Tag Archives: Primary School

Workshop: Mesolithic and Neolithic Life in Glen

October 2, 2013NewsAlana Mathers, Alison Sykora, All Our Stories, Argyll, Cowal, Food, Foraging, Forest, Forest School, Gatherer, Glen, Glen of the Red River, Glendaruel, Heritage Lottery Fund, History, Hunter, Kilmodan, Kilmodan Primary School, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Outdoors, Primary School, pupils, Sadie Dixon-Spain, Susan Gaffney, Timeline, Weaving, websiteAlana Mathers

Date: [Morning] Wednesday 2^nd of October 2013

Location: Kilmodan Primary School’s Forest School, Glendaruel

Workshop: Mesolithic and Neolithic Life in the Glen

Walking Youth Theatre Team: Sadie Dixon-Spain and Alana Mathers

Guests: Susan Gaffney and Alison Sykora

The aim of this exercise was to encourage the pupils of Kilmodan Primary to use their imaginations and experience what life would have been like in Mesolithic and Neolithic Glendaruel. This is where the timeline the pupils created begins, and by bringing to life this era, it allowed the children to have a realistic knowledge of how life has evolved, how the Glen has changed, and of course, aspects of life in the Glen which have remained from the Early Settlers.

We took part in ‘Forest School’, a weekly excursion to an allocated outdoor classroom the pupils undertake each week. Sadie and Alana from The Walking Youth Theatre were accompanied by weaver Susan Gaffney, and professional chef Alison Sykora, who kindly shared their expertise to give the pupils hands-on experience of Meso & Neo-lithic life.

Susan taught the pupils how to weave plates and bowls, the way our Early Settling descendants would have done so in the very beginning of life in the Glen. This fantastic hands-on experience was enjoyed by all, and our pupils made some expertly designed serving dishes, just in time for a Mesolithic feast!

Alison cooked up a Mesolithic feast, with a little help from our hardy pupils! Food foraging brought to our attention the vast variety of ingredients that lie in the Glen, and by using traditional methods as far as possible, our pupils had a real-life Hunter Gatherer experience! From fruit to fish, vegetables to seaweed, an extraordinary insight into the feasting habits of 10,000 years ago brought the history of the Red River to life in a very exciting way!

Draft pictures for the Kilmodan Primary School Page

September 11, 2013NewsAll Our Stories, Kilmodan, P2, Primary School, SketchesCharles Dixon-Spain

Archie and Callum spent the afternoon producing fabulous sketches of the school from the outside for the school page. As P2s their brief was to give us an idea of what the school looks like. Their angular drawings certainly give a great idea of the mid-70s architecture!

Workshop: Timelines

February 14, 2013NewsAll Our Stories, Argyll, Glen, Glen of the Red River, Glendaruel, Heritage Lottery Fund, History, Kilmodan Primary School, Primary School, Red River, Timeline, Walking Youth Theatre, websiteAlana Mathers

Date: Thursday 14^thFebruary 2013

Location: Kilmodan Primary School, Glendaruel

Workshop: Timelines

Walking Youth Theatre Team: Fiona Lochhead and Alana Mathers

This afternoon began with a brief chat with the pupils on the previous workshop; what we talked about, the activities we took part in, and what they learned. This acted as a refresher for those who took part, and an introduction to the project to those pupils who were absent on the workshop of the 31^st January.

We then moved on to discuss “Timelines” – What is a timeline, what information does it show, and how do we create one? Fiona shared her own personal timeline with the youth group: Born, moved house, school, university, jobs, today, etc. This gave the pupils a visual aid to help understand what a timeline is, and how it is made. The pupils were then put into groups, and set the task of completing their own personal timeline.

Timeline Task: At the beginning, some of the pupils found this task a challenge, which was expected. WYT staff & teachers worked with the groups to help create Timelines. The Timeline task was not created to gain information for the project as such, but to help the pupils understand how to construct and read a Timeline. All the students created their own Timeline, and from general feedback while working with the different groups, it seemed it was an interesting and enjoyable task. We then brought the children together, and asked them to share iconic points from their personal Timelines. Many were eager to share! Events included moving house, holidays, successful times on the farm, pets, and injury.

We then discussed how historical Timelines are useful tools in research, and how they can be constructed and read. It was explained that, with the schools help, we were creating a Timeline of Glendaruel, looking in to the history of their home Glen.

Human Jigsaw & Timeline: Following a break, we moved from the classroom to the activity area, to play a game with the pupils. Each student was given a card, which had three pictures and a name on it. Each card was from a particular period of history, all of which were relevant to the Glendaruel area. The aim of the game was for each child to use their card to find their partner amongst the other students, by asking questions about the pictures, and the names of the characters. Pairs included Vikings, Modern Day Glendaruel inhabitants, Jacobites, and Christian Monks. When each pair had been uncovered (which actually happened a lot quicker than expected!) it was time to get the pairs into the Human Timeline. Fiona gave a brief explanation of each period of history while the pupils were arranged into the correct order.

The pupils were also given a Glendaruel Word-search, which appeared to go down well as a “break” from the information overload!

Each pupil was given brief questionnaire for them to share with their parents to help them discuss the project with their parents & guardians, encouraging the children to keep an interest in the project, to engage parents/guardians with the project, and to find out more information on the Glendaruel residents and their history for the “All Our Stories” project.