What a great afternoon – such enthusiasm and joy

Stef had done a great job of organising rooms and providing snacks and drinks. She had also planned a varied and exciting agenda. The classes were divided into three groups, orange, purple and green, and rotated through activities which included:

  • badge making
  • writing feedback and drawing pictures about the project
  • having their photos taken with their mite, beanbag and feedback
  • playing games
  • and most excitingly – an accident and emergency simulation

The students from Seahaven Academy joined us for the latter part of the afternoon, and we all attended the premiere of the animations,;Mafia Mites, Love at first Mite, and Lady Jusy Burrowing-Down. Red carpets for all the mites!

children

The children arrive. Helpers in the foreground getting ready for hard work

it was a hot day, and the children had walked from Coldean to Falmer, so they needed a bit of a rest before starting.

It was lovely that towards picking-up time, parents arrived. The children enjoyed showing them pictures of the workshops, and the textile mites and beanbags they had made.

children

Parents came to see what the children had been doing in the project

 

games

Playing Scabies Scramble

The high point of the afternoon was the premiere of the animations that all the participants, mites included had contributed to.

 

 

watching

watching the animations

After this there was a vote for the best animation, and a prize for the group from Seahaven Academy who had taken the photographs and worked on the story.

voting

A gorup photo of all the children with their scabies mites

 

The animations will be posted on here once they have been finalised.

It’s our celebration event today!

We have come to the end of the project and it’s time to celebrate with the children from coldean Primary school and the students from Seahaven Academy.

They will be arriving at 2pm for an afternoon of games, badge making and an exciting A&E simulation. This will be followed by the premiere of the animations and some prizes.

Then aome refreshmenta before home

Celebration event – 11th July 2018

TEXTILES AS A MEDIUM FOR RAISING AWARENESS ABOUT SCABIES

The end of project celebration will take place in the afternoon of the 11th July.

Pupils from Coldean Primary School and Seahaven Academy will be there to show their textile work and a preview of the animation featuring their scabies mites, and based on their stories.

Invitation for 11th July

 

Top-up workshop on stories at Seahaven Academy

As the project has progressed it has become clear that the stories for the animations need additional input. The workshop with the younger children at Coldean School was vibrant and exciting, but the number of children made it quite hard to firm up any ideas, so it was decided to slot in another, interim workshop before the main animation one in June.

This took place last Thursday,  and some of the work will be posted when I receive it.

Workshop 3 Storytelling, at Coldean Primary School

This was the last workshop at the school, and alongside the planned activities it provided the opportunity for those children who hadn’t done so earlier to finish their mites and complete their badges.

Twelve students from Seahaven Academy who are studying GCSE photography joined us for the workshop to meet the younger children, learn about scabies and the project, and take photos and videos in preparation for their own workshop later on, in June.


Julie Middleton was the storytelling facilitator, and did a marvelous job, despite the incredible noise levels – note to self, if I do this again, spread the groups across two or three rooms!

Julie had organised three story lines that the groups to develop, and these are shown below.

 

storyline

storyline

 

storyline


Meanwhile the late-finishers were beavering away at their mites next door. Lots of glue was used, so it was necessary to take some home and add a few helpful stitches to the larger beads.


mites on a table

Piles of scabies mites, they look so amazing


Towards the end, the children played Scabies Scramble with their lovely beanbags.

games mat

Scabies Scramble mid-game

 

Cutting and sewing beanbags over the Bank Holiday weekend

The weather was so lovely, it seemed a shame to sit inside sewing. So this was an evening job.

Fabric

Fabric

Digital printed fabric unfurled before cutting

Cutting the fabric is much easier using a rotary cutter on a self healing mat. Make sure the blade is nice and sharp; I started with a rather blunt one, and realised I hadn’t changed the blade for quite a while. It cuts SO much better now.

Rotary cutter and fabric

Cutting with a rotary cutter is the easiest way to get neat edges

Fabric cut

Neatly cut beanbag blanks

I worked out a quick method to sew them without cutting the thread each time, but of course they have to be separated at some point.

Video to follow…

 

Turning them inside out was a bit of a chore, but when done whilst watching The Woman in White, it was bearable.  Using a collar turner to pocke the corners helped to make these crisp.

Turned bags

Turned beanbags ready for filling – thanks to Wilkie Collins for the entertainment