It’s our first week back after the Easter break, a short week, but no less fun! And no better time to start (better late than never) to highlight my fave lessons.
I thought I had already decided on which lesson would be made my favourite before the week was done…but I’ve now learned to not think it’s not over until it’s over. So I’m actually going to highlight two lessons from this week that I saw the kids loved and I also loved too, both for different reasons.
a) Year 4 - Grecian Vases
We looked at the different vases that the Greeks used and talked about the different uses as well as the designs. Some designs highlighted what the purpose of the vase was, some were just decorative and often represented everyday life. We talked about the patterns that were typical of the style. We went to our sketchbooks and planned our own design for our vases. The first year 4 class had the issue of technology fail so I couldn’t show them the pictures in order to compare designs so we went by books, albeit a rather limited number in the class but enough to inspire. This year 4 class tended to focus on pattern and missed the point that many vases depicted scenes from daily life.
I had several templates of three particular vase designs. The children drew around the vase and then filled in the shape with oil pastels. We talked about the difference between oil and chalk pastels and so those who picked up a chalk pastel and worked with it by mistake could tell which it was. They filled in the shape with heavy pastel so that the paint would slip on to it.
I’ve chosen this lesson as a favourite because of the way it evolved during the hour. My original plan was to allow the paint to dry and next week scrape away at it to reveal the colour beneath. But as I demonstrated it it suddenly occurred to me to scrape the paint whilst wet. And it worked brilliantly, as long as the colour underneath was thick and bright, the paint would scrape off it and not lose any of the oil pastel. It was a lot more vibrant. I demonstrated what would happen if it was dry and we all agreed it was a lot better. We ended up as a result finishing the activity in one lesson.
It’s worth making sure that the children lay the crayon/pastel on thick…I showed what would happen if we just shaded gently…the crayon would have been scraped off with the paint and would just leave the paper showing. I just used black ready mixed tempera paint.
This lesson was one that reminded me again why I really like teaching art, it doesn’t have to be prescriptive..as long as the curriculum is followed with the success criteria being met in an evolving lesson then great! I think this is a good lesson for the kids in itself so the children can see how thoughts and plans in art can be developed.
2) Year 6 - Pablo Picasso’s Guernica
This simply was a gobsmacking lesson.
I revelled in the developing thoughts and ideas coming from the 10/11 year olds as we went through the lesson. We started off with a good old PowerPoint on Picasso. I shared my personal opinion of the man; that I think he was a lovely, charming, funny, deepy thoughtful man yet his art does not appeal to me. I went to his exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh last summer. A great insight in to his life as well as his main works.
The aim today really was to introduce them to the skill of art critiquing, for them to express and justify their thoughts, feelings, likes and dislikes and ultimately aim to offer interpretations (expected to be basic at this stage). I then showed them Guernica – with no background information - and left them with it for 5 minutes to discuss.
Random, chaotic, dull, boring, weird, creepy were the standard and expected responses. A few of the girls were on the right track, suggesting the symbols that may represent war or death.
I then proceeded to tell them the background of Guernica. They had already been studying World War 2 so the vocabulary of battle, Fascists, Communists, And then the floodgates opened! This had obviously sparked the interest of one boy (E) who always had a suggestion or a question at every stage.
I wanted them to share ideas in groups about the painting, creating spidergrams. They were to think about the following questions: why did Picasso paint this in black and white? What was Picasso’s point in painting this? Why abstracted? How does Picasso portray the innocence of the suffering people? (this one was a corker – some great ideas!)
I finished off by showing them Picasso’s weeping woman and we discussed why he could have painted this. This raised some conversation as to why he painted in colour, namely green and blue yet he was painting his interpretation of a sombre event, a mother crying over her son’s dead body. I left them with that query, why colour in this one yet black and white in Guernica. It was interesting trying to get the point across that Picasso was expressing his mood about the battle and the death of innocent people.
I'm really looking forward to the lesson this week and hearing E's research. He has done some full-on homework on it by all accounts!
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