: Learning

It hasn't been our busiest week in terms of numbers but I can't blame our visitors for wanting to make the most of the lovely weather. Not being as frantic as we often are has meant that families have been able to spend a long time engaging with some lovely handling objects and learnt a lot about Bronze Age design. I have been tweeting pictures of people's creations every day, but here are two photos from the week.

Tomorrow we change activities to look at and make our own Bronze Age shields.

Also I wanted to mention a very exciting family treasure hunt we are running throughout the museum during the school holidays. Cardiff Bay Rotary Club have kindly donated some book tokens as prizes. Come and see us for more information.

Have a nice weekend

Here in the Clore Discovery Centre we've been running round like crazy preparing to deliver a busy programme of Family Learning workshops throughout the summer holidays. Starting on Saturday 20th July we'll be running a different workshop every week for six weeks.

Have a look at the photo below for a taste of what we (you!) will be creating!

Every workshop links to an exhibtion,display or collection at National Museum Cardiff. The schedule for the six weeks is:

Week 1 (July 20th - 26th)Dress to Impress Bronze Age Style Visit the Mold Cape for inspiration to create your own lunula

Week 2 (July27th - Aug 2nd) Dress to Impress Bronze Age Style Visit the Mold Cape for inspiration to create your own Bronze Age Shield

Week 3 (Aug 3rd - 9th) Fishing for the Future
Discover what you can do to protect the fish in our seas and make some fish-inspired art to take home.

Week 4 (Aug 10th - 16th) Mughal India
Make your own story inspired by work in the exhibition.

Week 5 (Aug 17th - 23rd) Flying Lizards
Find out more about Pterosaurs and make a flying lizard to take home.

Week 6 (Aug 24th - Sept 1st) Pop Art
Make your own vinyl album cover inspired by works of art from the ‘Swinging Sixties’.

These workshops will happen in the Clore Discovery Centre between 11am and 4pm

They are free, and are drop in sessions which means places may be limited at times! But worry not, we have a gallery full of awe inspring museum objects for you to explore through handling, as well as plenty of trails and worksheets.

Hope to see you during the Summer!

Dont forget to follow @cloreexplorer

3 primary schools took part in activities exploring the new Beans on Toast exhibition at the National Museum Cardiff last week.

Pupils from Windsor Clive Primary School, Trelai Primary School and Ysgol Wirfoddol Abergwili explored where in the world our food comes from and how we can make sustainable choices about the food we buy. They then worked with an artist to create a 'World Food Stall' display to encourage discussion on the issues of food security back in school.

Funding was received to work with the artist through the British Ecological Society.

The exhibition will be open until 29 September 2013. Contact the Learning Department 029 2057 3240 if you would like to take part in future activities.

http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/whatson/?event_id=6501 

Williamstown Primary School pupils, in the Rhondda Valleys, were awarded first place amongst the sixty three Welsh schools taking part in the Museum's Spring Bulbs for Schools investigation this year.

The class of Super Scientists won a fun-packed nature trip to St Fagans: National History Museum where they were awarded certificates. As part of the day trip they studied newts, looked for mini-beasts, watched bats and built giant nests in the woodland!

Professor Plant: ''They all had a great day and should be very proud of how they represented their school. The standard was very high this year, the schools are getting better and better at recording and logging their data. Williamstown did extremely well with their recording and really got involved in the project from the start last November until the end in the spring - which came very late this year!"

Alison Hall, Teacher at Williamstown Primary: "The pupils said it was the best day out they had ever had - they loved viewing the bat roost in particular! In terms of the investigation, the children have have loved the whole process from planting and recording to measuring and waiting for the first bloom to appear. It has been great for improving their science, numeracy and ICT skills. We are now really enthused about nature and the environment and are keen to set-up more outdoor investigations in our school grounds".

If you would like to take part in this project next term - please complete the on-line application form: http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/1738/

To see our teacher evaluation report - follow this link: https://scan.wufoo.com/reports/spring-bulbs-for-schools-evaluation-report/

As you can see from the evaluation question below the project is very cross-curricular:

Hello!

I've been pretty quiet blog-wise but not work wise! Oriel 1 is now shut so I've been taking my art and craft activities further afield, trying out different locations on the site in St Fagans: National History Museum and going to Hay festival, Tafwyl, as well as doing some outreach work with schools.

Our quilting club is still going and our next meeting will be on 20 July and will be all day! from 11 until 1 and 2 until 4 (though you are welcome to just come along for some of it). I have also started up a knit and sew group, it's just a chance to come along and meet new people and exchange ideas and the next one of those is on 28 September from 11 until 1.

To keep up to date with what we're up to quilt and craft wise, have a look at our facebook page

We've also taken part in a few Craftivism projects and hope to do more of those over the next few months too. Again, there's a facebook page for that, although we don't just meet in the museum and take part in lots of other events!

And the other newish thing that I've been involved with is the St Fagans book group (yep, there's a facebook page for that too) which meets every month (next meeting 20 july) to discuss novels that have links with the site or have links with Wales. We also invite speakers to come and give us some context for the books too - so, for instance, when we read 'The Rebecca Rioter' by Amy Dillwyn, Sioned Hughes (curator: Politics, Trade and Religion) talked to us about the Tollhouse in St Fagans, when we 'read' (I'm yet to finish it) 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' by Hemingway, Heulwen Thomas talked to us about the Welsh links with the Spanish Civil War, and last meeting when we disussed 'The Hill of Dreams' by Arhtur Machen, writer and Machenite Catherine Fisher talked to us about Machen's life and times. The current book we are reading is Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel and we'll then be joined by Dr Madeleine Gray who'll be giving her historical take on the novel whilst we visit the church.

If you are interested in getting involved with any of these things please let me know! my email address is sian.lile@museumwales.ac.uk and I'd love to hear from you.

I have to get back to my crochet bunting now!