Challenge Activity Pack - Teachers' Notes

Welcome Activities Pack - Teachers’ Information This Activities Pack, in addition to providing a set of activities for young people to work on independently also has the ability to transfer into class-based learning back in school and is well placed to support a range of blended learning opportunities.

This pack encompasses a broad range of cultural activities that would add value to the development of cultural capital within and beyond school. With the full opening of schools, in September, there will need to be a focus on supporting young people on their return and provide a means to settle them back into a formal learning environment.

Young people will have had a wide range of experiences during lockdown and many of these activities can support part of a reflective process on their return to school.

In themselves, the activities have great value, however, there is the opportunity to not only link some of the activities together but incorporate them into the wider curriculum.

Martin Smith Cultural Rucksack Lead

Key:

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1+ hour

Primary

Secondary

Time it takes

+A How many people it takes

If an adult is needed

P

1 hour

Outdoor Learning, Science

Back Garden, School Grounds, Park Scavenger Hunt - Ignite!

This activity can be adapted in many ways and could be extended to a hunt for 5 items at home beginning with a certain letter or back at school as an introduction to exploring the school grounds as well as within science to discover a range of living things, habitats, seasons or materials. This can then lead into classification by ordering any findings.

Links to other Scavenger hunt ideas: Woodland Trust – Nature Scavenger Hunts STEM – Numbers Scavenger Hunt

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1+ hour

Art and Design and Outdoor Learning

Nature Study - Lakeside Arts Spend the week carrying out an in-depth artistic study into a natural object. Explore a range of techniques before creating a final artwork.

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30 mins

Art and Design and Outdoor Learning

Exploring Sounds - Nottingham Contemporary Explore the world around you using your senses. Create artwork to show what you found and share with others, helping to develop collaborative conversations. Good for exploring senses or developing a more immersive view of nature and the environment.

A useful extension activity is outlined, below, which could be linked to topic work on the Amazon or Jungles.

Extension Activity Exploring Sounds: Gallery link - Daniel Steegmann Mangrané You will need: A screen with speakers and an internet connection, an open space, chalk, string or tape.

• Take a look at this artist’s film of the Brazilian Mata Atlântica rainforest. It is shot on a camera suspended on a cable travelling along a perfectly straight line through the forest. The camera moves along the cable at the same speed as the film runs through the camera. The artist is interested in how our senses and emotions are affected in the dense rainforest.

• Imagine what it would be like to be there using all your senses. Imagine you were moving through the forest, not on a cable like the camera, but along the forest floor. What sounds can you hear? How might it smell? What would it be like to touch? How do you think you would feel if you were there?

• Draw a line(s) along the floor and act out how you would you have to move. Create a performance by taking it in turns to travel along the line.

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P

S

1+ hour

Art and Design, Drama and Creative Writing, Local History and Heritage, Outdoor Learning, Science

Nottingham Castle - Remote Activity Pack - Nottingham Castle Trust Although written with one person in mind a number of these activities could be adapted for school use such as: Activity 1, where recipe ideas could be brought into school and discussed, possibly even cooked!

Activity 3, would work in the school grounds, for example, and could be linked to the Scavenger Hunt ideas discussed above.

Activity 4, would link to a ‘View from My Window’.

P

S

30 mins

Local History and Heritage

Picture Nottingham Quiz - Nottingham City Libraries Nottingham Libraries has a large Local Studies collection containing many items relating to Nottingham’s history including a large collection of old photographs which can be viewed on the website Picture Nottingham www.picturenottingham.co.uk Why not try this quick quiz to explore some of the photographs on the website and find out some of Nottingham’s history. The photographs are grouped in to various themes such as Nottingham Buildings, Old Market Sqaure, Transport, Sport, Nottingham Castle, Goose Fair etc. These would be great in supporting a range of historically themed studies, at Primary, or for exploring the locality.

P

30 mins

Art and Design

Victorian CSI - National Justice Museum It’s 1888 and a crime has been committed in Narrow Marsh. Can you solve the crime as a Victorian Police Officer? This is a great themed piece of work supported by free resources.

S

1 hour

Drama and Creative Writing, History

Protest Activity - National Justice Museum Learn about the history of protest in the UK and internationally. Create your own campaign for a social justice cause of your choice. Certainly builds on comprehension as well as promoting collaboration, if working in a group, promoting debate and discussion.

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P

S

1+ hour

Art and Design, Reading, Drama and Creative Writing, History, PSHE

My 2020 Time Capsule - Read On Nottingham We’re living through history right now. Create a bank of memories of the 2020 lockdown to look back on. Have fun improving your writing and creativity skills in the process.

This provides an opportunity to support reflective work as well as looking to how people will view this period of history in the future. There are many more ideas for timecapsules out there.

P

S

30 mins

Art and Design

The View from my Window - We are Primary Lots of us have had to stay at home over the past few months. This activity asks you to look closely at a familiar view. An opportunity for some reflection and may be a comparison with a view out of the window at school or from a favourite location.

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1+ hour

Drama and Creative Writing, Local History and Heritage

A Room with a View (Through Time) - Nonsuch An excellent reflective piece applying historical knowledge and a view into the future along with a review of where young people are now, almost has the feel of ‘Back to the Future’ about it.

P

30 mins

Art and Design, Drama and Creative Writing, PSHE

A Postcard to Me - Nonsuch Studios This is an excellent activity that helps people reflect on where they are ‘now’ and where they want to ‘be’ and would be excellent undertaken within PSHE.

P

30 mins

Creative Writing, Science, Art and design

Postcards from Space - Ignite!

This activity really has it all from creative writing extending out to art and science. It could even be adapted to explore feelings felt during lockdown, if you imagine being alone with the same group of people for 4 months as you travel to Mars! In terms of art and reading, why not build a rocket and link to reading the book: ‘See you in the Cosmos’. Alternatively, why not build a real rocket! Would support Space themed work at school with the opportunity for blended learning. In terms of English this is great for encouraging discussions around expressing feelings.

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P

S

1 hour

Art and Design, Drama and Creative Writing, PSHE

Spinning a Yarn - Nottingham Contemporary Create a set of drawings to share experiences and sources of comfort and strength.

Weave these together to make an artwork to shelter in. This would support young people in terms of reflecting on their experiences over lockdown and sit well in PSHE. The extension activity goes on to develop more collaboration work and is great at producing a piece of creative work exploring ideas and recording experiences.

Weaving Extension Activity We are going to use your drawings as ingredients in a new story that we make together.

Work in small groups to develop a collaborative story in 4 parts. Each group develops one chapter (see chapter starters below). Each group uses the drawings to help them.

(The 4 drawing prompts in the first activity can connect to the 4 chapters).

Chapter 1: A woman decides to make a shelter. She has very little money so she… How does she use the thing you have chosen? What skills does she use? What does the woman do to make a good shelter?

Chapter 2: In her shelter, she wants to put things that are special to her…

How does she use the thing you have chosen? Why is it special to her? What other things are special to her?

Chapter 3: She invites her friends over. Together they do new things and things they had forgotten…

How does she use the thing you have chosen? What do her friends think of her efforts?

How do they feel?

Chapter 4: Everyone starts to…

How does everyone use the thing you have chosen? What is the ending of the story?

Take it in turn to share and complete your story.

P

1+ hour

Drama and Creative Writing, PE

A Story of Adventure! - Nonsuch Studios This is a wonderful activity that can really spark the imagination using very few materials.

In a school setting it would blend well with any texts related to quests, such as The Odyssey. It could also be ‘played out’ for real using team building challenges as part of PE that build on the story, working with others to overcome the tasks. Loads of creativity and collaborative working wrapped up in this.

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P

30 mins

Drama and Creative Writing

Move like an explorer - New Art Exchange Imagine you are an intrepid explorer and must navigate your way across new and strange environments. This exercise will help you focus on the skills for being a physical performer. For early years it could be linked to texts such as ‘Going on a Bear Hunt’ or linked to the challenges developed in a Story of Adventure! above. A simple way of developing expressive movement.

P

S

1 hour

Art and Design, Geography

Be a Map Maker! – We are Primary This is an excellent activity and is a simple way of recording a journey, at secondary level it could be used to explore ‘Mental Maps’. It could be linked to making ‘Journey Sticks’ as a means to recoding the same journey or another journey. And possibly the Explore activity . There are obvious links to the geography curriculum and finding out about locality as well as supporting the development of map skills.

P

30 mins

Art and Design

Wanted Poster - National Justice Museum This is a simple activity that has huge potential to support a wide range of work that could include historical characters, or characters in your Story of Adventure! above.

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1+ hour

Art and Design

Let’s Face It! - Nonsuch Studios This activity uses four fun techniques to try and improve your portrait drawing skills. It is an excellent example of an activity to support the development of technique and confidence.

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P

S

1 hour

Art and Design, Drama and Creative Writing

ArtWord - Creative Writing Character Portraits - Dragon Breath Theatre This absorbing art-and-writing activity liberates childrens’ imaginations, using the interplay between mark-making and writing to create text for poems, stories and characters. It’s accessible to everyone (irrespective of writing or drawing confidence), and can also be a useful starting point for discussing well-being.

Movement, Drama and PSHE: Looking at your portrait, how do you think your character might move?…

Hot seat the characters who have been drawn and written about. Get the class to ask the characters what they are thinking, feeling, hoping for, aspiring to, and so on.

What suggestions could the class make, to help the character overcome their problems or emotions?

Put two characters together to improvise…What would happen if they met in the forest… on an abandoned boat in the middle of the sea… in the park on a cold day…in a Zoom meeting during a lockdown…

Writing: The text can be used to create a free form poem, or developed into a full narrative, a diary, a monologue… Or what piece of persuasive writing might your character decide to write, and to whom?...

Art: How might you apply this way of drawing to making observational drawings?

Artist: Peter Rumney https://www.nawe.co.uk/DB/professional-directory/peter-rumney.html

P

S

30 mins

Drama and Creative Writing

Awesome Acrostic - Nottingham City Libraries Poetry can be a great way to get creative and here we have an activity to get you well on the way to writing a poem with something called an Acrostic poem.

With an acrostic poem the first letter of each line spells a word and that word is the subject or topic of the poem.

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P

S

1+ hour

Art and Design, Drama and Creative Writing

ArtWord – Creating and Making Poetry Cubes - Dragon Breath Theatre This hands-on, kinaesthetic writing activity is an enjoyable way to create simple, changeable poems, individually or in a group. It’s very accessible, irrespective of writing ability or confidence. Developed with Dunkirk Primary for Nottingham University and Papplewick Pumping Station, it can also be linked to maths and geography (see curriculum extensions).

This activity was originally developed by Dragon Breath Theatre for Papplewick Pumping Station Museum and Nottingham University School of Education.

It now forms part of the A Temple to Water Online Interdisciplinary Curriculum Resource, created by Dragon Breath Theatre to support day-long immersive theatre visits to the Museum.

A Temple to Water Learning Impact Film • To use the poetry cubes as part of Maths work on volume, and Geography work on water, download the “3D Thinking PowerPoint (No. 25) on the Education Resource webpage • And for a documentary version of the original “3D thinking” work culminating in writing Poetry Cubes about water and feelings, watch Peter Rumney

S

15 mins

Drama and Creative Writing, Music

Listen to The Sound Tapes - National Literacy Trust Creative writing inspired by sound with advice on review and editing of written work.

On-line access is required and worksheets developed to help explore the various sound tapes. Pupils can develop a poem from their experiences.

P

S

1 hour

Creative Writing

Young Writers Poetry Activities - National Literacy Trust A great framework for ‘editing’ a poem and would sit well alongside some of the poetry activites in this pack.

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P

30 mins

Drama and Creative Writing

Write a poem saying thank you to key workers - National Literacy Trust Laura Mucha recently helped children around the world to write and perform a poem called ‘Dear Key Workers’, using her digital poetry workshops. In this activity you can learn to write your own poem to say thank you to key workers.

P

S

Reading

Love to Read - Nottingham City Libraries Once you’ve read your book! its all systems go.

Enjoy reading? We challenge you to read and complete reviews for six books.

P

1+ hour

Drama and Creative Writing

Create a review of a show - New Art Exchange Some excellent ideas on reviewing a production, with good example questions. Ideal for comprehension and exploring understanding.

P

Art and Design, Reading

Summer of Fun! - Nottingham City Libraries Check out the Summer of Fun website to see loads of exciting activities to keep you busy over the summer. Join us on 27th July for our fun day – schools out!

P

1+ hour

Reading, Drama and Creative Writing

Storytelling - Nottingham City Libraries Try storytelling without a book! Listen to the story about a King and his Son told by the brilliant Nicky Rafferty.

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P

S

1+ hour

Reading, Drama and Creative Writing

Shhh...akespeare! - New Perspectives Theatre Company This is a great activity to support themed work around Shakespeare at school and provide blended learning opportunities back at home. Lots of creative spin-offs and opportunities for developing and extending comprehension and performance and role play skills.

P

1+ hour

Drama and Creative Writing

Be a performer! - New Art Exchange This is a great exercise to practice being a versatile performer and using your voice in different ways to create different effects helping develop the use of spoken language, improving fluency and command of English.

P

30 mins

Reading, Drama and Creative Writing

Little Red Riding Hood Story and Drama Games - Lakeside Arts Retell the story of Little Red Riding Hood at home! Then, take part in five fun drama games, inspired by the traditional tale, good opportunities for role play and linking to work on traditional tales.

P

S

Dance, PE

Social Dis-DANCING tasks - Next Door Dance Some excellent ideas for developing dance activities that would also sit well within any Primary PE lesson. Within the tasks there are many that could be adapted to support other curriculum areas such as shadows and Science/Geography. You will love the idea of a celebration dance and may even recognise where some of the scenes were shot!

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P

S

30 mins

Art and Design, Dance

Colour of Movement - Nottingham Contemporary Take a cue from Denzil Forrester’s paintings; put on your favourite music, dance and make art.

Extension Activity • Think about the moves and shapes you make when you dance and trace a line of the movement on the floor – it doesn’t need to be the whole body, maybe a line from waist to the feet, or from one hand to the other that shows the shape (wiggle, bend, twist) of the body.

• Add moves and lines of colour (they might overlap) to create an artwork of your movements. Which colours work for which movements?

• Try it again dancing to different music. What movements, lines and colours suit different music? Watch this short film to see Denzil in action. Find out about the drawing techniques he uses and give it a go.

S

1+ hour

Drama and Creative Writing

Playful Responses to an Umbrella - New Art Exchange This is an indepth piece of work that really explores interpertation, understanding and improvisation, would suit KS4.

S

30 mins

Drama and Creative Writing, PSHE

Online Consequences Activity - National Justice Museum 3-10 people Explore and decide how to respond to various situations that may arise online. Use role-play to show how you might respond.

P

S

30 mins

Art and Design

Dizzy Ink Zine Activities - UK New Artists & Dizzy Ink There are a range of creative design ideas to engage with as well as ‘Freewriting’.

Zines are often single sheet publications that can be folded to create small booklets or maga(zine)s. An excellent idea for creative or factual writing and getting published!

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1 hour

Art and Design, Outdoor Learning

Sculpture and Pattern - Lakeside Arts Using installation Eurydice Prevails by artist Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva as inspiration, design and create your own patterns and add to a natural sculpture.

P

S

1 hour

Science

Science Busking - Ignite!

This is a really useful set of ideas for introducing practical science ideas and for reinforcing scientific concepts. Activities look at sound waves and explore how the brain works. These activities can be just as easily integrated into a science curriculum as undertaken at home and performed in front of an audience.

P

30 mins

+A

Art and Design, Science

Making Salt Dough and other activities - City Arts This builds on ‘At Home Clay’ and provides a series of art based activities using the clay.

P

30 mins

+A

Art and Design

Salt Dough Decorations - City Arts This further extends the activities using ‘dough/clay’. Many different sorts of decorations can be made using Salt Dough. You could give them as gifts or hang them up for events and celebrations i.e. Christmas.

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Thank you to all contributors and we hope you have fun taking part!