Free-for-all!

 This week we brought out all the art materials from the cupboard and let the children choose what they wanted to work with. The youngest class chose to make blow paintings, lots of runny paint and straws!

 Experimenting with techniques!

 The middle class was the most diverse, from construction to printing. Here Hector is making a model playground.

Fraser having fun with mark making and printing.

Animal Drawings

Whilst the two other groups continued with weavinng, the middle group drew animals.

We did lots of different mini-drawings to help us really look at the animal and draw what we see rather than what we think should be there.

Then we did a final big drawing, using charcoal for the animal and chalk pastels for the background.

Shoebox Weaving

Over the past two sessions, two of the groups have been trying their hand at weaving.

It's a slow process, but surprisingly absorbing.

Props and painting

I wasn't sure whether we should share these pictures, in case the lovely people at the McLintock Hall get worried for their room.  But they had so much fun doing this long painting, it would be a shame not to show it.  And we did wash, brush and hoover away all the mess before we left!

The youngest group was learning about colour mixing using hand printing.

This is them in line to get washed up.

After painting, we continued colour mixing by adding coloured cellophane...

and looked at complimentary colours by adding sticky plastic shapes.

The middle group continued making garlands of flowers for the FADs Panto, Beauty and the Beast.  They also were making life size drawings of Belle, the Beast, the Wicked Witch, the Good Fairy and the Clock.

Finally, the last group continued making the clock and some of them also wrapped up the presents for the Birthday Party scene, using the paper made by the youngest group last week. 

I think these presents look fabulous and I'm putting in my order for handmade paper for my birthday presents next month!

Prop making for Fintry Panto

This week we were making props for the FADs (Fintry Amateur Dramatics) production of Beauty and the Beast. 

The first group printed wrapping paper for presents.

The second group made tissue paper flowers for garlands and a scroll.

The third group started designing the alarm clock and thinking about the technicalities of making it.

This week we've been learning how to make beautiful pieces of felt.

Skye with her piece of felt.

The middle class building up the layers of wool before the felting begins!

Some of the finished results... each piece is so different in shape and pattern.

The older class took on the challenge of making felt bags, with fantastic results.

Following on from our clay figures made last week and drawing inspiration from the work of Emily Speed, we have made shelters for our figures using cardboard and [lots and lots of] masking tape!

Julia strengthening the base of her shelter.

Aesthetics and function go hand in hand with the older class....

resulting in ingenious solutions.....the architects of the future!

An exhibition of Emily Speed's work is on at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Clay figures

Saturday we used clay to make human forms.  Some were more human than others as at least one was an attempt at 'Dobby' from the Harry Potter books.  The clay was moulded by hand and by the end, all of them, except the one sitting down person, was free standing.  They are now drying ready to continue the project next week.

As well as making them, several children drew their figure in charcoal, making amazing marks and using smudging techniques.  They were great.