Integral Art
I have undertaken a number of commissions in primary schools where I have worked with pupils and staff to design and build outdoor playground equipment that improves the potential for learning in outdoor areas. These projects have each had a specific long medium and sort term aims for improv-ing aspects of classroom behavior or curriculum development. Despite being large scale art pro-jects, with a focus on design, for these projects to be successful, I (and my collaborators e.g. staff and children) had to concentrate not on how the new end product/ equipment would look, but how it could and would be used. This has resulted in me installing large scale interactive sculptures in schools that the staff have been able to continually developed as learning aids whilst the children give them purpose through their enjoyment and engagement with learning.
Built by Lawerence Molloy and the children of Starbank Reception How did we do it?
I spent day one taking stock of the existing facilities and outdoor teaching practices. Although this sounds serious it involved speaking to the teachers, playing with the children and observing what held the interest of the children. As a result of this day we decided to investigate: • Private areas • Insects • Role Play • Crawl Spaces • Musical Instruments • Wild Life • Something to climb on/in • Bright Colours
Pipes allow children to develop communication skills and amplify their shouting or roars.
Built by Lawerence Molloy and the children of Starbank Reception How did we do it?
Pod for Starbank
Starbank Primary School, Birmingham, UK (2009)
Research question set by Bright Spaces Ltd was:
How can we use our creative investigation to improve the outdoor learning facilities and teaching methods at the EYFS?
This project involved turning a dreary high walled and tarmac play area into a lively and stimulating area for outdoor learning. This was achieved by the creation of a number of multifunctional outdoor wooden structures. Each of these Pods, as they came to be known, was simultaneously a flowerbed, to encourage wildlife and a den for the children to play under. On the sides of each were different sensory props (made from found and recycled objects) that helped the children to engage with different types of learning.
Many thanks to the staff at Starbank for making this such an enjoyable and engaging
The Robin Hood Replay Theatre
Robin Hood Primary School, Birmingham, UK (2009)
Research question set by Bright Space Ltd was:
How can the transformation of an unusable outdoor space into a learning environment improve the children’s social skills and attainment?
This commission involved working with pupils and staff and resulted in an outdoor extension to their classroom in the form of an outdoor theatre. The immediate aim of transforming this space was to improve class cohesion and behaviour. Key to this was the fact that the ideas, design and building were all done in collaboration with the pupils. This gave the children a sense of ownership and responsibility over the project
In the long term, the theatre is intended to be an extension to the classroom and is supposed to act as a prop that will enable the Key Stage Two pupils to improve their aural and written literacy. The photographs of the children acting out stories from book or that they have written show that, even before the end of the project, this was already starting to happen.
Finished Outdoor Theatre, but how did we do it?
I took the children into the piece of scrubland to built dens and structures out of string, ribbon and bamboo. This was an opportunity for the children to develop their dexterity, work as a team and talk among themselves and to me about how their ideas could work in the space.
Children perform their play to children from the lower years at the opening event
Finished Outdoor Theatre, but how did we do it?
The spiders web for display, cube games for improving cooperative play and planters were all solutions that we came up with. This photograph shows mobiles made from CDs and other household leftovers, but how did we ge here?
The space was well equipped, but needed to be thought about to maximise its potential for learning, play and fun. I spent days playing with the children, learning from their play and the expertise of the teachers and other staff at the school.
The children work together to make tunnels that they can crawl in. Later the same structure becomes a space rocket and in the afternoon they move the cubes again in order to make a castle with a zombie lair
The spiders web for display, cube games for improving cooperative play and planters were all solutions that we came up with. This photograph shows mobiles made from CDs and other household leftovers, but how did we ge here?
Outdoor classroom
Allens Croft Primary School, Birmingham, UK (2010)
Research question was: How can we create a co-ordinated approach to learning between the indoors and the outdoors?
Aside from answering this question and needing to provide continuous provision, our immediate aims were to engage a group of boys with a more kinaesthetic rough and tumble learning style. We did this by using construction, working on a large scale and providing opportunities for problem-solving and cooperative working.
Over the course of the project the focus shifted to include the whole class rather that just the specific focus groups. We did this for three reasons, firstly to ensure fairness to all the class. Secondly to see how changing the dynamics of the groups and the locations they worked/played in affected their work, play and socializing. Thirdly, because many of he children in the class had challenging behaviour, working with the whole class was an attempt to improve class cohesion whilst developing immediate and long term strategies for improving communication and teamwork.
After much deliberation and play we realised that the key to the research question was making the outdoors an extension of the classroom. We could do this by making the covered area feel more cosy, remove psychogeographic barriers and put in place props (like flowerbeds/ planters) that would improve the flow and use of the different parts of the outdoor area. This had the secondary benefit of enabling the easy, but not permanent, demarcation of areas for specific types of activities.
I worked with the children to design movable cubes that could used as tables, dens or for large scale construction. The children decided on a final design after having played with models and different life size mock ups. They then helped to paint the cubes, and to decide what props (such as convex mirrors, frames for weaving and pipes for construction) would go on the sides of each one. The cubes are designed to fit together and are a size and weight that can be moved by two reception children working together. For this reason they encourage sharing and cooperative play.
For child protection reasons the faces of he children have been obscured
These projects in schools were funded and made p possible by
www.lawrencemolloy.co.uk
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Written Content and Photographs © Lawrence Molloy 2010