Last week, Year 1 finished creating autumn leaves from their marking-making paintings.

Earlier in the term, the children explored mark-making but not with traditional tools; instead they used household objects and considered what their marks could describe – the texture of crocodile skin, grass, fur, bricks etc. The children were encouraged to mix secondary paint colours when creating these expressive marks on paper.

Their work has now been transformed from flat 2D pieces of paper into leaf sculptures with 3D form. We discussed 2D art and 3D sculpture (Year 1 will be exploring 3D shapes in maths later in the year). The children neatly drew around leaf templates with HB pencil and then carefully cut out the shape from their mark-making - practising cutting skills. They attached a piece of wire to the back of their leaf with sticky tape, then bent the wire to give the leaf three-dimensional form. The pupils did a great job and worked very independently. The leaves are displayed outside the Year 1 classrooms.

Please see the gallery below: