Children feel the carved gravestone in the church
RAMM
RAMM and West Exe Children's Centre
By Phillippa Wood, RAMM Family Learning Officer
There is growing realisation in Museums that children under five can gain a huge amount from engaging with museums; the buildings, the objects and the stories. It is even better if they are part of a family group enjoying learning and playing together.
The South West Museum Hub (a collection of about five South West museums) began a research project to discover how museums and children under five could relate to each other. The research indicated that museum experiences helped develop children's thinking skills and the language to express this, curious exploration, reasoning and creative responses. They also create potent memories that can be recalled.
RAMM's Family Learning Officer, Philippa Wood, has been working with the West Exe Children's Centre to explore all sorts of activities, based on the museum's collection and local history, to capture the children's interest and awaken them to a sense of the past and an enjoyment of learning.
In days gone by there was an important bronze foundry in St Thomas. Cauldrons were made there and used in local kitchens. Following the children's interest in potions, stirring things and food we started to look at old kitchen utensils; the pots, pans, cutlery and tools that we can all find in our kitchen drawers and then introduced some more from the museum's handling collection - the Roman mortarium was very successful as the children ground up oats and seeds which we finally made into porridge.
We talked with the children about food and festive occasions and introduced the story of Stone Soup - a wonderful tale of the power of community involvement!
Finally we created a re-enactment of the stone soup story with the help of some young musicians and the children helped make the soup for all their friends and relatives.
The project continues discovering a sense of place in St Thomas and Cowick Street, looking at the old buildings and knowing something about some of the people who lived there. We hope to dress up for a Victorian Christmas.
Read about when Gerald the giraffe went to visit West Exe Children's Centre: Gerald Holds the Fort