DACA: The Workshop

So today was the day, we actually got the workshop done. It was amazing, there were a few hiccups but nothing we couldn't handle. We started off the day by getting an earlier train so that we would have 40 minutes or so to set up the classroom. We had another run through of our script on the train and had a little "we can do this team" whilst traveling. I was slightly nervous but after getting the kick we needed last week I felt ready for it.

The day started great we had plenty of time to upload the powrpoint. It was a good job that we did come earlier because we had a slight problem with a link on our powerpoint but we got it sorted, we got the afternoons powder paint ready to go. We even had time for a brew before the kids got there.

We had sent a letter home and teachers had told the children that they should wear old clothes. Some had them on and other had them in their bag so we had to wait around 10 minutes while the kids changed into their clothes as a result of this we cut the starter games down, so they took less time.

The media we chose was because when we were in DACA the kids only seemed to use paint so we wanted them to experiment with chalk,oil pastel, food colouring, ink, powder paint etc.

Kids drawings of emotions

example of envy

The morning ran exactly to plan and smoothly, all the kids were really engaged with the activities we had planned, getting stuck into it. We gave them an emotion and they got on with their personal drawings which they were told they had 15 minutes for. Some kids finished early so they just got on with another emotion. At the end we spoke about our drawings within our small groups and why we did what we did. Everybody really got stuck in on the Elsa task (making frozen another film genre) we also got involved in the workshop. We had incentives, the idea I took from DACA. So the best 2 frozen posters got a box of maltersers. This really helped with keeping the kids involved but also because the film we chose was relevant to their age group. We did this so each small group picked a winner then the class picked a winner out of the smaller groups.

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the kids Frozen pictures

We made colour the over riding theme of our workshop first with what colour means in general with the ball game where we chose a colour and the person who caught the ball said an emotion that linked to it. Then what colour and emotion personally means to the individual through the emotion painting. We then looked at colour semiotics, art direction i.e. frozen and how companies use colour to influence what you but. We did this by getting the kids to do a label for a drink they were going to make then they had to add food colouring to drinkable water to make the colour of their drink. They then had the chance if they wanted to drink their drink. This really engaged all the student as everything about this activity was new to them. Some asked are you sure were aloud to try this drink. Because it was a foreign concept to them the kids seemed to all join together all speaking among themselves. Asking whats your drink called? And are you going to try it?

Making the labels

All the kids drinks

Adding the food colouring

one of the winning bottles

trying the drink

During the morning we had back up activities in case anything didn't last as long as we thought but they weren't needed and everything ran smoothly. I the afternoon we hit a few bumps we had been given the okay to perform our colour Olympics outside bu on the day we were told we couldn't due to it being lunchtime for other years. This could have stopped us in our tracks but we planed for in case this happened so while the kids were on lunch we got dust sheets and covered the room. This protected all the walls and surrounding area of the classroom. However as our plan was, we rolled paper and canvas on the floor so that it would catch the paint and create a background for our collage.

This didn't work as there was too much dust so we had to roll the paper up and throw it away we managed to salvage the canvas and went with that. The floor was covered so we flipped a dust sheet over so it had a clean surface for the kids to now work on. I had to think on my feet as the kids would be back soon so this was the best way at the time.

mid way through paint fight

shows dust sheets

Kids doing the collage

after the floor collage we knew that we had to start some kind of clean up so we thought on our feet and get the kids all come on one long table. We rolled out a long piece of paper and each child had a section each and thy were to tell us about how they felt the day went in there own way. This meant that we were getting feedback and we had all the kids at the front so some of the MMU students could clean up the back. After it we went along and each child told us what they has done on their section and what it signified.

final feedback collage

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close up of one child's section

To end the day we gave the kids a fabric pen and they wrote feedback of the day on our t shirts this was a great way of getting feedback. It wasn't a simple questionnaire and it was relevant for the ages group and got them engaged. We finished the day with the ball game from the beginning of the day and it was great to see how much quicker the ball was being thrown because now knew some emotion and colour links. Overall I feel the day went well and personally felt like a great accomplishment for our group, we pulled it together and worked as a team.

our DACA group and kids

Both DACA groups and kids