TREASURE BOX Year Group/Key Stage
Ks 2, Year Groups 5 / 6
Curriculum Links
Art & Design, PSHE,
Length of Session
3 x 45 minutes – hour sessions
Key Vocabulary
Treasured / collection / recycling / memorabilia / personalised / significance
Resources personal /
A selection of small/medium sized cardboard boxes e.g. washing powder/tea boxes. You could ask children to bring in their own. Different colours and textures of papers e.g. wrapping papers, magazines, craft reams, decorative items, PVA / glue sticks, scissors.
Introduction The characters in The Voyages of Sinbad each have their own trunk which keeps their hoards safe and helps them to tell the stories of the past. Treasure box is a creative project which will have a different outcome for each participant. Based on the idea of collecting objects, images and other items to preserve memory, the project allows children to experiment with their own individual ideas and responses to the theme to create a truly personal piece of their own history.
Method and Organisation Children work on their own individual project, in a classroom environment.
Lesson Aims To encourage children to: •
record from personal experience and explore their creative imagination
•
collect visual and other information and resources
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compare their ideas, methods and approaches with each other
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explore visual elements and tactile materials, experimenting with colour, pattern and texture, shape, form and space
Activities The introduction of this project would be greatly enhanced if the teacher is able to share some sort of personal example of a memory collection, maybe a photo box or trinket collection or even just one or two objects with personal significance to them. Sharing this with the group and explaining the reasons why the things are special is a great way to introduce the concept. The first session is about each child choosing a box to begin to decorate to become the basis for their treasure box. The size of the box they choose will have an influence on the type and number of items they collect so it’s good for them to start to be personalised straight away. At this stage it could just be basically covering the box in papers, patterns, words and colours that they choose. Ask the children to collect items from home for their box – photos, drawings, toys, trinkets, tickets, music tapes/cd’s etc that have a personal importance to them and that tell a story about them or a memory. Explain that they will not have to explain the memory or story out loud to anyone unless they want to. The second session is about putting the items in the box creatively – maybe they can make little sections in the box or layers with pieces of cardboard. They can stick some items in or on the box and leave some loose. The third session, if needed, is about sharing the design and something about their box with the rest of the group in a celebration of the project.
Extended Activities •
an exhibition of the treasure boxes to celebrate them
•
Children could write about their own individual approach to their treasure box