Just because...

Sometimes we do things with the children just because it is fun... and just because you loved it as a child too...

We have, in the last few weeks being checking out buildings in Stockholm... the children selected buildings from the internet (a google search) and the ones I did not recognise I checked on the website of the image to confirm that they are in fact in Stockholm... I would like to point out at this stage... despite the fact I checked, it did not mean I gor it right...
This last building was NOT in Stockholm, but for some reason it said on the website that it was located in Värta Port (when the boats for Finland set sail... except they are not sail boats).
As I tired to find the exact address so we could visit... like we had visited the other 7 buildings in Stockholm, I made the discovery (after checking 5-6 web pages) that the building was in fact in Denmark... not even in Sweden, let alone Stockholm... but it was designed by the same archtects that designed the new buildings in Värta Port. So I talked with the children, and we agreed that we would check out these building instead to see if we could see any similarietes with the one that had orginally being selected... BUT I am serioulsy writing at a tangent here...

The building had a glass lift... and I knew as a child I LOVED glass lifts... so we went up and down for no reason at all except to experience the glass lift.

The children also got to play in the sculpture... it looked like there was water for the mermaid to splash into, but it was just very shiney tiles...
The children could play in there as long as their boots did not touch the tiles (my rules, to protect the artwork somewhat... ) Originally the idea was so that the children did not climb into the art work... but they soon worked out that they could play in there with their feet up... OK, I made the rule, and they had worked around it in a creative way... I let them. One child was hesitant... what if someone gets angry at me for playing here... I assured her that it would be my fault and not hers, as I had allowed them to play there... she dived into the play with joy...
I was surprised that none of them thought of taing their boots off... but it was fun watching them squirm around with feet in the air... an elaborate play evolving - mermaids, bad guys, magic... the markings on the floor and the scultpure very much inspiring the play...

In fact it really made me think how important floor/ground surface is... the patterns, texture etc REALLY does impact play...

We were at the City Hall a few weeks ago... and the criss cross patterns of the ground there inspired an complax chasing game based on a labyrinth... you can see the patterns on the image below on the left... This space overlooking the South Island and The Old Town is one the children have asked to return to, as they thought it was so much fun to play there... no playground equipment... just play.

In a way I am so enjoying watching the children making their own play spaces out of what is technically designed for adults...  Just because... they can!!

The film-making continues

Today we finished off making the films (actually we worked on it yesterday too... doing the titles and and credits...)

The children are really happy with the film and are looking forward to adding sound to it next week.

This session today also involved the whole group filming at once... and there was a huge difference ebtween the first time we filmed (as a whole group) and this time since they were so much more practised... the filming in small groups had given them enough confidence and awareness of how to make the films that thye could support each other more during the process rather than it being so much of me (even though it does require a LOT more input from me than other projects we do).

Films the children have made individually or in pairs have not needed much guidance from me at all... some of the children are completely independant... but as a whole group (and this is a small group of 8 children) there needs to be my voice added to the mix to enable the film process to remain smooth and also to encourage those children who start to lose focus that staying with it will be worth it in the end... and yes, they agreed, it WAS worth it, when they saw the film scenes played...

Here is the final scene from the film... not going to quite reveal what it is all about... but he children had to come up with a title for their film yesterday... and for some reason this one has loaded up rather slow... but all will be fixed before the final viewing where all scenes are put together...

This was an interesting process to follow... as the children started saying random things that sounded good, or that they liked... so it brought us to a great discussion about titles, books and films... and how going to see a film called Spiderman when the film was actually about Batman might be a bit confusing.... or reading a book called the Life of  a Crocodile and the book was actually about how to build a robot would probably be equally confusing... so the children gor thinking again... and said it was tricky.
So I asked if we should watch all the scenes again, and talk about the plan to end the film... this helped them a great deal to remember what the film was about...

WAR and PEACE
is the name of the film.

I think we might explore what thses words mean in the future...

"Is there bacteria on hands?"

"Is there bacteria on hands?"

Was the shocked exclamation when I mentioned why we wash our hands before meals... after several of the children had been involved in some serious nasal exploration...

So I set up an experiment... one slice of bread that all the children got to handle without washing their hands... and then a control slice that I put in a sealed bag after the children saw me wash and disinfect my hands and also touching the bread as little as possible...

The bags were marked "with hands" and  "without hands" - and taped to the window. Of course with it being winter the window was acting as a fridge... so nothing much was happening... so I moved them to another window (internal one) so that the chill facter would ceaseto slow things down... it then took 24 hrs for mould to appear on the handled bread...

Not much... but enough to see the difference...

I guess now with a weekend allowing the bread to feed the mould that there should be quite some development on both breads...

We also looked at images of bacteria and virus under the microscope... choosing ones that the children had succombed to recently like tummy bugs, colds and ear infections...
We talked about how the white blood cells were heroes and were fighting off the virus/bacteria and that fever, and pain were all part of the battle to get rid of the virus/bacteria that did not belong there...

It was an interesting dialogue that had all the children totally fascinated... me too!

UPDATE: Monday 7th March

Discovering a city

As the film has been developing a need for  a background has arisen... and instead of doing a random background the opportunity to explore our city has come up..

We googled building in Stockholm and the children chose the building that most strick a chord with them... some have chosen modern, others have chosen historical... I have learned about buildings I did not know existed in Stockholm. On Thursdays we are exploring Stockholm to find out buildings...

Last week we travelled for 45 minutes to west Stockholm to vist Vällingby shopping centre... as one of the buildings had been chosen by the children...

This week we visted Riddarkyrkan (The Knight's Church - the oldest church in Stockholm) and Waterfront - a very modern building. As we are doing a Leonardo Da Vinci project i related the church age to Leonardo... that the church was 200 years older than Leonardo... that really surpised the children... an 800 yr old church right in front of us. (Of course I personally come from a much older city where 800 years is nothing - my city had been in action for a 1,000 yrs before that.. I come from York, and as you read, fiercely proud of my history).
The children connected to their history... just as I have connected to mine.

We then played at the City Hall - as they have a garden on the water front. There is nothing there except for pathways and statues - and tourists who want to take photos of preschoolers on excursions... (for real I had to tel several no, its not OK to take photographs of the children... the ones I share here I blur out the faces!!!

As we left the City Hall the children exclaimed... we NEED to come back to this playground again. I loved the fact that the children were so happy playing heree... in the garden where Swedish politicians work... seemed so appropriate somehow... hope it reminded them of what they need to accomplish... as the children played and laughed... I know the security guard kept trying to hide his smiles...

We took the boat back... after all Stockholm is made of many islands... so if we are to explore our city we need to explore the water too....

Film-making. Session 3

After my steep learning curve last week I divided the children up this week into two groups... which happened to be perfect for the two scenes we filmed today... While one group filmed the other group played in the role-play area.

I also shared my learning with the children... letting them know I had noticed that making a film was not as much fun when there was so much turn taking... and that working in small groups meant that there would be more space and more tunrs for everyone... the children agreed with me...

and more importantly reality agreed with me...

Film-making was much more fun with groups of 3-4 children.

There will be two more... possibly 3 more scenes and then the film will be ready... well... ready for the next stage that is...

Here is a sneeky peek of one of the scenes from today...

In the afternoon there was more film making using various things in the contruction area... here the children work much more independently... depending on their prior skills... some of the children are from other groups and therefore have no knowledge of how it works... so they are supported by myself and the children...

here are some fo the films

age 5

age 5

age 4

Using the saw...

The lego stop-motion film is not the only way Vinden is exploring robots... the robot dance is going to be filmed too... so now the children are busy making props for the film... a giant robot being one of the props...
A large pipe was suggested as legs... the children laughed... "its far too long" they exclaimed... "So how can we make it shorter?"... "with a saw" chimed the children.
So as we sawed the children started quoting lines from Alfons Åberg "Aja Baja" where Alfons is absolutely not allowed to use the saw. You can find out more about Alfons (Alfie Atkins) here

The children had a great respect for the saw, had full focus, marvelled at the sawdust, helped each other (by sitting on the pipe to keep it steady - that was also hard work) and also peering into the pipe and seeing how the saw went through into the middle.
When one leg was ready... "how do we make sure that the other leg is the same length?" - "We need to measure it"... the children had all the answers we needed!

Once the legs were ready we moved onto finding the rest of the body... the children rummaged around the atelier, looking in the boxes and shelves for something suitable (since we had just had a deleivery a week ago we had fresh boxes available, as well as packaging... the children made full use of this...
The body and head boxes were painted metallic to continuous exclamations of "this is so much fun".

Not sure whether we will be working on this next week or not... it might be decorated, robot style... but as it is a school break, and several of the children will be away, we will be putting the project on hold for a week - its more fun when we are all together... next week will most probably be dedicated to 100% free play...

Film-making Session Two

Oh this is a steep learning curve for me, I can tell you that...

Its fun, and a little frustrating... becuase part of me is working hard on trying to enable the children, part is dealing with this whole film-making thing, which is new to me too, and part of me is trying to make sure that everyone is included, taking care of each other, and that the process is not taking too long so that it goes beyond being meaningful... nothing without joy and all that...

Today I felt I pushed myself almost to the point of losing it... but colleague observers said that they had not noticed that I was dealing with frustration on the inside as apparently I was remaining calm on the outside.

My mistake... TOO MANY mini-figures...
There was just too many for the children to move each shot to allow the process to be fairly fluid... it took too long for the children to move in and move their figure... and then move out of the way so that the next child could come in and move their figure... and if I was to remind another child about moving so another could come in... I could quite possibly have lost it... I must have reminded them every single time - and since there are 65 pictures and 7 children involved that was a lot of reminders in a short period of time...
And of course the children did not want to move out of the way, they all, quite rightly, wanted centre stage to be able to see the action... even though I tried to find an area that would have enough space, as well as good lighting, as well as room to put a background image, it simply was not large enough. I might move it slightly for the next session, to create a bit more space... it might juts be enough...
Also the film will have to take a slightly different direction and that some of the characters will take more space... we have done scene 1 and 2 today... maybe some of the scenes can be just a few of the children, different combinations each time to allow the flow to be better.

The children want a fight scene... and right now with so many figures, it is just too complicated... so we are in dialogue about how we can do a "fight scene" that will work...

But we have for now plans for up to scene 5.

Today we finished off the background... just one child's building not glued onto it yet... but that will come at the end of the week... the child is at home sick at the moment...

I ended up being director... this was not my intention... I had handed over as much to the children as I could... but there was just too many children (only 7, but with 7 different ideas and no winning concept) I felt that if I got it started the story would come ... and it did... the story comes from the children in dialogue with me... or rather I seemed to be the channel for THEIR story.

Anyway... here is scene 1 from today...
I won't be revealing the storyline... or all of the scenes until late April and we have our premiere viewing for the parents...

And here is an image of the background

The painted part comes from when we painted our clay robots, and we used the left over metallic paints and colours in a Together Painting at the easel.
Tomorrow we will be taking a 45 minute journey to the west Stockholm suburbs (we are located in the south Stockholm suburbs) to visit a shopping centre there... it is the red and white building to the left middle above Globen... a very modern building...
I have not included the space for the last building on this image... we did allow room for the last one...