During term 5, Mrs Dennett, Mr Miles and I embarked on a journey of salty water and wild waves with Year 2. Yes! An Art, English and Music project! We began by exploring the work of artist J. M. W. Turner who painted many seascapes and (allegedly) strapped himself to the mast of a sailing ship to experience the power of the sea. So, to emulate this, pupils watched a film of ships in stormy seas whilst (with their permission) being lightly sprayed with water!!!! A similar effect!

Year 2 then created their own mini sketch books (in the style of Turner) using water colours paints and coloured pencils to illustrate an imaginary journey of a ship. Pupils carefully considered the beginning, middle and end of the journey and their use of colours when depicting the changes in the sea (calm, stormy, wild). Once they had created their journeys, pupils opened their sketchbooks up and began to write! They thought of words to describe the sea and the ship and used thesauruses to help find interesting words. The mini sketchbooks were the initial plans for the children’s stories and were used within their English lessons when creating exciting pieces of writing. 

Meanwhile, within their music lessons, Mr Miles was teaching Year 2 all about sea shanties which they went on to perform at the Bridge Proms. He also suggested some music (Benjamin Britton, Four Sea Interludes) for the children to listen to while creating expressive mixed-media pieces of artwork; these were also inspired by the Indonesian artist, Tatang Wibowo and British artist, Maggi Hambling. With yet more inspiration from the well-known Japanese artist, Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849), pupils went on to print waves onto these expressive drawings.

This project was so much fun and the children’s work is amazing! A big thank you to Mrs Dennett and the Year 2 team and to Mr Miles. Please view our gallery below: