What a delight it has been to work alongside Miss Lucas and 3L in the art studio. During Week 1 of the fortnight, observational drawings of fresh sardines were made. Graphite, charcoal, biro, pastel and watercolour were used to create their numerous scales, ‘feathery’ tails, beady eyes and soft body.

The ‘warm up ‘ to get the eye and hand coordination engaged, comprised of backwards forwards sketching and a continuous line drawing using felt tip. Because of their focus and concentration, the drawings were great.

Drawings of beavers was next. The appearance captured their growing understanding of this large rodent.

Then in groups, a collaborative beaver build using cardboard, the recycled packaging brought from home and masking tape commenced. The features of the beaver -‘paddle’ like tail, webbed hind paws and ‘whiskered furry face’ -were captured wonderfully. A great team effort all round and they were all so different. They joined Mr and Mrs Beaver in their icy Narnia location.

Relief Paper Sculpting in week 2, encouraged the exploration of manipulating paper in a variety of ways. Folding, scrunching, rolling, twirling and more as well as the plaiting of wool were the skills taught. 3L got creative and went for it!

In groups of three, the head, body and tail of a creature was drawn, but because of the folding of the paper and no peeping, the reveal brought the smiles and laughter. Great fun was had in creating and naming our very own remarkable creature. It was wonderful to see imaginations unleashed.

The skills of the relief paper sculpting were used when ‘decorating’ their imaginary creatures that had been enlarged onto cardboard. The results were fabulous, and made the installation for the exhibition truly wonderful.

Thank you to the parents of 3L who joined in the celebration on Friday afternoon-it was fabulous to have you back in school and share in all our learning. To have an audience for the oral retelling of ‘How to catch a fish in Narnia where it is always winter and never Christmas’ as well as perform their stunning beaver dance that had been choreographed by Miss Allison was brilliant. We hope you enjoyed your whistle stop tour of the art studio, library, barrier game and book looks as well as the treasure hunt.

What a whirlwind of a fortnight it has been with Year 3LA and Mr Arnett. There has been weighing and baking, writing recipes for Trumpkin who needed to make a sandwich for a fussy Red Dwarf and the Witch Witch, as well as creating crowns and applying tint and tone knowledge to paintings.

Over the past fortnight, the art studio has welcomed 3LA’s imaginative responses in drawing, making, painting and constructing. Their mixing of red tints and tones created a palette of ‘reds’ and then by using a thick or thin brush lines, swirls, dashes and patterns emerged on the paper. Everyone successfully managed to follow the instructions.

Their knowledge of how to make a variety of reds- adding white for a tint and black for a tone- was then applied to their painting of a red dwarf. Charcoal, pastel, oil pastel, felt tip, pencil crayon and wax crayon then made the background for their dwarf. As a result, there was mining, treasure seeking, feasting and battles depicted.

3LA demonstrated their ingenuity in constructing their own crowns. There was such a variety. Who knew that card, corrugated cardboard and masking tape could be the humble resources to create crowns. Adding the jewels, gems, precious stones and even fires, definitely brought the wow factor to them.

A big thank you to those parents who could make Friday’s celebration. Hopefully, you enjoyed sharing in their learning and got a taste of all that 3LA had been up to. It was wonderful to welcome you back into school on such a glorious Friday afternoon.

What a privilege it has been to work with Year 3A and Miss Allison. The ‘Arts Fortnight’ has returned once again to Allerton CE Primary, and it has been good!

The art studio has witnessed collaborative mask making-impressive cutting skills and strength was required in cutting through the cardboard- with antlers and features created. In addition, there has been independent mark making to create the texture of soft fur as well as the imaginative responses of mythical creatures and places found beyond the wardrobe…

Our mythical creature drawings became the head, body or legs for our ‘House Sculpture‘. Voting nominated which body part would be used from existing drawings. The results are fabulous.

I loved seeing 3A’s mythical creatures come to life as texture and setting was added to their individual paintings. The paint colours required Year 3 to draw upon their knowledge and understanding of which primary colours made secondary colours and how tints and tones of a colour could be made.

Finally, we created our own meaningful wish art. Some very thoughtful wishes were made. Can you put words to their drawings?

Thank you to all the parents who gave up their afternoon to share in their child’s learning and be the welcome audience for the impressive Stag dance. It was wonderful to see you face to face (behind the mask.)