The juniors have completed workshops in puppet making, clay, sculpture, scrap metal music, dance and drama
September - December 2004
January - March 2005
8th January 2005
12th February
12th March
May - July 2005
12th May
11th June
9th July
September - December 2005
11 th September
9 th October
12 th November
Xmas Party 2005!
Splat! 2006
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Artists - Tiago and Claire
Maggie, Nina, Rachel, Joel, George, Sebastian, Mathew
It was great to be back after the New Year, we had some new faces and of course the return of Claire with her ceramics. She had prepared a fantastic box for the children to make and as a treat she had done the hard work and rolled out the clay for us. This meant that we could work on the fun part which was making and decorating! There were quite a lot of difficult techniques to learn and the children had to be careful to prepare the surfaces that they were sticking together. Tiago was keen to have a go and despite the fact that we had so many children they all worked quietly.
Rachel worked with Tiago to make a fantastic pot that had a great design on it. She really liked the clay tools that Claire had bought along to press into the clay.
Claire had decorated the pot with a flower but there were even more creative decorations that followed. George seemed to really enjoy working with the clay and made a great pot that had all three panels decorated, his favorite was the house that he had done.
Claire said that she would then take them home to fire and we could decorate then next week.
Soon it was time for a break and the children were very pleased when Maggie bought out biscuits and juice.
We were all looking forward to the dance session that Tiago had planned and he had some great music for us to dance to. But first it was important to start with a game of zip zap boing…..; this is one of Rachel’s favorites. The children were keen to learn the dance moves that he had planned for the session. Joel, Sebastian and Rachel would have put any band you could mention to shame by the end of the session!
We were all sad to learn that Tiago is off for three months to Brazil for a working holiday. We asked him for a postcard, but we’re sure that he’ll be back for zip zap boing…..! very soon!
It made us all laugh when Rachel’s Mum came to pick her up, ‘Zap!’ said Rachel. Her Mum said, ‘Do you know, she wonders around the house zapping things, I wonder why?’. Well, we had to give her a quick lesson in zip zap boing…..! and hopefully the whole family will have practiced for next week!
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12th February
Artists: Claire – Fun with Ceramics, & Matt - Percussion Instruments from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Support Staff: Maggie, Jo, and Anna
The children today numbered nine Juniors: Evie; Rachel; Joel; Scott; Jonathon; Rhys; Matthew; Luke; and new starter Aleece.
Everybody opted for the clay to start with today, creating tiles of different designs, then moving on to food dishes! Claire tried to steer the children into creative jacket potatoes, promoting a healthier option to the very well designed burgers with toppings!
The children then painted their triangular pots that had been made the previous month and fired in readiness. The paint proved very popular with our girls who moved into painting their hands and then everything else within reach! The ensuing washing up exercise provided an opportunity to break for a well earned drink and snack.
After ‘half-time’ we progressed to the diverse percussion instruments provided by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. The children experimented with the different sounds and progressed into creating a musical story about a little train whose journey became interrupted by the appearance of a noisy duck on the line.
This piece was then performed for the staff and arriving parents, with narrative by Matt, our BSO musician.
During the morning Esther from the Bournemouth Arts Council came along to video snippets of activities for an Arts Council Creative Compilation Film.
This aroused great interest from the children and helping hands were plentiful!! (Sorry about the paint Esther!)
The morning was very productive and calm, all children participating well, and several new friendships forged.
Our new Splat!! Member, Aleese, had a particularly busy morning, approaching all activities available with enthusiasm, and leaving with a very wide smile and a big ‘thankyou’ to everyone.
Artists: Claire – Fun with Felt, & Nick for Team Activities.
Support Staff: Maggie, Amy and Andy.
The children today numbered nine juniors: Shelby; Rachel; Stuart; Scott; Jonathon; Rhys; Matthew; Cameron; and Elise.
Everybody opted for the felt-making to start with today, creating beautiful fruity designs, which involved much soaking and soaping before squeezing and hanging out to dry.
As the sun was shining the felts dried in time for the children to take them home.
The children were desperate to get outside into the garden sunshine, so after our break for refreshments team games and football were hosted in the garden by Nick, our creative dramatist. The children were able to let off steam and become their favourite sports star! The down side of this was that the children were reluctant to go home!!
The morning was very productive and calm, with another new face, Shelby, made welcome and embracing the wealth of stimulation on offer.
New worker Andy Reeves was introduced to the staff and children, and will be working with us every junior Saturday, supporting the children, and helping on days out. Welcome Andy!!
The felt was a productive activity, easy for the children to do, whatever their age or ability, and gave the children great satisfaction, particularly the ‘soaping’ aspect! The results were very impressive, the designs bold and attractive, and the children were proud to have them to take home and display.
In contrast to the busy indoor activity, the fun and games that followed in the garden were an opportunity for the children to lose some energy and to express themselves. Nick works his theme around suggestions from the children, increasing their confidence and feelings of value.
Janna Edwards – Ceramic tea lights and Tiago Gambogi – Brazilian Dance.
Jo, Amy, Maggie and Nina.
Evie, Joel, Rachel, Scott, Cameron, Matthew, Rhys, Jonathan, Elise, John, Chloe, Beatrix and Kelly.
What a full session! It was great to have this many to start a new season of Splat! We were lucky to have Janna with a new ceramics project. Ceramic tea lights were a challenge to make and we had to learn some new techniques. There were windows to cut out and clay to join together with ‘scoring’ to make it stick. There were a great crowd all trying to make their houses stay upright and Janna running around to make sure there weren’t too many disasters. Matthew worked hard on his clay house and had a fence running around the outside. Abbey had a bird on the roof and I think that there were a few cars too! We all enjoyed the ‘clay extruders’ which made long hair like stands of clay which we could stick on the roof to look like straw. Jo noticed that the roof had no chimney to let the smoke out. Janna confessed she’d forgotten! We had to put a hole in so that the smoke could get out. Jonathan was new to the group and keen to join in. Evie and Rachel played together all session; John leant them his wheel chair to play in and they were soon charging around having races. The sand pit eventually proved too tempting for Rachel and Evie and they were keen to build things in the sand. We soon finished the rest of the clay houses and left Janna to make any final repairs while we let off steam in the garden. It’s always a favourite and a great place to play. We had some adventures on the climbing frame and enjoyed the windy weather.
With drinks and biscuits finished it was time to start the dance routine that Tiago had designed. He explained that dance was a great way of keeping fit and healthy. First we had to do some stretches to get our muscles warmed up so we wouldn’t hurt ourselves. He had some fun getting us to warm up and there was a large group that tried to follow the positions that he could get into. We had a go but it was fairly tricky to do, I think that Tiago must be very fit! We managed a fairly good succession of moves and I think that Tiago was quite impressed. Kelly loved the dancing and was keen to learn all the moves. Scott was a bit reluctant to join in at first and hid at first with Joel. But we caught them joining in a little bit later when they had some more confidence! It was soon time for a game of Zip Zap Boing! to finish off! A great session that provided us with some new skills and helped us learn the benefits of keeping fit with dance.
Opps I think I lost this one?
But Holton Lee's great!
July 05
Nina, Maggie, Andrew, Anna and Jo.
Janna, Nick and Claire
Joel, Aleece, Jonathan, Rhys, Cameron, Matthew
Ronald Dahl Scarecrows
Janna had made some excellent scarecrows heads for us to work from.
No!, there were just two examples of the scarecrows that's just Nick in the background in the red!
Claire had made the bodies out of Hessian and tin foil. Nick had some great ideas for us to work with Ronald Dahl so it was full steam ahead with the project. We started with the clay heads which involved thinking of the strangest face that you could and then creating that with the clay. It was easy to get some good inspiration; we’d brought Nick along to pull funny faces. Well, nobody was quite sure if he meant to or not!
We used grasses and flowers to decorate our heads!
We all talked about the lovely weather and thought that it would be great to go on a walk at lunch time. Maggie mentioned how important it is to stay in a large group and to make sure that you can see an adult at all times. It’s important to have fun but we all have to stay safe. It was soon time for a break and so we let Nick direct the session. He was immediately drawn to a huge tube.
Aleece, Jonathan and Joel spent ages insisting that we roll them along while they had fun inside! It was hard work for the adults!
Andy wasn't haven't any of it, budge over Aleece! It looks too much fun for just you kids!
Gradually we all had a turn in the tube, with the kids seeming to never get bored of having us push them around. We decided to make the scarecrows up before we made our way into the woods.
Claire had prepared the costumes for our scarecrows and it was our job to then paint them with colours that would scare off any birds. We used bamboos to make the arms and suddenly our scarecrows began to take shape. We displayed them out side after a few minutes enjoying playing with them. We were all very glad when lunch arrived. It looked delicious, there was sandwiches of all descriptions and plus delicious fruit for our afterwards. We were glad to see such healthy foods after all the healthy activity of the morning.
It was soon time to take a little adventure in the forest. We assured the children that as long as they stayed close they wouldn't get eaten by the bears that live in the forest! It worked a treat they all stayed close by!
Fortunately we saw a net in the distance we new this would keep us occupied, something for both the energetic and the people who wanted to just enjoy the beautiful scenery!
However it wasn’t long before we all wanted a go, it looked like too much fun! It was great fun seeing the adults getting stuck in to. We want it to be a fun day out for all!
Splat makes sure that you have a balance between sitting and learning new skills and enjoying a healthy active life style. Nick was very keen to make sure that when it came to the acting part of the day that everyone got into character and physically acted the role out. There was a lot of running and activity when the characters in the story were being chased.
It was an excellent story and Nick did well to keep everyone focused on what they were doing. The children love working with there imagination to create characters. There were some real stars, Joel came in to his own! Andy continued to film! Jonathan and I made sure that evryone came on at the right time! Maggie and Jo kept the grass on the floor! ! Secretly I think they were enjoying a sunny day out!
It was a great day out, we loved it! Spot anyone not smiling!
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11 th September 2005
Tiago and Janna
Nina and Andrew
Great to start a new Splat season!
We had Tiago and Janna to treat us to some creative exploration. We started with some clay, Janna had made a fantastic boats based on the battle of Trafalgar. 200 years ago Nelson took a small fleet and won a battle against the much larger French and Spanish fleet. The boats looked fantastic and it didn’t take long before we all started making out boats. We had to remember some important clay techniques including scoring the pieces that we wanted to stick together and making sure that they had a small amount of water to help them stick. Stuart worked confidently on his own with some great ideas on boat design. Mathew always works quietly, we’re getting used to seeing great results from him. Reese was new to clay and asked all the right questions and followed instruction well. Cameron needs no encouragement, he’s always keen to get on with the task in hand. Jonathan showed he had a great imagination and was keen to share his design ideas, he worked carefully during the session. Rachel was so pleased to have Tiago back and I think that they had great fun playing with the clay and the paint. Elise thought it was great fun making Andrew chase her around the garden! During break time Rachel and Elise, who’ve become firm friends, insisted on watering the plants even though Andrew was sure that they didn’t need it! Tiago led the session after break which seamlessly followed some exercise outside after drinks. He had great plans to improve our coordination through some throwing games. No session would be complete without a Zip Zap Boing session! Rachel always insists! All too soon it was time to go! Tiago’s sessions are always such great fun and get us all moving. We like to keep healthy and games are the best way of keeping active!
Andrew, Nina
Rachael, Elise, Mathew and Daniel
A small group but we got lots done!
It was great to have Maggie drop by even if it was only to drop off some keys! I think she really wanted to stay but we said she had to leave. There weren’t enough Malteasers for her as well!
Janna and Claire had brought some great things to do. Claire wanted us to make felt table mats and Janna had brought more clay to finish out Trafalgar boats off. We started the morning working with the clay, everyone enjoyed joining in. We had to put some final details on and then make masts out of bamboo and card. Mathew worked very carefully; he liked the end result of the boat with all the paper masts. The girls were distracted by the opportunity to help Claire with the felt making. I think they liked getting stuck into the felt making with its soapy-ness! In no time at al it was time for play, we all enjoyed the sunshine. The boys practiced climbing and running on the climbing frame. They all seem to like the garden and especially the trees! I had some shooting practice with Matthew who wanted to learn how to shoot a goal! Elise and Rachael liked playing together and pushed each other around in a toy car. It wasn’t long before Elsie realised that this quite hard work and Andrew was roped into the physical pushing! Elise found a plastic barrel which must have reminded her of Holton Lee because she climbed in just like before and insisted on being pushed around the garden!
The felt making is always popular but I think that the rubbing frightens a few off! We had a couple great designs but suddenly there was something that just needed doing outside when it came to the hard work of rubbing!
A great day all in all, shame
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12 th November 2005
Erica, Milly, Lizzy, Ashley, Cameron, Mathew, Ryhs, Jerry and Leon.
Joe had been inspired our Trafalgar theme and we had to make some pirate masks! We had some discussions on what a pirate might look like. Some were scarey, some looked a little strange and some looked rather like some familiar heroes from cartoons! Erica liked colouring on the masks. Milly and Lizzy who are sisters worked beautifully together, with lizzy colouring her sister’s hat. Milly wanted to make sure that she had one to take home. Ashley turned out to be a great drawing master and made a great banner to go on his hat. Cameron took a little time to get some confidence but then out of nowhere produced the most amazing drawing! He also gave me a little help with some colouring in! Mathew also impressed us with his fantastic pirate ideas, what great drawings. Rhys wasn’t going to be left out and he too made a great pirate. Jerry and Leon enjoyed the session and each had a go at drawing a pirate. Caitlyn wanted to make her own hat to take home.
After a run around in the garden it was time to have a go at putting the final touches to our ships. We all need to put some paint on and make some sails. Unfortunately most boats in Nelsons fleet would have had three masts and around 12 sails when at sea! We had a lot of work to do. The masts were bean poles and we had to cut out the sails from cards and paint the masts black. It was great fun to show all the parents when they arrived what we had been up to. Everyone had a hat and a finished boat. Cameron was little reluctant to take his home, it turned out the family cat had a bit of a reputation! Mum reassured us that it would be in pride of place so the cat didn’t have a chance!
A fun lively session!
Nina, Maggie and Andy
It was a very exciting day… we were all looking forward to getting stuck in. The artists all came with Xmas themed activities so that our kids could make something as they dropped in. There was a rumour that we may have a special visitor but it was all whispered and no one was really sure when and how he would arrive.
Joe had come armed with a box of fantastic things ready to make hats for all the children. There were pirate’s hats, sparkly hats and a great Xmas hat with a furry bauble!
Janna had some clay ready for the kids to make Xmas trees.
Claire had come up with some fab designs for cards that we could make ready to send!
Claire and Andy - practice makes perfect!
Claire had brought our santas to be painted from the last session.
My job today was simple, we have to make sure that we’re making a difference to people’s lives. What does Splat do for your child, do they talk about it, does it matter if they don’t come and are there any changes that you have noticed. If you ask Maggie, Andy or I there’s no chance we’d say anything but great. There’s never a complaint that we’re there on a Saturday morning and no question that fun is the main activity. However, its not enough to have fun, we need to be enriching lives and providing children with creative opportunities that otherwise they wouldn’t have. In a situation like Splat provides we are able to get to know the kids and provided them with new opportunities to build relationships. It doesn’t come easily to everyone!
Janna always attracts children with her amazingly creative ideas and today was no exception.
The children love clay and were keen to work with her to make Xmas decorations and a great design of Xmas tree! Brinley worked quietly to make a tree, his techniques have really progressed this year. Elise made some decorations for her tree at home. Milly worked extra hard to make both the clay tree and some decorations. Claire concentrated hard and was really pleased with her tree. She said her favourite Splat memory was the plaster of paris, ‘that was great fun!’.
Claire said she thought the plaster was a bit yucky! What a funny face she pulled!
We talked about our Splat year, Brinley said that his favourite memory was holding the plaster of paris in his hands as it dried. It was really strange seeing how it went from powder to liquid and then solid. ‘You could see all my finger prints in the plaster when it had dried!’ he said. Claire said, ‘ I remember that day, that was great fun!’. Janna said that Claire was great at clay work because she always works so carefully! Elise said quietly, ‘I like the chocolates at break time!. Her Dad said, ‘its been great watching Elise making friends, she doesn’t always find it easy at school and it suits her more having a smaller group’. Erica was showing he Dad her new pirate hat, ‘I loved making this!’ she said. Dad said that she normally likes him to stay, but at splat she quickly says, ‘its alright Dad, you can go!’. Well, that’s the result we’re looking for! Timmy, Mathew and Abbey are always smiling and happy children and they all agreed that one of the best things about Splat was the space to play and do fun things! Zoe enjoyed it because she doent have tp worry about getting in a mess and she always comes always comes away with ideas!
Josh is steadily becoming a familiar face at Splat. We all love his polite and careful approach! His Mum and Dad said he always looks forward to coming and that he likes to mark it on the calendar so no one can forget! Dad forgot once and was sternly told not to do it again! Dad likes the fact that he is given opportunities that he wouldn’t otherwise have available. He’s developed a real flair for creativity since joining!
Joel’s a familiar face at Splat and is a pleasure to work with. His Dad and I have both noticed a developing interest in clay, lets hope that continues. Janna pointed out that she’d been very impressed with his clay work during the year. Joel’s Dad like him being sociable and he seems very settled at Splat. Rachel’s Mum has seen a huge progression in Rachel’s attitude to Splat. She’s gone from no wanting to come in to not wanting to leave! Rachel loves getting messy and Splat gives her a safe arena to do it in. Tiago has had a huge effect on her and her mum regularly gets dragged into some of her favourite games that Tiago taught her! There are cries of Zap yelled from all round the house!
The raffle was a huge success and I met Jonathan after he had won a small radio.
That was his favourite thing about Splat! Andrew was watching on enviously as Jonathan played with his radio. I asked him about the highlights of the year, ‘I like the away days, Holton Lee is especially great as I love watching the children enjoy the space and running in the large field!’.
I met Tom and his mum, she was keen to emphasise how important it is for Tom. She’s seen a real improvement in his attitude and never worries about him after she’s dropped him off, a rarity she enjoys! It helped when Tiago turned up at school and spotted him. It made Tom feel special in front of the other kids. Tom said that he really enjoyed looking for dinosaurs and that casting the dino feet with the plaster was his favourite. Cameron is a boy who doesn’t waste his words, which is why I was especially pleased when he took the time to tell me how much he enjoyed Holton Lee and the forest. His Dad said that he always says he’s had fun at Splat. Jack is always good fun at the sessions and was really pleased he could come, ‘I like all the things we do, I never feel alone here!’.
We’re always keen to get feedback from our artists. Janna was really pleased with the scarecrows at Holton Lee. It was great for two of our artists to get together and work on one project. She says that this is a great opportunity for her as normally you don’t get to meet and work with other practitioners. Joe said he loved working on a larger scale with the kids and that producing a huge dinosaur was a great thing to do with the kids. He thinks that the away days are a huge success and is always keen to make sure he has time to do them! He also loved the theatre that we did with Nick outside, that was very effective and great that some of the parents came to see it at the end. Claire said she had enjoyed the opportunity to develop her felt workshops, the displayed work had led to her gaining further sessions at the centre. Jo, our helper, made a return visit, she had to leave after getting a job that took too much of her time up, so its always a treat when she returns! She misses us lots! ‘It’s a fab opportunity!’, she said.
Jo models one of our Xmas Hats !
It was soon time to get ready for Santa to arrive, we were sure he would forget. Maggie always gives him plenty of warning with a invite in November!
Sure enough at just the right time he turned up, as the children left he a had a little gift and a message about Xmas.
So gradually it all got quieter, we were left to clear up the bits and pieces. Did we mind, not at all, it was a fantastic SPLATURDAY yet again!
Happy Xmas!
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