Started off with a fabulous presentation by the Heritage Education Forum along with a fabulous inspirer of young minds, Mairi MacIver, and some of the minds in question (I am always in awe of kids speaking at the Festival.)
Taking a simple concept and developing it into a cross-curricular extravaganza is my bread and butter – except that I don’t really get to do that across departments. Using the cast iron railings still prevalent in Stornoway, the class investigated local history (using old and new maps, photos etc), economics (the source of Stornoway’s wealth = herring industry), Gaelic culture (herring songs), geography (location of iron foundries), health (Omega 3 in fatty fish like herrings), and what’s more, there were NO WORKSHEETS!
They demonstrated Enterprise by inviting the Gaelic P1/2 class and their parents to exhibitions of their artwork, allowing them to share in what they had learned. Mairi’s work later extended to involve the whole community in learning about an object in plain view, probably mostly ignored.
A perfect beginning to SLF08 and we got a gorgeous free book!
