Room 3 - Topic
Local Heritage in our classroom
Earlier in the year Mrs Grace-Dillon (Mrs GD) came to our school to help us make quilts for the bushfire victims in Victoria. This was so successful that Mr Lovelock and Mrs GD had an idea. We would make quilt panels to reflect our local heritage and display them prominently and proudly in our school.
So during term two, Mrs GD came to school to create some panels with us for our classroom.
The panels were about local icons that we thought were special. Most people worked in pairs so they could help the younger members of our classroom. We all choose a different subject and drew it in our own perspective. Once we had designed our 'masterpieces' we were given a sheet of calico and a wide range of material to choose from. Once we sorted our material out, we cut them to size and pinned them to the calico. After that Mrs GD got out her trusty vliesofix and lightly glued our material to our background. After most people had done so, Mrs GD called in back up - a team of sewers, including Mrs Cubbitt, Mrs Macdougall, and Mrs Dunick. They came down to our school to help us sew on our panels. Within a day they were all finished and looking great. After that, we wrote a paragraph about our panels. We asked Mrs GD what she thought about the process.
Q1. Do you think making panels about local heritage was a good idea?
A1. Making the heritage panels was a really cool idea! The ideas developed from the quilt that had been left in the library some years ago. Rather than copying the idea straight up, making the individual panels allowed all you children to set them up for display any way you like.
Q2. How well do you think we worked solo or in pairs?
A1. I was impressed with the way you all worked. You were motivated and busy while on task. You shared your knowledge and our limited supplies of items like good scissors very sensibly and fairly. You also helped each other out with ideas and technique. For this kind of project it’s good to have limited numbers of people working together (i.e. ones and pairs). I was very impressed with the way you all worked with the visitors who came to help and with the enthusiasm and ability you showed with the sewing machines (especially those with no prior experience).
Q3. Do you think we did a good job on enlightening our thoughts about our famous icons?
A3. To be quite honest, I was amazed at your outcomes. You did a wonderful job at displaying our local icons and are all to be congratulated at your interpretations.
Q4. Did you learn anything new in the process?
A4. I was reminded of many things:
o With encouragement, kids can have a go at anything – look at all of you who successfully used sewing machines for the first time ever!
o The creativity of kids is to be fostered and encouraged – I believe any art teacher would have loved to work with you guys and share in your learning, experimenting and outcomes;
o I must do more of this sort of work – both on my own and with others;
o Most kids are good to work with – all of you were very good;
o Many of the techniques we tried, I have learned alongside other adults in an adult setting. Working with you guys made me realise how much I know and can share. I look forward to working with a group of students as willing and as able as you again in the future.
o I guess something new for me was being able to come home and look at your reflections on your learning stories, and return for the next visit with ideas to help out with any problems. It also helped me know who was working steadily and who wasn’t, so without making a fuss in the classroom in front of everyone else, I could help people out with either techniques or motivation.
Q5. Was there a particular icon that made you smile or impressed you?
I am such a school teacher, I find this really hard to answer. I liked all the choices of icons, and every day working with you all made me smile.
o Grace’s background was a successful experiment;
o the stained-glass window had loads of work in it, to come out quite right;
o the seriousness of some of the younger students in choosing and researching their icons was really heart-warming;
o I liked the reasons behind some people’s choices i.e. the hut’s on my farm, we use the pool in summer; the Lonely Graves’ story is interesting, the soldiers fought in the wars for us;
o For me the smiles came because you guys got so involved in what you were doing. You all showed a great deal of appreciation for our history and your outcomes are stunning. I hope that your panels can remain in the school for years to come, so that when you’re older like me, you can return and recall the experiences you have had here. These will be a good reminder of this.
