Games

What a great afternoon – such enthusiasm and joy

Vikki Haffenden

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.

Workshop 3 Storytelling, at Coldean Primary School

Vikki Haffenden

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

 

Glue and more glue

Vikki Haffenden

When you start looking at fabric glue, you realise how many types of glue there are and the number of brands available. Tacky and fast setting were my main priorities, but of course the glues must also be suitable for use by children; non toxic and not likely to stick their hands to their foreheads! My favourite Copydex type was also not really on the agenda as it can be a bit difficult to work with. I wanted one that came in small sized bottles with a fine applicator nozzle, not one that needs spreaders.

PVA seemed the best solution, but most ‘school’ types are quite runny. Hi-tac type, thicker PVA seemed the best solution, and I chose two types; one is a specific fabric glue (Trimits Fabric Glue) that is tacky and fast drying, and another (Hi Tack Fast Tack) which is labelled as more general purpose, but with the same properties.  Both seem to do the job OK, they hold almost immediately, but do take up to 12 hours to dry completely. So we will just have to be gentle when packing up the workshop.

Then we have the cool melt glue guns as well. I’ve not used a cool melt gun before, and having burned my fingers on my hot melt gun I was dubious, but these cool melt ones aren’t bad. I chose ‘Stick It’ ones, as they were cheap and the sticks are readily available. They are not really ‘cool’, but not burning hot – more uncomfortable than painful if the glue gets on your fingers (and of course it does), but still not suitable for children to use alone. I hate to think of the mess that would ensue! This glue really does set fast, and the bond is strong, but the gun will only be used by an adult, and must situated near to an electric plug. Children can bring things that they are having trouble sticking down with the PVA to the adult with the gun to stick for them. We must make sure the mat-making is put close to plug as the vinyl one will rely on the glue gun.

Coloured felts

Lovely bright felt for cutting up into ‘mites’

 

 

Hours and hours spent editing drawings in Photoshop

Vikki Haffenden

the 50+ children’s drawings were scanned in and I have just completed editing them. Because they were pencil it’s been necessary to thicken and darken the lines and enhance the colours. They were on white backgrounds, so I have added pattern fills behind them so that the beam bags will be COLOURFUL. Yey! The children drew on A4 paper, but the drawings are to be digitally printed on cotton to be made into bean bags of a specific size, so re-sizing and some editing was needed. Despite being asked to put their name and on the front, not all have them. It may be tricky finding the owners.

I’m using PrintmePretty for the printing as our digi printer at University is busy at this time of year. A metre and a half will be enough for the 50+ beanbag outers, and I will have another length printed for display  when the animation is shown.

Exciting!

Lying on the floor is an Invitation for the dog to play

Vikki Haffenden

We have just spent a giggling 5minutes with me lying on the floor whilst Ross drew around my silhouette as a pattern for the person mat. 

Unfortunately Pepper thought it was a game. Only a few rips in the pattern paper resulted. Now it’s folded in half up the centre line and the outline firmed up.

Pattern and dog

The pattern with dog

Hand outline in paper

Close up of the hand

I luckily have two large curtains that are now spare, so those will make perfect backings for the mats. If they work OK  I may not make the vinyl mat  cloth is easier to fold away and transport.

Off to buy the felt tomorrow from good old Fabricland. £3.95 a metre, very good value.

Update: after all that, I’ve decided the ‘person’ is too complicated, and have reverted to a plain mat that the children will add mites in different sizes that will represent different scores in the bean bag game.

Testing out cool-melt glue-gun on vinyl tiles

Vikki Haffenden

Yes this seems to work. So I have taken the plunge and ordered two and a load of glue sticks for the workshop in two weeks time. I don’t think they get hot enough to hurt anyone, and the glue adheres really well, (and to me unfortunately). Whilst the fabric mat can be stuck with fabric glue, the glue guns will make the vinyl mat far easier to manage.

Fabric mites on mat

Trial mat

I will post a link to the instructions for making the legs once I have written them up.