Black History day

Today at school we celebrated 'Black History'. In art we looked at the work of noted artists, namely Stephen Wiltshire and the indigenous people of Australia. We attempted to work in the style of Stephen by looking at an aerial view (of Venice) and then trying to draw it from memory in as much detail as possible. Not the same as actually being there I know, but when you've only got 50 minutes to introduce, undertake and then evaluate the activity, its the only viable option. With regard to Aboriginal art, we looked at examples and then tried to paint in a similar way. We used previously 'textured' paper to represent rock/bark and used our finger tips to apply the paint.

skeleton prints

In Y4 we have just completed a science unit about moving and growing. As an assessment activity I decided to get them to print, in as much detail as possible, human skeletons. This is what one girl produced which, I think, clearly shows an understanding of how the skeleton changes as we grow.

We used white paint, cut-down lollipop sticks and finger tips!

Kokeshi doll

I recently cobbled together a few bits of wood and painted it up using acrylics in the style of a Kokeshi doll. The hair was made from Fimo but didn't turn out exactly as I wanted. It stands around 12cm tall.

Naive art

Today just showed Y4 how to do a wash, which we then overpainted with simple, representational images of animals. Turned out in very much a naive/folk art style.

Roman soldier

Y3 have been studying the Romans. We made semi-relief sculptures from air-drying clay, painted them when dry, and today mounted and displayed them against a wax-rubbed (over a card block) background depicting Celtic warriors.

Greek Pots

In Y6 we have been fashioning coil pots to tie in with an Ancient Greek theme. Not having access to a kiln, we used air drying clay. Due to timetabling the pieces were left for over a week before the handles were added and shrinkage caused cracks to appear. This was despite very careful smoothing and use of slip. However we think that it was a happy accident as it gives the appearance of very aged pots that may well be a couple of thousand years old!

Paper weaving

Following on from the weaving we did for the kilts of the Katie Morag figures - we did larger, individual pieces today. We also interwove thinner strips to add to the overall effect. Have also been playing around with robot images. Painted these two ACEOs over the weekend - acrylics on heavyweight paper.

Robot

In Y6 we constructed robots to tie in with a sci-fi link to book week. Simple pre-printed nets were customised and detailed to resemble retro robots. Bent paperclips were used to represent an aerial. They stand around 20cm tall.

Icarus

Greek Myths with Y6 today. Daedelus & Icarus. Created images using oil pastels and black paper for the silhouette.

Poe-tree

Today in Y3 we constructed Poe-trees! These are card 'sculptures' from which hang word leaves - on which will be written anything to do with poetry (hence the name) - rhyming words, notable phrases, WOW vocabulary etc. They are designed to be interactive and can be altered as appropriate. The children had great fun making them.

Back up and running

After almost a year without a viable pc set-up I'm hopefully back up and running, with every good intention of posting regularly.

Going to start off with stuff we've been doing in school today. Being as it's book week and Y2 have been looking at Katie Morag stories it seemed obvious to create life-size figures. We did the obligatory scrunched tissue for her woolly jumper, whilst the kilt was fashioned by weaving paper strips onto small cut card 'looms'. Eyes still to be added using buttons (just visible), hair to be completed and the whole to be finished off by placing copies of Katie Morag stories in hands.

We created two pieces because there are two classes! The one with outstretched arms will have them bent into position in fornt of her as if reading said book.