Thursday 19 May 2016

Lovely Landscapes

Having made our puppets several classes wrote character descriptions about one of them. After describing their physical features, skills or talents and personality the children thought about where their puppet character might live. 
These ideas were realised in the form of wax resist landscapes. 
The pp/1 classes worked from their imaginations. We talked about the foreground and the background of the picture and ways to show textures for grass and leaves. We also recalled how we can use basic shapes to build a drawing.
The yr 2/3 class discussed Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' first, looking at the lines the artist used and how space was shown in the painting. We observed things were high or low on the page, big or small and overlapping. 
I demonstrated how to create a wax resist drawing - keeping firm pressure on the crayon to ensure it covered the paper so that the paint would roll off the coloured section when watery paint is applied with a soft bristle brush.
The settings ranges from tropical islands, seaside shacks to busy cities and magical forests. Great use of imagination and some lovely work.
 

Thursday 12 May 2016

Simple shadow puppets

All the children are making some sort of puppet in response to the puppet incursion last term. 
 
The year threes today worked on making simple shadow puppets. 
 
The year sixes are making more complex shadow puppets. 
The year threes were required to create a puppet with a contour that was easily recognised.
 They had to cut the shape out carefully and attach it to a satay stick or bendy straw. Some children added props, like this rainbow.
They had to make at least one person and one animal.
In contrast the year sixes were required to plan two human like puppets with at least one articulated joint, a clear but complex contour and a textural component. 
The year threes finished their puppets today and did some writing about the character they created. They also thought about where their character might live so that we can create a landscape painting of the setting for their puppet story.
The year sixes will continue to construct their puppets next week.
 

Sunday 8 May 2016

Puppet progress

Our puppets for the junior classes are going well.

Luckily I had a stack of cardboard cones from a sock making factory, they make perfect drying stands for our puppets. 
The puppets will be stacked in a box and shared with Ibu Dee in our Indonesian classes as a fun way to use vocabulary in LOTE.