the task and became engrossed in it. There is something there about giving children space to lose themselves in an activity.

The other impact on me is the creation of displays in classroom, and how you can use the children’s art to make the display but keep it in a state of work in progress so that it can be added to over the weeks and interacted with. Displays are often a static and finished presentation but they don’t have to be like that.

I would like to develop more work around these principles of slow and fast cycles of work and the work in progress display which doesn’t put the onus on the teacher doing it all herself.

Pupils

Look at my castle. Look at all the rooms, but she only went in that one, that one and that one. Daniel.

Here is Rumpelstiltskin and he has got his foot stuck in the floorboards. I drew his foot really big so it gets stuck bad. Rosie.

I drew his face to show how Rumpelstiltskin is feeling on his journey. Amelia.

I drew these trees quite small but they could grow really, really high. Bevan.

I drew the thunderstorm using orange and red chalk and you can't even see Rumpelstiltskin's face, but he comes out the other side. Lewis.

I think the pattern got happier because it was halfway down the paper and so he knew he was halfway home. Charlotte.

I know why we have to leave little spaces between the bricks. It’s for the cement or the castle will fall down. Lemoni.

When is Anthony coming back to work with us? He can help us grow all those trees on the wall and I like it when he is here. Callum.

Wow, look how far it is to get to the castle from Rumpelstiltskin’s house. No wonder he was tired going all that way. Joshua.