Crosby School Project

A view of Crosby School Circa 1930

 

Crosby Primary School are about to leave their old school building and move to new premises. The North Lincolnshire Museum worked with their staff to host two evenings of memory and reminiscing.  All ex pupils and staff where invited to look at old photos, and memorabilia and meet up with other past students and teachers. The cook who was famous for her cookies, made a large batch for everyone.  Over 400 people came and the evenings were a real success. The museum staff collected memories both written and recorded. These memories will be held at the museum for people to see access in the future.

Rachel Holmes, Learning Officer

Easter Tots at Normanby Hall Country Park

On April 7 we ran an Easter event for under 5s and their grown ups at Normanby. We had a wonderful time enjoying songs, stories, hunting for clues to find the Easter Bunny and lots more.

In planning sessions for under 5s we aim to provide opportunities for children to learn through play, to communicate and of course to have fun.

In this session we shared an interactive reading of the story ‘Sunny Bunny’, by Penny Little and Sean Julian, using props, actions and noises to act out the story together with the children.

We also created an Easter sensory table for children to explore and initiate their own play. This encouraged them to touch, listen to egg shakers, to count bunnies and chicks and to make a game hiding them inside eggs or boxes for another child to guess what was inside.

We also added plastic eggs to our water tray and painted bunnies using cotton wool and finished with some very energetic action songs.

Normanby Tots sessions like this run monthly during termtime on selected dates: 9 May, 6 June and 4 July 1.30-2.30pm and at North Lincs Museum weekly on Fridays during term time 1.30-2.30pm.

Come and join us!

Rosalind Macaulay, Under 5s Learning Officer

Woodland Adventure Learning

North Lincolnshire Museum Service has branched out this Spring to offer a Forest School themed educational programme to schools, groups and corporate teams.

Forest School is a unique educational experience that offers children the opportunity to develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a woodland environment. Children engage in motivating and achievable tasks and activities throughout the year and in almost all weathers.

Our trained Level 3 Forest School Leader and Learning Officer, Jennifer Wakefield has been putting together an exciting new programme to encourage children to engage with the woodland at Normanby through a variety of workshops themed around the National Curriculum.

Children will have the opportunity to work with tools, play, learn boundaries of behaviour; both physical and social, grow in confidence, self-esteem and motivation whilst developing an understanding of the natural world.

The sessions provided to schools will also be offered to groups and corporate teams wishing to participate in team building activities.

Woodland Adventure Learning is being piloted with 3 schools in February and is set to be offered fully to schools etc. week beginning 14^th March. Please contact us for further information.

Jennifer Wakefield, Learning Officer

Let’s go under the sea…

Our new under 5s space at North Lincs Museum, Dudley’s Den, will include an ‘Under the sea’ themed corner perfect for babies and toddlers to explore with soft mats, sensory resources and a beautiful textile canopy created by a group of local families with children aged just 2-3 years.

We worked with local artist Nicky Dillerstone to run four family workshops over four weeks to create the canopy.

We worked in partnership with NLC  Adult Community Learning to identify families who would benefit from these sessions. Sarah Johnson, Family Learning Development Assistant attended sessions and assisted in their smooth delivery. We were also very grateful for the support from Rae Twidale at Westcliff Drop- in who helped to recruit families and provided free transport.

During these workshops the families got stuck into exploring new materials, learning new skills and techniques and creating wonderful pieces of artwork.

We made felt balls, jellyfish with ribbons and strings, 3D fabric fish and wire and wool seaweed among others. A particular favourite with the children was the gluing activity where they spread lots of PVA glue onto polythene then stuck a range of materials with different textures and colours onto the glue to create large pieces for the canopy.

Each week Nicky was able to show us artwork we had done the previous week and begin to attach pieces together to form a canopy.

We welcome you to come and see the finished canopy in Dudley’s Den when it opens later this year.

Rosalind Macaulay, Under 5s Learning Officer

 

Growing Talk for under 5s

 

Chatter basket

 

Last month some of the Learning team attended two days training from Tots on Tour entitled ‘Growing Talk’.

We were thrilled to be able to take part in this training alongside local early years practitioners as we were able to learn lots about how young children learn and develop that we can apply to our work with under 5s at North Lincs Museum and Normanby Hall Country Park.

This training focused on a programme of activities to encourage and grow children’s communication and language.

The days were fun, hands on and full of practical advice and ideas that we are keen to use in our sessions for under 5s.

Here are some of our favourites:

Using ‘Chatter Baskets’ full of interesting items linked to a theme for children to explore, play and chat about.

Singing! We came away with loads of ideas for using songs in sessions in different and creative ways.

‘Watch, wait & listen’ is one of the key principles of the Growing Talk programme. By watching, waiting and listening we provide children with time to communicate and express their thoughts and ideas.  This is something we want to do much more of in our under 5s sessions.

 Rosalind Macaulay, Learning Officer Under 5s

Autism Awareness Month

April is Autism Awareness Month. At North Lincolnshire Museum Service we are committed to improving access to our museums for everyone, including people on the Autism Spectrum.

Last month we attended a GEM workshop in Manchester on developing autism friendly cultural venues. Inspiring speakers from the National Autistic Society outlined some of the ways in which museums can help autistic audiences access their collections. They highlighted the value and importance of museum collections for people with autism as visual learners and highly creative people. Speakers from cultural venues then discussed the ways that they have made their spaces more accessible to people with autism. Manchester Museum runs an early opening each month and provides autism awareness training for staff. Manchester Art Gallery also runs a monthly early opening and focuses on developing sensory activities. The Royal Air Force Museum (recipient of the Autism Friendly Award in 2015) has developed an autism trail and set aside a dedicated quiet room. They were also instrumental in setting up the Museum Disability Cooperative Website to encourage museums, art galleries and other cultural venues to seek and share knowledge and break down social barriers.

So, how are we working to include autistic audiences at North Lincolnshire Museums? In March we piloted a new Easy Read Guide at North Lincolnshire Museum and received lots of positive feedback. These took the form of A5 flip book that introduced visitors to the museum and helped them to navigate the galleries. We are now in the process of developing it and reprinting it a sturdier format. We also plan to make this available in PDF form on our website to allow people to develop social stories and prepare for their visit. We will also develop similar guides for Normanby Hall and Country Park.

Improving the accessibility of our spaces is important to us. We welcome any feedback or advice. Please email us at info@museum.northlinc.gov.uk if you have any suggestions.

#NLautismaware #autism #autismawareness

Dr Rebecca Kummerfeld, Learning Manager