Sewing - a Surprise Success!

Last year some of the kids in my class had a go at 'sewing' with special kits, complete with felt shapes with holes and large plastic needles.

Most children found that craft very challenging but I still wanted to try 'real' sewing with them this year. The simple Christmas tree idea from Angela Anderson's art blog was just what I had in mind.

I gave out paper triangles which the children traced on to scraps of fabric. Using basic stitching, they sewed up the two longer sides. Before completing the bottom of the tree, they filled the decoration with stuffing and glued a rectangle of felt on to the inside for the tree trunk. After stitching up the bottom of the tree, we added shiny stars and thread for hanging, and cut the edges with pinking shears to prevent fraying.

Using small sharp needles on normal fabric seemed to actually be easier for my class than the felt sewing kit. I think it was more inspiring for them too. Even the boys were going home and sewing decorations of their own!

Tints and Shades

As everyone had been following the Olympics, we started on sport-themed silhouette pictures. This week we talked about tints and shades and painted backgrounds. Later they will paint a silhouette of someone doing sport on top.

I have to admit, since I started browsing art blogs, the number of original art lessons I've taught has definitely decreased - there are so many good ideas out there I want to try! The tints and shades background is no exception. I can't remember where I first saw an example but 'The Bees Knees Cousin' recently posted helpful instructions. I was surprised how challenging this activity was for my class (and that it took the whole afternoon). They especially found it hard not to get too dark too quickly. I think the backgrounds turned out well in the end though!

Back to School!

This seemed perfect for the first day back - an activity which involves pupils' names and no paint! (Helpful for a first day back in a classroom with no sink.)

I'd seen the idea on a few blogs and  the instructions on artisan des arts were particularly helpful  - complete with pictures for each step. I started writing my own instructions for this post but really it's just better to follow the link!

A week later most pictures are finished and look fantastic hung across the room. It was also interesting to see how the children all managed - some found it really tricky! Some started out with crooked triangles, others struggled to draw letters the right size and position... I don't like to do things for them but perhaps in this case I should have helped more to get them off to a good start. It's hard to know!

Onomatopoeia Art

This is an idea I've seen on a couple of blogs but I saw it first on Artisan des Arts. It was particularly perfect as we're studying onomatopoeia in language, 1960s in history and Pop Art in art!

After some language work each child chose one example of onomatopoeia for their art. They had to think about what style of writing would suit the word, draw it and colour it in a single colour using felt-tipped pen. The second stage was covering a piece of paper with cut out newspaper. Pupils were encouraged to use columns and paragraphs to guide their cutting and to overlap the newspaper in all different directions. Thirdly, they drew some kind of explosion or cloud shape on the back of the newspaper sheet and cut it out. They stuck the shape on a piece of coloured paper and then cut it out again leaving a border. Finally, they stuck down the shape and word (which they had also cut out - this project was great for scissor control!) onto another sheet of coloured paper and outlined the word in black.

I love the way these are turning out and there are still a lot of really creative ones still to be finished.

Work in Progress

A week ago we started our Op Art mural and it is still work in progress. We had discussed Op Art before Easter (and during a visit to a modern art gallery) so we just had a brief review of the style and talked about the use of line and colour before the colouring began. Everyone in the class has coloured at least a couple of 'squares' so far.

I first saw the idea on Artisan des Arts (which also linked to another post) and used the advice to create this project. I stuck together some large sheets of paper and drew the design. Pupils have been colouring alternate boxes (which I'd marked with a small 'x') and have just started to colour the remaining boxes black. We all liked how it looked without the black but adding it does help to cover up any mistakes as well as make the design stand out.

We're really enjoying having this project on the go and I would definitely try it again - it would be fun to try out other Op Art designs. I would also get pupils more involved in drawing out the design. I'll post the final results when we're done!

One small step for a man...

...one giant display for the classroom! As we were finding out about the 1969 lunar landing, I decided to start a large piece of art that all the kids could be involved in making. Two of the children were traced around and groups got to work filling the outlines with scrunched newspaper to add texture then painting the astronauts white. Other pupils made the lunar surface with grey chalk or pastels, some painted the Earth on black paper and used white chalk and black pastel to finish it off, the flag was paint with wax resist for the stars and two pupils wrote a title and painted it silver. I think there are still a couple flags, badges and other things to add to the spacesuits but I wanted to get it all up on the wall asap before the end of the year.

Having made this group display, I think we might try another before the end of the year. We worked on Op Art a bit before Easter and the children really like it. Think we might try the idea I came across here over the next couple weeks. It would be a good thing for pupils to work on if they finish work early etc. Hope we have time to try it!

Beach Art

The picture on the left is by British artist Andy Goldsworthy who is known for making art from nature. Last week we took a walk to a nearby beach to have a go at our own natural art. The kids didn't have much of a chance to look at examples by artists before doing their own examples but seemed to have plenty of ideas! Results ranged from the journey of the Titanic, a smiley face, an alien and word art to the more abstract. One child claimed also have made 'true art' (i.e. it was a rock pool to which they had done absolutely nothing...)! Everyone had a lot of fun. Here are some examples (the 'tower' was by our outdoor learning leaders who joined in as well!).