Working with Schools :: My Monstrous Little Creature

I had a primary school teacher, Mrs Young, attend our 'Adventures in Zombieland' workshop, last year, with her children and enjoyed it so much that she invited me to run a creative making session at her school, Ratby Primary, in Leicestershire.  The year 2 children where doing 'monstrous poetry' so the session brief was to design their own monstrous creature.  We invited them to design their own imaginary character, onto a standard paper template...
We talked about emotions and the sorts of expressions our faces make when we are happy i.e. smiley mouth, or sad i.e. turned down mouth and furrowed brow etc
Some children tipped their design sheets upsidedown and used the legs as ears to make creatures that resembled rabbits
When their designs where complete, the children were invited to select the body of their creature from pre-cut textiles made from our stash of felt made from recycled old jumpers...




And then they selected and started to sew on the faces of their creatures.  There were over 50 children participating but we had plenty of grown ups to help out with tricky bits of sewing...
The room was so very quiet during the sewing part of the session.  Even the teachers commented on how relaxed the room seemed...
 When the playtime bell went, I managed to take a few pictures of progress...

 Some used bits of wool to embellish their creatures faces...
 And others cut up bits of felt to make dreadlock like hair...
 Some used buttons for the eyes...
 By the end of the session, most of the children had completed their creatures...


The results were stunning.  Everybody worked so hard and I was amazed at how different each and everyone of these creatures turned out.
I wonder what the collective noun for a group of monstrous creatures is?  Does anyone know?
Thank you Mrs Young, for inviting me into your lovely school and thank you to the parents who donated their unwanted jumpers for this great project.
Lisa

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