Cinema as an Educational Tool in Primary School: Emotions, Narrative and Meaning-Making in the CIPS Project

Abstract This contribution describes an experience of film education carried out within the CIPS project at the Caponnetto Comprehensive Institute (IC Caponnetto) in Monsummano Terme, with the Piccolomini Higher Education Institute (IIS Piccolomini) in Siena as the leading school. The project was developed as a three-phase educational pathway, coordinated by Scientific Director Paola Dei, with the collaboration of Francesco Faralli and Sara Picchi in the second and third phases of the project. The project was implemented in primary schools with the aim of introducing pupils to cinema as a form of expression, communication and meaning-making. The educational pathway proposed an active approach to audiovisual language, encouraging students to move from passive consumption of images to the ability to understand, interpret and creatively use them. Through workshop activities, pupils explored the relationship between cinema and emotions, experimenting with storytelling processes, narrative analysis and visual planning through the creation of storyboards. Particular attention was devoted to understanding the elements that constitute cinematic narratives: characters, settings, atmospheres, narrative sequences and communicative meanings. The pathway was also connected to the theme of peace through the reading and interpretation of a poem by Gianni Rodari, offering pupils the opportunity to establish relationships between poetic language, images and emotions. The subsequent creative writing phase allowed students to reinterpret the experience, consolidating the narrative and expressive skills they had developed. The experience highlighted the educational value of cinema as a tool capable of integrating cognitive, emotional and relational dimensions, promoting creativity, participation and interdisciplinary learning.