Drawing in the Reception class on the day of The Big Draw

On the day of The Big Draw our Reception class was challenged to create, the most beautiful butterfly.

Using "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" children's book as inspiration I am sure you will agree they made the most brilliant butterfly.

Small groups of pupils worked on the giant butterfly, drawing with squares of fabric, putting down layers of colour in an Impressionist way.

The Reception class were the second class to visit the hall.

They, like the Nursery children were asked to draw mini-beasts, fish, flowers and so on.

This they did, straight away and produced some really exciting drawings.

As we know, butterflies have symmetrical patterns and this we practised on the computers.

Each pupil drew their own butterfly to display in the hall, remembering those instructions about how the patterns need to be symmetrical.

We also got the chance to make some marks with leaves.  In the Big Draw exhibition we wanted to make trees as part of the theme "Outside." Drawing around our hands and printmaking with the leaves made the trees.

On the afternoon of The Big Draw the Reception children were able to show their family and friends all the exciting drawing they had done.

The Big Draw in Nursery

In Nursery we were challenged to draw a caterpillar, which would be displayed in the hall in our Big Draw exhibition the following day.

Our caterpillar was massive!  We drew lots of colourful lines on to it with strips cut from plastic bags, plastic straws and bottle tops.

We laid down different colours next to eachother to make it fun and also in different directions to create a 3d effect with movement.

It was very gluey - would it be dry in time?...

We were the first class to visit the hall to draw on the giant "green grass" floor.

We all got stuck into drawing mini-beasts, fish, flowers - whatever we were inspired to.

Back in class, we got to draw patterns on to butterfly shapes which we then decorated with sparkles.

Then, we each coloured in a handprint which was later cut out and made into trees. These butterflies and trees were displayed in the Big Draw exhibition.

Lastly, we drew mini-beasts on to buns with icing, icing pens and sweets.  Anyone hungry?

On Tuesday afternoon we took our mums, dads, grandparents, childminders and so on to the Big Draw exhibition to show them the unique things we had drawn.

Thursday 14th November

This week at Artclub we started a new project that will take us up to the end of term. We are making a backdrop for the Nursery's, Reception's and KS1 Christmas productions.

All three productions are centered around the Nativity and so we are having great fun painting a stable scene.

The painting is large-scale, so a big contrast to the scrapbook/sketchbook we have been making up until now.

We all had a chance at painting and also a turn at drawing an animal on a small scale which we will later paint much bigger for our painting.

Next Thursday we will be going to Rodillian Academy to work with their Art teacher and GCSE students to create some really exciting experimental pages for our scrapbooks.

What we have been up to in Artclub

Over the last four weeks we have been busy in Artclub making the pages of our scrapbooks.
We have used different techniques to create exciting backgrounds which we can later personalise with our own photos or memorabilia.

For our first page we created a sepia effect with tea and coffee. The leaves were rubbed in and coffee sprinkled to make dense areas of brown.

We also started to design our own frames for our photos.

We then tried out an exciting technique which produces a really colourful pattern using oil, paint and water.

Next, brightly coloured tissue paper was laid on to white paper and lots of water was brushed over it.

The designs looked fabulous at this point, but they needed to dry.

When they had dried the tissue easily came away leaving an unexpected but exciting result, which we will reveal when the books are complete.

Another experimental technique we used was to paint dyes on to paper and saturate it.  Plastic wrap was then laid over it and as it covered the paper the wrap was manipulated to crease.  These were then left to dry and we have some exciting patterns as a result. (Again to be revealed when the books are complete.)

The Thursday before half term was spent cutting our papers to size, laminating our front covers and assembling our photos. They are looking great so far!

The Big Draw 2013

This year The Big Draw took place on Monday 14th October at Robin Hood. This is the third year we have taken part and we wanted to create the "wow" factor that you get when you first walk into the school hall and it looks completely different to usual.  The past two Big Draw events we have held had white paper covering the hall's floor, to create a blank canvas on which we could draw.  This year we turned the hall into "outside."  There was a green floor, a stream, a path and a wall, all ready to be drawn onto...

...and this we did. Throughout the day, each class visited the hall and were inspired to draw and make marks all over the floor, imagining what they would see in the grass, stream, on the path and on the wall.

We had lots of fabulous mini-beasts, fish, frogs on lily-pads-even a fairy at the bottom of the garden from our Foundation stage and Key Stage 1.

Whilst Lower Key Stage 2 drew us a fantastic allotment with vegetables, scarecrows and even pumpkins for Halloween.  Upper Key Stage 2 designed us a skate park, drawing skateboards, graffiti and the Robin Hood Primary School tree in the brightest neon colours.

Throughout the day every child in each class was drawing in some way, be it pencil, paint, creating line and form with collage, oil pastels, glass paints, powder paints, glitter, felt pens....

....Nursery made us a massive caterpillar collaged with recycled plastic bags, plastic lids, pipe cleaners and coloured foil paper.

Reception made the most beautiful giant butterfly that had been collaged with a myriad of coloured paper.

Key Stage 1 created abstract birds, fishes and frogs which they put together in fabulously interesting ways. 

Lower Key Stage 2 produced three large paintings which they had studied and divided into equal parts.  They then each worked on a section and pieced it back together. 

They also painted some great colourful skylines on acetate.  Upper Key Stage 2 designed graffiti and artwork for the wall which certainly added a splash of colour.

At 3pm we opened our hall doors to proudly show off all our fantastic creations.

Watch this space for more...