new book!

Have just completed the dummy rough for a follow-up to my Little Red Riding Hood book (due out in January!). This one is The Gingerbread Man as, hopefully, you can see. It follows the same concept as LRRH in that the story is told from four different points of view - all on the same page! Fingers crossed that LRRH sells phenomenally well and that the publisher will take up this one.

nearly there!

Frantically trying to complete art pieces before the hols so we can start afresh in the new year.
These are some of the finished, grouted mosaics created by our y4's.

Pottery

As a final project in ceramics club this term we made tee light 'holders'. Very simple slab construction, plainly glazed.

hitch

The proof copy of my book has arrived! Unfortunately the publisher has noticed a few technical issues so publication has been delayed slightly. Still - it's a real book!!

HUGE pop-up book

In FS2 they've been learning all about Noah and his ark. To help with their retelling of the story I've created a monster pop-up book using their illustrations of pairs of animals. The book opens out to reveal a (very!) long line of creatures filing into the ark. 

At the end the back covers open out to reveal the ark after the storm. A quick bit of 'tucking the front cover away' then allows for the animals to appear as if they are then leaving! 

The whole thing extends to over 10 metres and is still very much a 'rough' at the moment. I'll get the children to help me polish it next week.

reindeer

Using the same net as for their tiger 'sculptures', the y1's have been creating reindeers. This is my prototype with lollipop stick legs and twig antlers. On the actual ones we've also used small red pompoms for the nose!

busy, busy, busy

Have been rearranging and updating the displays in our entrance foyer today.

Y5 automatons (with a WW2 theme). As you turn the handles the tanks in the foreground piece go round the explosion as do the doves in the back left, whilst the aeroplane goes both around and up and down.

Y1 card sculpture tigers (inspired by the Henri Rousseau work 'Surprise'.)

And the y6 (James Rizzi inspired) clay city blocks.

faffing

Have been prattling around with wire, fabric, needle, thread and bits of wood - came up with this. Very folky arty type thing, supposed to be some sort of an angel!

sewing

Just been to a secondhand warehouse and bagged this for €39.

The clutter on the top is just some of the goodies that were still in the drawers! It worked too - until I snapped the belt putting it in the car! I'm hoping they're easy to repair/replace.

cityscapes

In y6 this week we completed our reflected cityscape collages. The children suggested we could try and make them 3D and add shipping! So we did. Arranged in a line, panoramically, they are going to look very effective.

pottery

Today I had all of our y4's for the whole morning. We made 'Roman funerary urns'! We used the coil method to construct basic cylindrical pots before adding rims and facial details. Hopefully most of them will survive the kiln - if not then we can pretend they are authentic artefacts that have just been found, unfortunately broken, by a team of archaeologists.

xmas

I know we're still in November but our school xmas fair is next week! We've been busy making things to sell - here are some of the hanging decorations we hope folk will buy. MDF wheels, wooden shapes for the wings, dowel for the beaks and a scrap of red felt. They also have wooden tail feathers!

mugs (2)

And they're out of the kiln - not cracked! But yet to test if they leak!!

mugs

In ceramics club we have been making mugs/beakers. We used rolled slabs formed around tubes. After bisque firing, yesterday we glazed them and today they are being fired for a final time. Fingers crossed that they don't split (or leak when used!).

fs1

In FS1 (our 3/4 yr olds) today we made gingerbread man 'sculptures' out of craft sticks. Googly eyes, a button and some black felt tip dots completed the look.

Meanwhile I've been playing around with a slightly different style/method of creating my 'doodles'.

drawing

The y2's are studying 'Florence Nightingale'. After making pop-up lanterns we had time to draw pics of her. Top left are the before pics.
I think they managed to create recognisable images.

                        

more elephants

Y3's have been sewing. They've cut and stitched two sides to what is going to be a stuffed hanging decoration.  

mosaics

Today y4 began making their mosaics. They are using a mix of tiles - small ones that can be shaped with scissors and larger, glazed ones that can't! 

Next week we'll grout them.

BIG NEWS!

My book is almost just about as near as damn it to be published! The publisher is in the throes of sending it to the printers so hopefully it'll be out in time for Xmas. Can't wait to get my hands on a real proper copy. Yay!

Not sure why blogger crops the pics!?! But you get the gist.

City blocks

Our james Rizzi inspired, slab-clay built containers are finished. The children added details, using sharpies, around the windows, eyes etc. Now deciding whether to seal with a coat of neat PVA or not. They are going to be used as pencil pots and such like so won't need to be waterproof or anything.

tigers & dishes

Yesterday the y1's created some pieces based on Rousseau's painting 'Tiger in a Storm'. They've also been reading 'The Tiger Who Came To Tea' by Judith kerr. We used techniques from the last couple of weeks in that we wove, using paper strips, the tiger's stripes and then stitched the grass, using coloured wool.

Meanwhile in ceramic club we took home our completed and fired dishes.

remember, remember..

Today the little ones (our 3 yr olds) created firework pictures. 'Scraper board' explosions and a simple collaged rocket with a lollipop stick.

trees

Yesterday the y2's enhanced their Autumnal pics by adding stitched 'grass' and 'bark'. These mixed media pieces have involved printing, collage and now ' textiles'.   

elephants

The y3's today had a go at drawing elephants. They did a before sketch and were then shown different ways of creating recognisable images. Can you spot the before pic?

                        

Noah's ark

In FS2 today we made representations of Noah's Ark. We made them double-sided so that they both rocked AND could show the 40 days/nights of rain and the brightening skies. This is the quick one I mocked up to show the children - the treasury tag stops it from splaying out too much!

leaves & buildings

The y1's followed their paper weaving exploits of last week by stitching some Autumn leaves. The shapes/holes had been pre cut so they could concentrate on the sewing! Wool and big plastic needles were the order of the day.

The y6's have started to paint their bisque-fired, James Rizzi inspired slab, city block containers. They used acrylic paint and we'll probably varnish to further protect and give them a glossy finish.

Halloween

In FS1 today we drew Halloween pictures. A little bit early I know but its half term next week - hooray!! 
Starting with either a circle or a letter 'A', and by following step by step instructions, the 3 yr olds were able to create recognisable images.

collage

Using the potato printed leaves that they produced last week, the y2's today created Autumnal collages.

cameras

Today the y3's rounded off their artistic endeavours based on the theme of light by making small pinhole cameras.

From a 2d net they constructed working models that captured, on a small tracing paper screen (about 5cm sq.), recognisable images. This photo (showing an image of the art room windows - upside down of course) looks remarkably like the first picture taken by Fox-Talbot!