OLYMPIC RINGS

This post is for all my P7 pupils at Southmuir Primary.  They produced these fantastic paper Olympic rings.

Some of them went into another younger class today to "cascade" the lesson to them.  The school will soon be full of them!  And there will be no more card left!

If anyone else wants a copy of the lesson I can organise for the class to send it to you... lets take this lesson around the world.  Five rings for 5 continents.  

MAGIC PAPER RINGS....NOW HOW DID THEY DO THAT?

TRAGEDY!

Most of my schools will be looking at the Olympics at some point this term.  I am no great sportsman, so this is my contribution - the Ancient Greeks - tragedy and comedy.

This term is all about 3d and sculpture.  Times are hard and resources are hard to come by, so we are starting off with card. 

Based on the theatrical masks of Ancient Greece, the class chose tragic or comedic characters.  Eyes and a mouth were cut from a folded piece of card, with the emphasis on symmetry and mood.

 

A second piece of card was used to make a nose and brow and glued to the face at an angle to form a realistic profile.

Hair, beards and laurel wreaths were added using curled and scored card scraps.
 

 

 

Bring on the clay!

HANDS

I've been off work for a while so the blog has been a bit neglected.  This was the lesson that I left my classes to do in my absence.

 The classes started with the old "draw round the hand" technique, then they drew some of the observed lines.  The shapes were cut out, leaving the thick lines behind and stuck down on another hand to create a collograph or paper print.

       As part of the same lesson the students can also play about with simple stencil prints.

Pupils can also create some rubbings before the ink is rolled on.

Some of the children made group pieces using other peoples hands, a nice lesson in friendship.

I have been so inspired myself by this lesson that I have used these images in a new piece of stained glass for Gallus Glass.

African Masks

I have done these over and over throughout the years, different every time, but never the less impressive and loved by the kids.

These particular ones were done using prepared paper - exploring texture, paint, wax crayon.

Emphasis is on symmetry, simplicity and shape.   The final mask is shaped by snipping slits at the sides, top and/or bottom and stapling in an overlapped position. 
 

I even love the leftovers!

TOTALLY TOTEM

At last! The recycled Totem Poles are in place at Tannadice school.  I put them up in a force 10 gale.....hope they will be there tomorrow!

The students worked in groups, to create units, from the collection of plastic junk they collected. to place together to form the larger totem pole.
The bottles, lids and units are joined together with tie-wraps.  The holes in the plastic were burned (safely) with a little soldering iron.

It was a lot of work but worth it.  I would do this again but this time be more selective with the colours of plastic that we collected.  I think the finished pieces lack colour.  perhaps the next time I'm there we will add some more coloured plastic streamers.
None of the photographs quite show the extreme contrast between the plastic figures and the miles and miles of uninterrupted farmland and hills that surround the school.

THINK COZY

Little P6/7 project on the go last week at Tealing Primary. The brief was to design a tea-pot cover, using recycled sweaters and buttons.  They had a little help with the sewing but the designs are all there own. 

I think I will try this one again at some of my other schools, would be tricky with a full sized class of 33, but was manageable with 12!

He's my fave, he's Mexican!

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Welcome to 2012. 

Just towards the end of term,  in between Snowmen, wrapping paper, and glitter some of my         classes at Southmuir were practicing their watercolour techniques.   Wet on wet, splatter, masking tape, wax resist, washes etc etc.....

They made lots of swatches, using a whole bunch of different scrap paper, from the scrap paper bin and old books (delighted in ripping up Margaret Thatchers biography that I picked up at the charity shop......Oh! the irony).

So we turned them into little calendars.  Four squares for 4 seasons....... and the background card?   Printed with bubble wrap of course....not tired of it yet!