The aim of Architecture Workshops is to design and deliver school activities that stimulate imaginations and excite children and teachers alike. They are invited every year by our Harrodian Pre-Prep to run workshops in our Theatre for our PP1 and PP3 children and this year was no exception.
Our PP1 pupils participated in a bespoke workshop where they used numbers, counting, shapes and space to work together to build simple modular forms. Working in small groups the children used simple 2D and 3D shapes to build triangular based pyramids and they then connected these together to form larger structures, culminating in one huge tetrahedron measuring 4 metres high that the whole class could get inside.
This exercise gave our PP1 pupils the chance to put their classroom learning of mathematics into practice but also helped them to improve their listening, cooperation, teamwork and problem solving skills.
Later in the day our PP3 pupils worked individually and in groups as Vikings to construct a Long Boat up to 12 metres in length, complete with sails and oars.
Large enough for the whole group to sit in, they imagined navigating a passage around the Arctic Circle to North America, as the Vikings did, some 500 years before Columbus. They also played a game that involved lifting their oars up (pretending to take them out of the water) as quickly as possible when the beat of the drum stopped. The last to lift their oars had to come out of the ship.
This term our PP3 children have been learning about Vikings in History but across the curriculum too. In their art classes, they have created some fantastic portraits of Vikings, below, and given them rather scary names and also constructed mini Viking ships from cocktail sticks and card. In literacy they have written imaginative stories based around their learning of the Vikings exploring who they were, where they invaded and settled and how they lived.
The workshops provided our children with a hands on experience and gave them the opportunity to learn through building.