exhibition

Today we had a temporary, informal gallery of work that was produced throughout the school during last weeks Art Week. Different year groups looked at Mexico, Ancient Egypt, Australia, Africa, India - we could only cover things superficially but hopefully some children went away inspired - we shall certainly be going over things in more depth next school year.

School hols are almost upon us, so there will probably be no more posts until the beginning of september as I'll be down in deepest, darkest France with no internet connection.

Have a great Summer!

drummers

More African art - simple printed figures representing Masai Warriors.

We were also visited today by the Kuzari Drummers - Sam & Zozo - a pair of very talented guys who managed to get the whole school involved in some drumming. They finished off our arts week nicely with a rousing assembly and had children, staff and parents all up on their feet.

A is for African animals

Using the 'A is for Art' concept I 'invented' (?) - we drew African animals in our sketchbooks today. All pics started out as letter 'A's - we just detailed them as appropriate to represent each animal. The children were amazed to find that they could easily and quickly draw something that looked reasonably like what it was supposed to.

indian elephant

India today - and elephants (made from the template I concocted a few days ago).

Looks like he's wearing specs!

The howdah is a simple origami box that we learnt how to make ages ago.

aboriginal artwork

Australia today - with a specific look at Aboriginal art. We then attempted to paint our own pics using cotton buds (less messy than fingers!) to apply the paint onto coloured sugar paper.

Our art club sculpture is finally nearing completion.

totems

As part of our Arts week (theme - cultural diversity) we looked at Canada today. Ended by making our own personal totems out of card. Simple cuboids covered with representational and symbolic images and patterns etc.

elephant

This coming week we're having a Big Arts Week across the school where each year group have picked a race, country or culture to tie in with our theme of cultural diversity. In year 3 we're following up our Victorian topic by looking at the Empire that became the Commonwealth. We're going to look at Canada, Australia, India and Africa - specifically the arts and culture of these places. We'll obviously only barely scratch the surface but it might spark interests off. For our look at India I mocked up a possible card model for an elephant.The children could either produce a decorated one, as might be found at a festival or possibly one with a howdah on its back (days of the raj etc.) or just make it 'natural'.

a dramatic interlude

Today my Y3 class were fortunate to experience a 'mask' workshop. They were guided through this by the Performing Arts Consultant and a couple of students from a local school - who are pursuing their Silver Arts Awards. Arts Awards are open to anyone between the ages of 11 and 25, so unfortunately that counts me out. Check out; http://www.artsaward.org.uk/site/?id=64 for further details. The masks are a resource available from Trestle Theatre; http://www.trestle.org.uk/p81.html