Sudbourne Print Makers

Today, the Year 6 pupils enjoyed a creative day at Sudbourne Print Makers. They produced a series of prints inspired by the RSPB's work with the Little Tern during the morning, and after lunch, produced self portraits based on photographs taken in school. 

It was a lovely relaxed atmosphere and the children enjoyed letting their creative sides out. 

Thank you to Jenny and Val at Sudbourne Print Makers for an excellent day!

Young Art East Anglia Competition

Congratulations to all of our children who took part in the recent 'Young Art East Anglia' competition aimed at celebrating children's art and raising money for Cancer Research UK. The theme for the artwork was 'myths, legends and fairytales'.

A number of pieces were entered by pupils from our school...

 Nicely done - Will, Martha P, Fynn, Holly, Ben, Matty, Tamsin, Edith, Alice B, Charlie, George, Grace, Tamsin and Sophie L.

And also well done to the four children who had their pieces chosen by the judges to be exhibited - Lucy (highly commended), Roly, Sam and Molly R.

Rainbow Class

As the intrepid explorers set off for the depths of Norfolk (How Hill) on Wednesday...

...those of us left in school came out to wave them off. 

We were left with an odd mixture of year groups: almost all of year six; a couple of year fives; no years fours at all; some of year three; and all of reception to year two. We split into two classes for the week. Mrs Stoney kept Reception, Year one and half of Year two (a combination of Red and Yellow class, which has for some time been known as Orange Class), and I took the remains of the older year groups, plus the other half of Year two. This left us with a dilemma to solve. I had some of Blue Class, and some of Yellow class. We had already named this mix Green Class when teaching Year three to Year six in the afternoons for the past year or so. Now, however, I also had some Year twos...from Orange class. Luckily, I was saved from having to name them Brown Class, by a clever Year two girl, who thought of the name Rainbow Class.

So for three days, we were Rainbow Class and I was Mr Rainbow. We took the opportunity to do lots of art and maths, based around the story Math Curse by Jon Scieszka and the classic poem Jabberywocky by Lewis Carroll.

It was a lovely three days and I really enjoyed working with this great bunch of kids.

Christmas Craft Afternoon

Thanks to lots of hard work by the School Council, this afternoon we had a fantastic afternoon of Christmas Craft activities.

Some of the results can be seen in the slideshow below. Everyone had a great afternoon and produced some super decorations to take home.

Ice Balloons

On Wednesday of last week the whole school came together to experiment with Ice Balloons. Mr Pearce, Karren and Tracy had prepared the balloons earlier in the week, filling them with water and placing them in the freezer. By Wednesday they were ready to investigate.

Combining Art and Science, the children prodded and probed the ice, using a variety of different materials, including: nails, drills, hacksaws, thermometers, food colouring, salt, bicarbonate of soda, vinegar and a healthy dose of imagination.

They predicted what would happen to the ball of ice before trying each experiment. They looked closely at the results using magnifying glasses and saw what happened to the ice when placed in a tub of water.

Everyone had a huge amount of fun and kept cool on a very hot day! Apologies for the colourful socks and clothing - they were all wearing aprons, but kids will be kids!

A Lazy Summer's Afternoon

Today the Great British Summer arrived. It lasted for about five hours, which was a little longer than I was expecting. We thought we should make the most of it before the rain comes back, so we took to the outdoors for the afternoon, armed with watercolour paints. Finding a shady spot, we selected a subject and enjoyed the serenity of an afternoon painting session.

Basket Weaving

In Green class, we have been learning what it was like to be a Viking craftsman, by weaving our own baskets. A small group of children have been trying their hand at weaving with willow,  but still have quite a way to go with their baskets. Others have been making baskets out of woven paper. These are some of the results.

Magical Moments Art Competition

Below are our entries for the Young Art East Anglia 'Magical Moment' Art Exhibition and Sale in aid of Cancer Research UK. They have been created by children throughout the school and every single one has a marvellous tale to tell!

They will be on show at the Peter Pears Gallery in Aldeburgh on the 8th, 9th and 10th March.

Christmas Crafts

We have been making use of our natural resources for some Christmas Craft activities this year. Our willow house was in need of a trim, and we decided to use the off-cuts to produce some woven Christmas stars. The children decorated them using floristry ribbon and will be bringing them home soon. We hope you like them.

Yellow Class Outdoor Sculptures

Yellow Class outdoor sculptures were inspired by looking at some work by Andy Goldsworthy and also using our topic theme of Rocks and Soils. Under Mrs Exton's guidance they carefully collected rocks and stones from the mound on the meadow left by the recent building work - this must give us more points for innovative recycling!   The results are still currently on display on or near the mound if you haven't yet seen them.

 Year 2 children took a spiral theme for their creation in the first week.

 Year 3 children wove 'Willowsaurus' , standing on a sandy plinth.

 Year 4 began by building a dry stone wall which then 'magically' transformed into a crocodile/gecko/lizardy type creature! 

This 'snail' was created by Year 2/3 children and Mrs Lock after undertaking some stone painting in the Aboriginal dot painting style.

Custard Cream Pyramids!

Following last week's attempts to build a giant pyramid out of shoe-boxes, we drew on our new-found expertise this afternoon, and attempted to build some rather smaller, but no less impressive, pyramids out of custard creams. 

We began with a 'dry run', stacking our biscuits to form pyramids, then mixed up our 'mortar' (buttercream icing) to stick it all together. 

Of course, the most satisfying thing about making pyramids out of custard creams is eating them immediately afterwards! Thankfully, there was just enough time to grab a photo of each finished pyramid with its creators, before they were demolished.

Planet Builders - Planet Explorers

This week in Blue Class, the children became planet builders. They were given a fruit to act as their basic planet, and worked in groups to embellish it with buttons, dowel, pins and a range of craft materials.

Once the planets were finished, the groups became exploratory teams, trying to learn more about the other teams' planets. They constructed viewing scopes from rolled up card, through which they had to study their chosen planet. They first had a brief, distant view (to simulate earth-bound observations). They used their discoveries from this initial observation to plan the next stage: a fly-by. This simulated a planetary probe gathering information about a planet as it passed by. The third stage was to orbit the planet. This allowed the groups to see the planets much closer and to get a 360 degree view.

Combining all their observations, the children then chose a landing site for closer inspection. They could examine this point in great detail, but could not see further afield.

The explorations were modelled on the real processes involved in studying the other planets in our solar system.

How Hill - Day 3 - Woodland Art

 The first activity of the morning was 'Woodland Art'. the children were allowed to use any material they wished which were no longer alive. With a blank 'canvas' and access to a range of 'resources', the children set about creating their masterpieces in small groups.
A range of pieces were produced which I think are fantastic. By the look s on the children's (and Mrs exton's) faces, they feel rather please with what they've done too.

How Hill - Day 2 (Afternoon)

The weather is absolutely beautiful! It is almost impossible to believe that it is only March 1st.
We've just finished a lovely lunch (believe me, the children (and staff) are eating well) and are now about to start our next activities: thatching and owl pellet dissection!

Earlier today, we split into two groups which then swapped activities. There was a fantastic boat trip where the children saw a Kingfisher, four Marsh Harriers, Egyptian Geese, Cormorants and a Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) to name just a few.

The other activity involved observational drawings followed by clay model work.

Building a Roman Fort

Over the last three weeks, we have been busy in Blue Class building our own Roman fort, based on Garrianonum (Burgh Castle) which we visited earlier in January.

First we studied the construction of the walls at Garrianonum, and produced designs of flint and tile on polystyrene, which we used to print a pattern for the walls of the fort.

We then cut out and folded the nets which Mr Mansell had designed to build the walls and turrets. Making the corners was quite tricky.

We each produced a building from a net, adding our own decoration based on research from books about the Romans. We made barracks for the soldiers to sleep and train in, granaries to store their food, and forums where they could meet and hold discussions and debates.

On Thursday afternoon we worked together to put all the pieces of wall together and planned the layout of the interior of the fort, using books to help us.

 We hope you like our finished fort. Our plan for next week is to complete the trebuchets we are making and test them against our fort! I wonder which will be the strongest?

If anyone would like to build their own Roman Fort and would like to use the nets, please contact me - I would be happy to share the plans. jamesmansell@earlsoham.suffolk.sch.uk

Sheep!

Yesterday, we were joined by Helen Evans, producer of fantastic children's television show 'Art Attack'. In preparation of a screening of 'Shaun the Sheep' at Wingfield Barns, she is visiting local primary schools to engage the children in various 'sheep making' activities to use as props and background for the event on 28th October.The children had a great time and were able to produce some wonderfully creative sheep!

Harvest Fun

In Blue Class this week, to celebrate Harvest, we produced some artwork in the style of Giuseppe Archimboldo. We took our inspiration from this painting of Rudolf II (Holy Roman Emperor) painted as Vertumnus, Roman God of the seasons, c.1590-1.

The children then used a range of locally produced fruit and vegetables, some of which was grown in school, to produce their own versions as a Harvest celebration. 

Their efforts can be seen below - I personally think they did a very good job!

Scarecrows!

The older children have been having a rather 'fun' time of it this week, working in groups making scarecrows as part of our celebration of autumn.




So far, four 'masterpieces' have been produced. Click on the pictures to enlarge them to see what the messages on each one are.