Bel The Giant - exploring culture & mythology

The Mighty Creatives

Bel The Giant is a Leicestershire mythological legend that explains how certain places (e.g. Belgrave, Birstall, Mountsorrell, Rothley, Wanlip) were named. The project explored the cultures found in three of the above places and looked at giants found in various mythological stories from all over the world to develop creative writing skills with 60 Year 2 children through music, storytelling, film and carnival arts.

The aim of the project was to challenge sixty Year 2 pupils to create a performance on World Book Day at the Peepul Centre based on the Bel The Giant myth. The project developed their writing skills as they culturally explored this multidisciplinary project that utilised writing, story-telling, drama, dance, film, art and sculpture with clear links to the school improvement plan.

The project also included visits for the school to specially programmed events at the Peepul Centre to enrich the young students with greater cultural awareness. Visits included three plays, one specifically about Giants and Indian mythology; the second, Life of Pi was about a young Indian boy, who is a Hindu, who unusually embraces Christianity and Islam in his search for one God; and the third Pequenos Paradisos (Small Paradises) was a Spanish dance show full of flying cherries, shining jewels, and magic caskets trying to discover the essence of the little things that make us happy. Other trips included a visit to a boot factory, to the museum and the library for story-telling and historical research on Belgrave.

Project theme

Teaching for creativity, inter-cultural learning and parental involvement.

Objectives

* To develop the pupils' authorship skills in story telling and writing.
* To continue the Young Consultants' training through observing, recording and documenting the project and working with the Year 2 classes.
* To encourage community links by involving the story-telling team of the local library and exploring links with the museum and their work on stories about Belgrave.

Ambitions

The partnership is continuing to develop projects that involve a wider school, parent and community audience. It is envisaged that by participation, challenges and discovery, the children’s self confidence and self image is changed for the better.

Bel the Giant - Caldecote Community Primary School working with The Peepul Centre.

Bel the Giant - Young Consultants from Caldecote Community Primary School look back at images taken during various stages of the project

Bel the Giant - There were some amazing reactions from the children when their sculpture of Bel the Giant was finally unveiled at the Peepul Centre.

Bel the Giant - The children worked together to design and create their own Bel the Giant sculpture and were delighted when the final article was unveiled at the Peepul Centre.

Bel the Giant - As part of the visit to the Peepul Centre, the children performed a dance for parents and teachers which they had earlier created as part of the Bel the Giant project

Bel the Giant - The children documented their feelings and ideas during the project using 'video diaries' which were later screened during the visit to the Peepul Centre.

Bel the Giant - A pupil from Caldecote Community Primary School engages in storytelling and role play with a practitioner from Leicester City Libraries.