painting

Today the y3's got back into the swing of things artistic by creating colour wheels. They did the usual - mixing primary cols to make secondary ones but then we had a chunk of time left so we decided to use up the rest of our paint by doing some collaborative pieces. Each child began with a sheet of blank paper and was tasked with choosing one colour and painting variations (ie. big, small) of one shape (square, rectangle, circle etc). We then swapped with someone else and used a different colour and a different shape etc. After a few rounds of this we finished them off by adding stripes of a colour not yet used. Without any discussion or dialogue this is one of the pieces that came out of the activity. To my mind it looks very much like a close-up study of a bunch of flowers. What do you reckon?

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.

flowers

Following on from their flower painting last week, the y1's looked at Van Gogh's iconic work and had a go at painting their own sunflowers.

It was good practice in both colour mixing and brush technique.  

growing

In y1 today we created pieces that showed flowers growing. They made a simple pull up the flap mechanism to make a stem, leaves and finally a flower appear, after having been watered and exposed to sunlight. We then progressed on to a 'beanstalk' version where the beanstalk will 'grow' before finally reaching the clouds and the giants castle. The last pic shows the layout of all the pieces on an A4 size piece of card.                         

fire & flowers!

The y2's have begun to collage all the bits and pieces (printed buildings and painted flames) together for their 'Great Fire of London' pieces.

And here's a pic of one of the finished pieces that the members of the ceramics club made as Mothers Day gifts.

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.

automaton

Here's the latest automaton to grace my workbench;

It's a gardener proudly watering a flower. As you turn the handle on the right the gardener bends to water the plant and, as he rises, so does the bloom. I made it as a try out rather than a completely 'finished' piece just to get the hang of the mechanism. Quite pleased with how it turned out.