All posts by Alana Mathers

Workshop: Creating Visuals

April 25, 2013NewsAlana Mathers, All Our Stories, Argyll, Art, Clans, colour, Cowal, design, development, Families, Forest, Glen of the Red River, Glendaruel, Heritage Lottery Fund, History, Kilmodan, Kilmodan Primary School, Project, Rebecca Bloom, Timeline, Visuals, Walking Youth Theatre, websiteAlana Mathers

Date: Thursday 25^th of April 2013

Location: Kilmodan Primary School, Glendaruel

Workshop: Creating Visuals

Walking Youth Theatre Team: Rebecca Bloom and Alana Mathers

Today’s workshop focused on creating visuals for the website, to showcase the Kilmodan Primary Pupils artistic talents.

To start, we spoke about families and Clans, identifying family groups that currently reside in the Glen that the pupils are a part of, or aware of, and discussing iconic families and Clans from the Glen’s past – particularly the Campbells and the Lamonts. We then moved on to creating Family Shields – each pupil began creating a shield for their family group in the Glen. A variety of shields were created – some including representations of the houses, family members, work and employment, tartan, and of course, the Red River.

We then moved back to the timeline, and spoke about the way the people would have dressed throughout the years. The pupils had some great ideas on what fashion would have been like throughout the different time periods, thinking greatly about what resources, fabrics, and techniques would have been available at each point. From this, the pupils were then each given a period from the timeline, and set the task to create a character as an icon of their specific point in history. From Mesolithic Hunter Gatherers in animal skins, to kilted Jacobites, mysterious looking Monks, to trendy Victorian gents, the pupils captured the timeline characters perfectly! Look out for the characters on the website, and on the timeline!

Workshop: Red River Re-cap!

April 18, 2013NewsAlana Mathers, All Our Stories, Argyll, Cowal, education, games, Glen of the Red River, Glendaruel, Heritage Lottery Fund, History, Kilmodan, Kilmodan Primary School, learning, pupils, re-cap, Red River, Sadie Dixon-Spain, school, Timeline, Walking Youth Theatre, website, WorkshopAlana Mathers

Date: Thursday 18^thof April 2013

Location: Kilmodan Primary School, Glendaruel

Workshop: Red River Re-cap!

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

Today’s short workshop was very high-energy, and lots of fun! The pupils were all very enthusiastic about engaging with the Glen of the Red River project following the break.

To refresh the memories of the pupils, we played a number of ‘Timeline’ games, to encourage the pupils to think about the history of the Glen, and the time periods they have already studied. It was great to see how much information the pupils had remembered, and to hear the questions they were asking on life in the Glen throughout the ages.

The pupils also highlighted the particular historical periods they were most interested in learning about, and identified ones the curriculum had already touched on.

This afternoons activities allowed us to gather facts the pupils were already well versed in regarding particular historical time periods, particularly the Vikings.

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.

Workshop Number One!

January 31, 2013NewsAlana Mathers

Date: Thursday 31^st of January 2013

Location: Kilmodan Primary School, Glendaruel

Workshop: Glendaruel – what do we know about our home?

Walking Youth Theatre Team: Fiona Lochhead and Alana Mathers

The workshop began with a brief chat with the pupils about Glendaruel, and what they already know about the Glen. It was clear the history of the Glen was a subject that the children did not know a lot about, but they were very enthusiastic about the landscape, farmland, sights, nature, and wildlife that can be found in and around Glendaruel.

To get the pupils thinking about their favourite things about Glendaruel, we played a word association game, where a circle was formed, with Fiona in the middle, throwing a soft ball to the children who had to respond with a word that linked to life in the Glen. Words such as “sheep, hills, rain, river, Dunans Castle, fields, farms, shinty, Kilmodan Carved Stones” were often mentioned.

Following this, the pupils were then to create a poster for Glendaruel, drawing their impressions of the Glen. It was interesting to see what the children drew – mainly their impressions of the land, and many representations of Dunans Castle and the river.

We then moved on to talk about the name “Glendaruel” – what does it mean, and why? The Gaelic translation “The Glen of the Red River” was discussed, and we got the children to think about why it would be called the “Red River”. Fiona told a story about Vikings, which mentioned the theory of blood from a great battle caused the river to run red, hence the name River Ruel. In groups, the pupils came up with their own ideas as to why the River Ruel is called this. Great feedback from them, with ideas such as “the rust from swords from ancient battles, “the best place to see Mars”, and more thoughts on the Viking battles theory, with one pupil telling us of a local Viking grave on the road to Tighnabruaich.

The session was nearing an end, but we did get the pupils to begin writing a postcard to someone who has never visited Glendaruel before. We ran out of time on this activity, but would be keen to develop the letter writing idea and encourage the pupils, particularly the older classes, to use this as a tool for discovery and research within the project.

From the afternoons’ session, it was clear the areas which have to be developed with the pupils to help shape the heritage centre project. Many of the children were very knowledgeable about the land, and the focal points of the Glen, but little did they know about the history of the area. Workshops on the different eras of the Glen would be most useful, to encourage them to engage with both history, and Glendaruel as a site. The majority of the pupils mentioned and/or drew Dunans Castle, but little knew about the history. The history of the Castle & Bridge may be another useful area to cover.

In conclusion, the children were very enthusaiastic about engaging with the project, and with Glendaruel. Nearing the end of the afternoon, it was interesting to see many of the pupils conversing with each other about the Glen, discussing points of interest, and things they had heard their parents/grandparents mention about the Glen in passing. There is a whole host of knowledge about Glendaruel and the surrounding areas within the children – extracting this information will take time, but by workshops and visiting speakers, the children will play a very big role in the development in this project.