the Vikings are coming!

The y5's have completed their Viking longship sculptures. The hulls are made from terracotta clay - using the coil method, which simulates the wooden planking. The mast and spars are wood (dowel & lollipop stick) whilst the sail is a piece of cotton. They even made some crew members from short lengths of paper dowel. Size? About 15cm stem to stern.

today

A-haaargghhh - 'tis pirate ships we be drawing today in FS2. 

 

 

....and the BIG picture is slowly getting there.

 

almost ready for 'launch'

The y5's have been rigging their ships today. Once the 'seas' have been done they'll be off on their voyages of discovery - around the school. We are going to display them in small groups at ad hoc points around and about the school building and 'allow' the rest of the school to 'discover' them as they are moving between lessons. We intend to move them around from place to place to keep it all fresh. We'll have to try and find some unusual places in which to place them.

 

sketching en plein air

Armed with sketchbooks and pencils the y2's (6/7 yr olds) ventured into town today. We looked carefully at buildings in the old parts of town and tried our best to sketch what we saw. I've included a photo of what they were actually looking at and what they drew in response. Some of them really surprised me with the level of detail that they managed to capture.

 

 

Whilst back at school the bigger children got around to painting their papier mache ships. Next week we attach sails (the children decided that they wanted to make them out of fabric, like real sails) and rigging.

clay faces and big ships

In y1 today (5/6 year olds) we made faces out of air-drying clay. We used 'sausages' and 'balls' to add the features. Lollipop sticks and pencils were used to impress details.We even implanted wool for hair - we are going to trim them when the clay has dried!

 

 

The y5's began to papier mache their ships - they are studying 'Exploration & Discovery' this term. There are 15 ships all together, so more of an invasion force than an exploration!

greek shipping

As part of our Ancient Greek studies we've been learning about ships. Rather than just draw and label a pic I made a quick template to create a moving version. The tab moves the oars back and forth by means of a hidden linkage and the flag lifts to reveal a 'fascinating fact'. This is my 'here's one I made earlier' example - the template was very basic and left a lot of creativity open to the children.

pop-up

Found out an 'old' pop-up of a sailing ship I made a few years ago. A colleague is doing 'Explorers' so I thought she might be able to use the idea. The children could use it as part of a 'log' or journal perhaps. Made using simple box-fold mechanisms with card, paper and wooden dowel additions.