We are using printing to create the leaves of our Autumn trees. This admittedly was quite a difficult concept for the pupils to grasp and the artworks were rather varied in their interpretation of the instructions. I would definitely rethink this activity to make it more exciting and imaginative for the kids.
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I find that this project is a good way to do an initial assessment of various skills. It also gives me an opportunity to introduce pupils to different mediums, processes and routines of the classroom over a two week period.
We looked at Van Gogh's Sunflower paintings for inspiration for this project.
Pupils drew around a circular container for the vase. This helped with getting the correct scale for the painting, as I have found that pupils tend to draw quite small naturally. Once they had drawn the vase, they then decorated it with patterns and filled it with flowers. This was painted with water colours, and pupils had to learn the skill of layering the paint to create brighter colours. Year 1's unit for this term is all about pirates. So we hopped in our boats, donned our wooden legs and eye patches and headed into the Seven Seas. The first project worked with chalk pastel. Pupils drew the moon and sea using blue and white chalk pastels on black paper. They then drew simplified pirate ships with black oil pastel. Another alternative would be to introduce printing. Simply cut a pirate ship shape from a polystyrene container and roll with ink to create a print over the sea. The next project was a pirate flag collage. Pupils cut strips of colour paper and glued them to their flag shape. Then they had to copy a skull and crossbones and colour it in. Everyone loved this unit! Everyone loves the story of the hungry hungry caterpillar. For this unit we worked on fine motor skills. I printed out images of butterflies and caterpillars. Then pupils rolled tissue paper into small balls and glued it to the page with white glue. A fun and super colourful project! As an introduction to still life drawing, pupils had to trace around still life cardboard objects, layering them over one another with marker. They then painted the objects and colored in the background with pencil crayons.
In this unit we are looking at different kinds of food, and how we can feed our bodies by making healthier choices. Inspired by the artwork of Giuseppe Arcimbaldo. Pupils were asked to design parts of a face using different healthy (and some unhealthy) food choices. For example, banana as a mouth, cherries for eyes, and a pear for a nose. The year 1's were very creative with this project, using ingenious ideas to solve the puzzle of the facial features. This project is great for working on fine motor skills in young ones.
For the icing: Get pupils to draw a circle on colour paper. This can be pre-drawn for differentiation. I suggest using pale pinks, but whatever you fancy or have available. Next, ask pupils to glue this icing on another colour sheet of paper. For the cup: First of all, cut 5cm wide strips of colour paper. I chose gold and silver. Show the pupils how to fold the paper. Pupils who are struggling with this can scrunch their papers. Finally, have pupils decorate their cupcakes using sprinkles (glitter, glitter mosaic tiles) and add sweet cherries with marker. They can also decorate the background to make the cupcake extra festive! Our primary colour monsters were inspired by the artist Jon Burgerman. Essentially, pupils just make large scribbles with black marker on an A4 page. Then in each section, they need to create a monster face. They are only allowed to colour in with primary colours.
This week year 1 pupils are creating beautiful rainbow vases filled with colorful flowers. The starting point of this activity was looking at the different shapes of flowers and vases. I then placed a simple vase with some colorful silk flowers on the table for the pupils to draw. We tried to draw what we see.
TIP: When doing painting with year 1 pupils (or any young child), it is super important to ensure that they hold the paintbrush correctly. I would recommend checking all your pupils grips (how you hold a pencil) before starting. This will help them have more control over the technique of painting. At this point, I squeezed out a number of colours from our range of specialist craft tempera paints. As pupils washed their brushes in the water provided, they began to notice the colours mixing and changing. This was almost more exciting than actually painting. Remember to emphasize: wash brush, tap 3 times to remove excess water, dip into next paint colour. TIP: a collegue of mine uses magazine pages on the palette to cut down on washing up time it's paint. I have tried this, and it makes clean up a dream! |