more elephants

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

textiles

Yesterday in textiles club we finished our padded keyrings - made as Father's day gifts.

sewing

Today in y1 we stitched images of flowers. Using wool, plastic needles and a piece of pre-punched card we carefully sewed flowers, stalks, leaves and grass. It was the first time the children had sewn and, using tremendous powers of concentration, they managed to do a fantastic job.

'quilt'

We've finally come to the end of a very long term and are breaking up for a well-deserved Easter holiday. The children have created some fantastic artwork over the last few weeks that I'm frantically trying to display. This is a pic of some textile work done by our y3's. It's a combination of some printed cotton panels (for which the children made their own wooden printing blocks) and some tapestry work (inspired by a visit to our local Art gallery). I'm nailing (!) it all in place as staples just couldn't hack it.

 



lots!

This was our art room the other day as y5 finished off their papier mache, tiered, celebration 'cakes'! The children did tidy it up at the end. When they are dry I'll post some pics.

 

Meanwhile in y6, we glazed our (slab) fish sculptures. They are designed to be suspended, hence the hole in the top!

And finally, today in y4 we went a long way to completing our felt hats. This is the back view of one - on the front is a happy face!

riverscapes

This year's textile riverscapes are finished. For some children it was the first time that they had sewn. Here they are temporarily laid out on a table but will soon be mounted on a wall - it might save them getting knocked about!

 

 

Love the flowers on this riverbank - poppies?

 
And I think they've done a cracking job of representing the ripples/river currents on this one.

Each piece is 15cm square. They are primarily made from felt with some managing to add woollen 'pom-pom' bushes. The children used running, applique and cross stitches.

elephants & basketball

 A pic of this years completed embroidered and appliqued Indian elephant pieces. Each square is approx. 20x20 cm. Felt with added beads, buttons and metal washers.

 

 

 

And 'basketball 'bot' ;

 

A5, ink & pencil on paper.

yay!

Today's doodle celebrates a gutsy performance from the lads last night (retro shirt).

 

 

We've also been working hard on, and have nearly finished, our embroidered/appliqued elephant pieces. Stitched flower patterns, beads and bling (small metal washers) have been added.

stitch

A bit more sewing with the y3's today. The embroidered/applique elephant pieces are coming along nicely. Might even decide to make them into small cushions.

 

 

red elephant

We've started to stitch our elephants onto a backing. This was the child's first ever go at sewing - I think they've done a grand job. Pins out, ear on next time.

 

 

today

In Y2 (6/7 year olds) we collaged our painted (colour-mixed 'flames') and printed (Tudor houses) pieces into mixed media representations of the Great Fire of London.

 

 

Great expressions on this couples faces as their house and belongings go up in flames.

We've also completed our appliqued/embroidered riverscapes in Y6 (10/11 year olds) - here's a  birds-eye view of part of it.

Meanwhile, I managed to find a bit of time to complete another 'boys playing footy' picture. Spread them out a bit this time and placed them against a wall with a 'chalked on' goal.

rivers

We continued to work on our appliqued/embroidered riverscapes today. We made pom-pom bushes in the traditional way using rings of card (although some children found it a bit tricky initially because they made the central holes too large).

 

 

 

 

At the end we laid out some of the pieces on the floor (even though they're not finished yet) just to see how they were looking. Each piece is 15cm square , so this section is about 1 metre long. We think the effect is quite good so far.

 



caves

Today we made caves. We started out by making thumb pots, before turning them on their sides and reshaping them into cave-like structures. For added effect we embedded stones and twigs. For 4/5 year olds I think they did really well. They will be used to enhance their literacy work - story-telling.

 

 

The y3's have completed their embroidered applique elephant designs. En masse, pinned up on the wall, they look very effective.

pachyderms

Today has been 'elephant' day! The youngest ones pasted scrunched up paper onto a heavy card backing in anticipation of assembling the dried pieces into an elephant.

 

 

The Y3's completed their appliqued and embroidered Indian elephant motifs. We stitched on beads and washers (!) for leg jewellery.

doodles, elephants & vikings

A couple of recent sketches. The robot conker one was for a lad in my class - he brought me a conker in (!) so I gave him this pic as a thankyou. Well, the 'bot is playing with a sort of nut, so I'm sure it's within international conkering rules!




It's appliqued & embroidered elephant time again for our Indian topic. We made simple patterns from 3x3 grids.



A colleague is 'doing' Vikings. Did a figure based on the simple 'robot' model that I made ages ago. The blob of glue on the front is 'cos I was rushing it!

Got me to thinking that the basic template could be utilised for a whole host of figures/characters with very little effort.

Yay - back in touch!

Computer fixed and back from Easter hols. Just a couple of pics ref the stencil printing we've been having a go at lately.



Added media to enhance them - buttons and stitching.