Space Art!

A little something different this year seeing as I'm teaching them Science as well, let's throw that into the art lessons!

Today was Peter Thorpe, an artist known more for illustrations but has become loved for his rocket pictures which have that 50s comic book feel. I like being able to give the kids an artist name to make the lesson more personal, but I always encourage them to let their own style shine through. 

I had the kids combine Star Patti's chalk galaxy lesson over at Deep Space Sparkle along with Peter Thorpe's style of rockets. We thought about the bold colours we'd use to create that futuristic atmosphere but mostly we focused on light and shadow, thinking where our sun would be and therefore where the shadows would be cast on the planets and rockets. Very interesting, this is almost a science assessment activity in itself, seeing what they understand. 

Enjoy! We certainly did!

Year 6 and the Blitz skylines.

Frustrated to start this one...I had a really good PowerPoint for them that as well as showing the children some dramatic pictures of a bombed skyline, it also helped to described blitzkrieg. But it seems to have been lost in the ether...

Never mind, it all worked out over some discussion, some googling and brainstorming.

They loved the idea of using masking tape to create searchlights once peeled off. A few remembered that charcoal can be erased and they created their searchlights that way.

Collaborative Art

My new direction...getting a class to create one piece of art from individuals. This totally clicked with one of my year 5 classes. It was an individual lesson and a spur of the moment actually. 

I had the original on the screen, divided up into 21 (20 in the class, one girl is my v.v. talented artist and I gave her the challenge of recreating the piece in her style) and then allocated each child a square. The ones who had the difficult town bit did not shy away as I expected them to. They relished the challenge. Something about teamwork. They loved it.

And I got them to carry the teamwork on and work out how to display it together.

Got some recycled art collaboration ideas in my head too!