The Sea Company

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

EPISODE 6 – THE RESTORATION ROOM


We had previously talked about job profiles of restorers for our company display, so today we began to work in role as restorers. I asked the children to imagine they were in the restoration room in our HQ -what would be in the room? I gave out A5 pieces of paper for them to draw or write feature of the room on which they placed in the classroom where they thought that feature might be. The engagement in this activity was huge and after about 15 minutes we had created a room with restoration tables, sinks, conveyor belts, cupboards, shelves and some great details I would never have thought of – collapsible baskets to collect the salvage, an x-ray machine to look inside things, magnetic bins and more! (the science in this whole project has already been huge!)

I went into role as a restorer whose father and grandfather had also been restorers. I showed the children my (imaginary) restorers kit, which had been passed down through the family and told them how precious it was to me. I described the special box I kept the tools in and how I took it home with me every night because it was so valuable to me. I then showed the children a drawstring bag (real ) and asked them to imagine that it was full of restorers’ tools. One by one they came up, took a tool out of the bag and showed the rest of the class what they were doing with it. The first child set the tone by reaching so carefully into the bag and taking out a bottle of spray which she squirted onto an imaginary object and started gently polishing it. There was a hushed atmosphere and some magical moments as other followed her – I felt that there was a real feeling of investment and belief in what they were doing and that the children were beginning to enter the work at a deeper level at this point.

They went off to draw the special boxes that they kept their tool kits in and also the equipment contained in the boxes – tweezers, scissors, polish, small saws, glue, clamps, sponges, brushes etc.

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