It was a big day for the Linking Lifetimes earlier this month… After a few story-exchanges between adults & children, our lovely community group was welcomed into Crowan Primary School for an afternoon of story-sharing with the children of Year 5 & 6.
We began with a game in which the children had to match up the adults with a series of short statements. For instance : who was the one who walked 2 cows to school each day? Who ran the bakery and got up at 4am to go to work? Who worked a comptometer machine? Who remembers helping their parents weigh out rations in the village shop? Of particular interest to the children was who threw a chair at their teacher and then ran away, albeit not far, as their father was the village policeman?!
It turned out this was quite a challenge, with only one correct match. After a bit of a re-shuffle, the children got the opportunity to question the adults about their statements and uncover the stories behind them.
Over the afternoon, groups of children led a series of tours around the school, sharing some of their stories with the adults, and recording memories of an altogether different time at Crowan School. The majority of the adults were also once pupils at Crowan School and many had not stepped foot into the school since they left. To many adults the building was unrecognizable and it was quite a challenge to recall how it was when they used to attend.
Everyone had also been invited to bring in a toy or game. This led to some lovely sharing between ages. Some children learned to play dominoes for the first time, others were entranced by a set of stamp albums and some found they had shared reading interests.
Over what was a very enjoyable afternoon, both groups got to know each other, and the stories flowed. We are already looking forward to the next session in March…
The ‘Linking Lifetimes’ project is kindly funded by the Big Lottery Fund.
