Nora White

Classes: All

Materials: Infants-2nd: Pencil, paper and crayons. 3rd-6th: Pencil, paper and ruler each. Clay (air-drying, 100g per student) and tools (plastic/wooden/cocktail sticks) to decorate clay.

Session 1 (pre-recorded, Infants-2nd: 15mins; 3rd-6th: 30 mins)

A video introduction to ogham (What is ogham? where is it found? how old is it? and for senior classes how to read and write ogham) with guide notes for teachers including activity ideas and worksheets for students. The follow-up creative activity for 3rd-6th involves the pupils making their own ogham stone in clay, using what they have learned to add their own name in ogham. For Infants-2nd the activity would be to either colour in a supplied ogham stone or draw and decorate their own ogham stone adding their name initial in ogham.

Session 2 (live, Infants-2nd: 30mins; 3rd-6th: 60 mins)

A live interactive session starting with a show and tell of children’s creative work. Virtual tours of any local ogham stones or other early Christian sites in the area (e.g. places associated with Colm Cille for the anniversary year). Where possible, this could be followed up with an actual site visit by the class and teacher. It would also include a multiple choice quiz for seniors and finish with either a short presentation on how we create 3d models (senior classes) or a story from early Christian Ireland (junior classes).

Worksheets & teacher's notes: Notes for teacher and video/slides and worksheets for students will be provided.

School visits (on-site)

In a full day's visit to a school, activities would ideally be based around a local site, such as an ogham stone, early church site or ringfort. An alternative would be a museum visit, such as the National Museum of Ireland or one of the county museums. The children would first be introduced to some of the sources of information on the past: archaeology, history, genealogy, folklore, place names, early maps, old photographs and drawings.

Visits would include a hands-on ogham workshop where pupils would learn all about the first writing in Ireland and would get the chance to try reading and writing ogham themselves. During the site visit children would have the opportunity to interact with our surviving archaeological monuments and landscapes and imagine what life might have been like for our ancestors.

For more advanced classes a demonstration on 3d recording and the use of 3d technology in Heritage would be included. All of this would be tailored to meet the requirements of the SESE Curriculum and to best suit the needs of each class and their teacher.

A topic for more advanced classes on the use of 3d technology in recording our heritage and how this technology helps us to learn more about the past. This will provide a basic overview of how 3d models of archaeological monuments, such as ogham stones, are recorded. It will also allow the children to interact with 3d models online and where possible (if a 3d printer is accessible) to 3d print a recorded object.