Pandemic Activities Pandemic quarantine prevented English students from meeting the Hungarian students in Vác, and the project-week at AVCC was cancelled. We had to use online platforms and new learning strategies, in which personal experience became even more important. The situation inspired us to find a new topic, demanding even more creative alternative patterns of thinking and problem-solving, and new ways of communicating so we could collaborate effectively in the challenging circumstances. Finally, we decided to investigate OTTHON (HOME),a silent book by a Hungarian artist, Kinga Rófusz.
Digital Storystring by University of Winchester students.
Story in response to Otthon collaboratively composed by Winchester students
Once upon time, there was a young boy who loved nature and loved being surrounded by nature. He loved running through the colourful trees, with the wind swirling around him. He loved lying on the ground, staring at clouds going by. One day he was in the garden when he noticed the kind face of an elderly lady smiling at him through the bushes. The boy could see kind eyes behind the small frames of her glasses, big rosy cheeks and slight lines across her face indicated her years. Startled, he sat up. He rubbed his eyes and glanced again into the bushes. She had something in her hand as she approached him. He sat feeling rather confused. She handed him a small wooden bird box, leaned in and whispered, ‘Look after this, you are going to need it’. He glanced down at it and back at the elderly lady but she had disappeared. When returning to his house, he noticed a sign that said ‘Elado’. His world around him turned dull. He turned back to look at his garden and the colour had drained from the leaves. The vibrant green leaves were now a dull grey. Then something caught his eye. The elderly lady re-appeared in the bunch of dandelions in the far corner of the garden. He felt unsure, so very slowly he approached the dandelions. The winds whispered in a familiar voice, ‘Make a wish’. He then picked one up in his soft hands, and with a big puff, he blew the dandelion. He watched as his wish was carried by the winds, transforming it into a paper boat that skimmed across the lake carrying his wish into the distance. Back in the house, the search began for the boy and his parents to find a new home. On the floor, there were scattered newspapers full of houses advertisements, with big red crosses marked on the paper. His mum said, ‘This house doesn’t have a garden for our son to run around in.’ They began to grow impatient with their search. When turning the pages of the white and black newspaper, his dad pointed and with a big grin and said ‘Look, this house is the one!’. His smile broadened and his eyes twinkled with happiness. The boy’s mother nodded. She felt a sudden flare of joy and was excited about their new adventure.
The deal was arranged and confirmed in the rain between his dad and a tall man in a smart black suit. The boy watched helplessly. He watched from the swing in his garden as his life was packed into boxes ready for the next chapter of his life. He stared as the house faded into the distance. His journey to the new house was colourless. In the dark car, the boy felt lost and looked through the back window, clutching his soft toy. As the car rolled up to the new house, a cloud of despair drowned him. The new house looked exactly like the one in the newspaper, with a wooden front door and a garage attached to the side. The garden was unimaginative and dull. He wandered around the garden, and thought to himself that it was lifeless. Most of the plants were wilted and dead. The boy couldn’t have adventures here, unlike his old garden. Then he had an idea and he pulled out a box of coloured chalk and began to draw on the patio what he wished for most - a nice garden. Back in the boy’s new home, his parents looked on at him as he was looking out the window in his new bedroom, with toys around him. They felt guilty and wished there was something that they could do to cheer him up. That night, as he fell asleep next to his soft toy, in the corner of his room sat the bird box. As he slept peacefully, he dreamt of the red and green tree spurting out of it. He suddenly woke up and tiptoed towards the box. He peered inside. He was amazed and his eyes widened. There was a small leaf growing inside. Upon closer inspection, he could see his mother watering the shoots with a watering can and the elderly lady pouring a cup of tea. As the tea brewed, the wind took the steam to where the sprout began to grow. It grew and grew into a tree, carrying his mother, father and elderly lady up into its branches.
The next morning, when the boy woke he was in awe as he saw that his house was surrounded by bright and colourful trees. He ran into the garden where he saw his dad tendering to one of the plants. He grabbed the watering can and sprinkled water over the roots of the trees, grinning to himself. The garden grew and grew, beginning to bring colour back into his life. The boy continued to have his adventures in his wonderful garden. He glanced up at the tree 10 years later. He thought to himself that he never saw the elderly lady again, but he knew that she was always in the garden in spirit. ‘Thank you’ he whispered. Or 10 years later, the boy was no longer who he used to be. He was now a tall broad shouldered ‘man’ who was returning home to visit his parents. He walked into the garden and smelt the scent of sweet tea gliding through the air, this reminded the man of a time long ago. “Thank you” he whispered.
Powerpoint by Vac Students
Rationale for using Otthon in the classroom
Students investigated the possibilities of pedagogical applications based on Otthon. Rich themes in the silent wordless picture book include change, home, moving and a range of emotions and invite questions about what texts do to readers, what is the authors’ point of view, how does the text position the reader ( Roche, 2015). Children can engage in critical thinking by discussing what the pictures means, why are they constructed that way, and children can discuss perspective, tone, positioning, size, colour ( Moebius, 1990). They can discuss why the author has chosen to deliberately illustrate aspects of the book in certain ways. Communication and collaboration is promoted within the book by children communicating their thoughts about the images and exploring the author’s intentions as well as the ambiguities within the illustrations.
Film Animation by Vac Students
Reflections on pedagogic experience and planning before pandemic by Winchester students
The English students learned the importance of engaging primary school children in a fairytale by communicating the story in different ways. Another aspect of the session was for children to undertake an art and craft activity to illustrate their favourite character or scene within the story. It allowed the children to bring them to life, talk about them and suuported understanding. Children were able to communicate their ideas through a creativity activity (Desailly, 2012). During the autumn term English students were also preparing for the project-activity at AVCC in Vác. For most of the year English students communicated and collaborated with face-to-face meetings and a Whatsapp group. After Covid-19 lockdown, students adapted and collaborated through Zoom. English students planned responses to a fairy tale book to enable children to fulfil creative purposes of: using imagination; pursuing purposes; being original and judging value (NACCCE, 1999) and focus children on generating ideas; moving-on other people’s ideas; working towards a goal and evaluating, adapting and improving their work. (Desailly, 2012). English students prepared an activity, which included the 4C’s, to share in a Budapest school. The inspiration for English students was an interactive picture book ‘Inside the Villains’ by Clotilde Perrin (2018).The book explores the characteristics and personalities of villains most commonly found in fairytales including the wolf, the giant and the witch. The use of illustration flaps helps to investigate and explore the deeper levels of the characters. Critical thinking is emphasised because children are invited to think in a deeper way about the characters and different portrayals of them and how readers are invited to interpret and respond to them by the author. Communication through illustrations, symbols and text means that the information can be accessed and discussed by everyone. The basis of the classroom activity was to analyse and adapt traditional fairytale characters to support an interactive story that children authored. Children analyse specific character features through the use of cue cards. Then they create a mindmap exploring similarities and differences supported by a range of images of wolves, witches, and giants by various illustrators. Through this task, the children were to work collaboratively, creatively and critically. Children were to use characters to create their own version of an interactive 3D story on the classroom floor with large cardboard fairy tale motif buildings e.g. castle, hollow tree, cottage. The children were work creatively to use their mind maps to create their own version of the fairytale character making key decisions, as a group, about which path the character will take. Children were to make their own versions of the overlaid characters inspired by (https://www.instagram.com/p/B1O5XQmBsKX/?igshid=1cie4rrc8zjm4) using card and cellophane. Drawing on the cellophane enables the children to give their characters layers of meaning They could discuss, design and defend their choices e.g. how clothing or facial expressions reflect interior, hidden characteristics.The task requires children to use creative, communication and critical skills. It is also a visual task that helps overcome any language barrier.
fairy Tale exchange visit to the University of Winchester