ITALIAN FABRIC CRAFTS

There was a debate about fabric crafts and everyone proposed their ideas. Finally pupils chose to create gifts for friends or parents. Handmade objects are always appreciated on any occasion. We have no sewing machine at school, for this reason we looked for basic sewing skills and minimal materials.

Lorenzo thought about his mother, who usually burns her fingers when cooking. He chose yellow fabric, the same colour as the curtains of the kitchen.

Filippo thought about his mother too. For her he created a pincushion: his mum will never loose her sewing pins again.

 

  

Valentina & Sandro wanted to create hearts for their friends. They are pendants or key rings. Valentina wanted to keep one for herself and hang it in her bedroom.

  

The used materials are: fabric, woollen cloth, thread, needles, padding.
Pupils worked following various stages:
- object choice
- selection of required materials
- cut of cloth
- tack
- final seam
- decoration
- packaging
teachers led pupils in the creation of articrafts.

  

  

The working atmosphere was happy, busy and very industrious

  

Pincushion is used in sewing to store pins or needles with their heads protruding so as to take hold of them easly, collect them and keep them organized. Its most popular design is a ball.

Základná škola Ľubica

Elementary School Ľubica, Slovakia
Textile bags

Class of students with mental disabilities-teacher Mgr. Uriga
Pupils produce textile bags. Textiles-old T-shirts slited with scissors, amplifiered and draw from them textile bags. Then bags decorated with drawings. They worked very nicely, with passion. The best works were awarded and displayed at the notice board.

Comenius 2 Music lab

Comenius 2

16th february 2011
The first day the visiting groups arrived in Prato at different times. Turkish and Slovak groups arrived the day before. Italian teachers welcomed guests at Hotel Flora. In the evening we had dinner together: it was the time for formal presentations.

17th february 2011
The program included a morning at school. Italian hosts organized for guests a Creativity Laboratory. The main activity was painting. Led by teachers and assistents pupils had to reproduce “The Carnival of Harlequin” by Mirò. At the same time and in both mornings at school a teacher for each country was engaged in talking about the Project, the seven teachers discussed the Observation Form, moreover they prepared the evaluation forms for teachers and pupils, that are Satisfaction Questionnares to be given at the end of the meeting. They discussed the following topics:

- activities which will be done by all members

- the schedules which will be followed by all members

- the objectives that need to be accomplished before the next meeting

- the creation of a Comenius Web page.

We had lunch together. After that we returned to school to watch a DVD about Prato. In the afternoon there was a tour of the most important monuments in the town.

18th february 2011
The program included a music lab: there were played National Imns of each country. Eventhough there were hearing impaired pupils, music was chosen because vibrations can be perceived by pupils with hearing problems.

Painting and music are universal languages; as channels of communication they can overcome all the barriers.

At the end of the morning we visited the City Council: the deputy major gave information about the Area and gifts were given our partners.

In the afternoon the Comenius group visited the Galleria degli Alberti in Prato, an art gallery of medieval and renaissance art.
Then everyone had freetime.
In the evening a pizza-party was offered by Italian hosts at pizzeria “Don Chisciotte”.

19th february 2011

It was organized a trip to Florence. We travelled by train. The first stage was the Galleria dell’Accademia with the David by Michelangelo.

We had lunch outdoors in Piazza della Signoria.
In the evening there was the last dinner, without the Slovak group that had already gone away.

20th february 2011

The meeting ended and every group went back home.