pots

Yesterday afternoon the y5's, all 31 of them (!), made 'canopic' jars out of clay. We used the coil technique to build cylindrical pots. We'll be making the sculpted lids next time!

And then in ceramics club we made flowers - to be glazed next week - to put in our vases that we've already created. The whole piece will then be a Mother's Day gift.

drawing

Today the y1's continued their topic about toys by doing some observational drawings of toy cars.

They were encouraged to look carefully and draw what they could see.

We did side, front, back and birds eye views and finished with a 3/4 view.

I don't think this 3/4 drawing of a pick up truck is too bad for a 5/6 year old!

Our y4's have also completed their totems.

panda's

Today to finish off their topic about China, the y2's drew panda's. They had a go themselves before being shown a simple way of representing the animals using shapes. You might be able to spot the 'before' pic.

We used pencil first and then switched to felt pen. The latter was chosen to bypass their reluctance to make mistakes - you can't really erase felt pen!

We then progressed on to using brushes and ink. They used the same shapes to again 'draw' their panda's.

Finally we had a go at representing bamboo by altering the strength with which we applied the brush rather than painting outlines and filling them in. I don't think the results were too bad for 6/7 year olds.

in progress

Decided to repurpose some canvas boards with footy & rugby paintings.

The peg-clipped pieces of paper are to remind me which team they are supposed to represent. The one on the left is a painted version of the sketch in the previous post. Foot and specs included for scale purposes!

today's sketch

I had a hankering to revisit a 'style' from a while back and managed a quick sketch of a couple of rugby players ;

I actually enjoyed the 'process' and might even transfer this onto canvas and paint it up.

totems

Y4 are looking at 'The Americas'. Over the last couple of weeks they've been collaboratively making totems. They've each created a four-sided segment that will assemble into a vertical structure (using a thick card roll as an internal, central support). Today we finished off painting them. Each panel was designed to represent them in some way - their personality, hobbies/interests etc.

Meanwhile a couple of pieces from me. A sketch, 'off to the match' ....

.....and my latest automaton to leave the workbench. The birds move up and down via cams and give the impression of flying - I did contemplate making the wings flap but decided the scale was too small (nothing to do with the fact that my skills weren't up to it!).

sketch

Played around with a Little Red Riding Hood idea the other day and came up with this;

It's supposed to show the wolf pretending to be a tree whilst an unsuspecting LRRH walks calmy by! Lots of redrawing and judicious use of sticky white labels.

I like the way a shaft of sunlight happened to find it's way across the picture when I took the photo!

ceramic club

In ceramic club this week we made vases. We used the coil method around a cardboard tube former.

Next week we'll glaze them. After the half term hols we'll be making ceramic flowers to go in them - ready to give the whole package as 'mother's day' gifts.

Chinese fans

Today in y2 we started making Chinese fans. We drew designs, coloured them and concertina folded them. They had free choice to 'do' any design so long as it had a Chinese flavour. Next week we'll add the handles and ribbons.

Here's the one I did as an example;

More puppets

As a follow-on from last week, today, the y1's made puppets from paper plates. After some careful folding, cutting, sticking and colouring they ended up with birds heads that they could make 'speak'.

Next week we'll be making the bodies to go with them.