Our New Lanterns

We have been sprucing up our book corner with some new lanterns ...

We dipped long lengths of string into PVA glue and wrapped them around balloons 

Once dry, we painted the balloons

We popped the balloons and hung them from our light in book corner 

Easy peasy! :) 

Creating With Wire

A while ago I collected some different images of artists work that I wanted to share with the children to expose them to new media and ways of expressing themselves.

Last week we talked about the wire sculptures by Johnas Borman and the children have been creating with wire ever since.

An Ant

A Dragon

A Flower

A Fly

A Dinosaur

A Dragon

In doing this the children have had to exercise a great deal of persistence as the wire did not always do what they wanted it to. Many children revisited their creations over a few days, experimenting with different ways to manipulate the wire and adding to their artworks. 

Wordless Wednesday: Rock Bugs

Observational Drawing & Sculpture

My kids are still buzzing with excitement over creating their insect and reptile museum. One boy was particularly interested in a wasps nest he found in a library book recently. He studied it carefully, showed a few of his friends then decided to make one of his own to go into our museum. "But how will we make it?" he asked me puzzled. He went on to say that boxes weren't the right shape... maybe paper? I suggested he (and a few others who had been drawn into this discussion) draw it first to get a really good idea of what it looked like.

They chatted about what they noticed in the photograph of the wasps nest...

C- "It's kind of an oval shape like this (demonstrated with hands)"

E-"I see ... those black lines make it into sections"

W- "There's lots of holes for the wasps to sleep in"

C- "Yeah they are sort of in lines aren't they?" (the holes)

W- "What 's all that stuff around the outside? See all those lines?"

C- "I don't know but it looks like newspaper!"

C had noticed the large slab of clay, recently delivered to our classroom and suggested that this would be a good material to make the nest out of. 

Using their drawings as a guide, they pushed, pulled and punched the rectangular piece of clay into the shape they needed. Then used clay tools to help them achieve the necessary details...

Their wasps nest is currently being displayed in our museum. I realised I don't have a photo of the finished product to show you (I will post one soon) but it's all about the process right? 

Printing

We have been creating abstract art using printing techniques... and enjoying an excuse to cover our hands in paint and feel it squishing through our fingers!

We dipped our fingers in thick, brightly coloured paint...

Painted all sorts of lines and dots straight onto the table top...

Lay paper over the top and gently smoothed...

Hey presto! We have created an abstract art print.

Art Inspiration

I love to share the work of artists with my kids and discuss what they see, how they think the artwork was created, what materials might have been used and what else the artist might create using the same media. I then put similar materials out on the art table for the children to experiment with and create something  unique of their own. Here are a few inspirational art ideas that I will be sharing with my kids in the near future. 

Wire Sculpture

Johnas Borman Fine Art

Found Items Collage

Louise Nevelson's artworks are assemblages  of found objects.

Art inspired by Louise Nevelson on Art Projects for Kids

Mosaic

Laurel True

Weaving

Spire Designs

Clay Sculpture

Inna's Creations

Working with Light

 

Patricia Zapata

Imaginary Birds- The Nickle Nackle Tree

We have been reading the Nickle Nackle Tree by Lynley Dodd - a counting book featuring all sorts of wonderful, imaginary birds. Not only has it been great for recognising numbers to twenty and counting groups of objects in the range of 1- 20 but with sentences like "Six sleepy Snooze birds, snoring side by side" we were also able to have fun with alliteration.

Of course, we couldn't help but imagine and create our own fanciful birds...

... And after some experimenting in their visual diaries, the children used black permanent marker pens and oil pastels to draw their bird onto card which they then stuck onto our very own Nickle Nackle Tree.

The children made up names for their birds such as the Fittle Fattle bird, a Rickle Rackle bird and a Hooty Whooty bird. This was a great art experience but also, a perfect opportunity for using descriptive language and playing with words. 

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