ACTIVE LEARNING SESSIONS KEY STAGE 1
Led by our experienced teachers, these sessions give pupils the opportunity to actively explore curriculum topics in awe inspiring settings. Please note: These sessions can also be adapted for Foundation Stage
Each of the following sessions last one and half hours and include:
New Walk Museum and Art Gallery
- Discover: The Tale of Grumpy Griselda
Combining elements of Literacy and Art and Design, this session is based at New Walk’s hands-on and purpose built Discover gallery for children aged 2-8 years. Children are introduced to the interactive story of Grumpy Griselda, an old lady who lives atop a mountain in a far off land, where she controls the weather. Following the story, children explore and compare different materials and make their own puppets.
- Wild Space: Life Processes and Living Things
Using our multi-sensory Wild Space gallery we have sessions that enable pupils to explore a range of scientific topics including ‘mini-beasts’ using our electro-microscopes and ‘grouping and sorting’ through comparison of habitats in the gallery itself. Through the use of our handling resources pupils are able to hold and explore a range of specimens from both local and global habitats.
- Dinosaurs
In this session children become palaeontologists and meet our resident dinosaurs including the Barrow Kipper. They also identify and classify fossils including a mammoth tooth and tusk and learn how to differentiate between herbivores and carnivores.
- Looking at Sculpture
Pupils are introduced to sculpture by looking at 3D works of different types and made of various materials. They will also make a simple action sculpture or paper sculpture portrait to take back to school.
- A Journey through Time… An Introduction to Painting and Visiting an Art Gallery
This session provides a broad introduction to different types of painting through the ages. Examining Portraits, Landscapes and covering the progression from Realism to Abstraction, pupils will learn how paintings are made and create a piece of artwork to take back to school.
- Mirror Images… Exploring Portraiture
This session explores a variety of portraits and self-portraits from the 16th century to the present day. Pupils also make a paper sculpture portrait and learn how to ‘read’ a portrait by looking for clues.
Newarke Houses Museum
- Toys’ Playtime - Toys and Games
This session allows children to explore, compare and even play with a variety of toys and games, which date from the Tudor period to the present day. Teachers also have the option to examine multi-cultural toys that reflect Leicester’s communities.
- What were homes like in the past? New for September 2007
Through exploration of room settings from 1645 to the 1970s, this session provides opportunities to compare and contrast features of homes over time. Further details of the session will be our Autumn newsletter.
Abbey Pumping Station
- Oh I do like to be… 1950s Seaside Holidays
Involving role-play activities, songs and games this session encourages children to imagine what it would have been like to travel to Skegness for a holiday on our 1950s restored bus.
Belgrave Hall
- A Victorian Christmas
Enjoy a Victorian Christmas in the beautiful surroundings of a seasonally decorated Belgrave Hall. This session explores and compares how a middle class family of the period and their servants prepared for Christmas. Pupils make traditional Yule Baby decorations and Christmas cards and taste the wassail cup. The session concludes with traditional Christmas carols and a seasonal tale.
- Below Stairs… The Life of a Victorian Servant
Set in our Victorian period house, this session gives children an understanding of what it was like to be a servant in a time before modern appliances. Instructed by our housekeeper, pupils learn some of the daily tasks of a servant including clothes washing with dollies and possers, carpet beating and black leading as well as how a good servant should behave. Pupils are also given an opportunity to handle and explore a range of Victorian artefacts.
- Charlotte Ellis
This session is seen through the eyes of Charlotte, daughter of wealthy industrialist John Ellis who bought Belgrave Hall in 1846. Children gain an insight into the life as Charlotte’s story unfolds by handling belongings the family ‘forgot’ to pack on the day they moved into Belgrave Hall. Pupils consider how children dressed, handle and explore objects and practice rules from a Victorian school. Belgrave Hall itself is also investigated.