Blog by Cally Smith

Year 5 have been given the challenge of designing and making toy Moon Buggies for children aged 9-10. The product specification is as follows:

• It must move using an elastic band ‘pull back’ mechanism
• Have 4 wheel and 2 axels
• The dimensions must not exceed an A4 piece of paper
• Be…

To practise their gross motor skills this week, Year R pupils have been swimming through an imaginary sea!

To begin, we had a gentle swim in the tranquil sea. We practised our front stroke, back stroke and breast stroke to ‘Sitting on the Dock of the Bay’. Very relaxing. When the imaginary…

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

Last term, the children explored mark-making but not with traditional tools! As whole classes, we looked at marks and lines made with unusual household objects and discussed what they reminded us…

Throughout term 1, Year 6 practised their observational skills by drawing objects and photographs of cultural objects from around the world. As well as studying them carefully, pupils also considered the cultural significance of such artefacts and discussed how they were acquired by museums for…

Just before the half-term holidays, Year 5 finished making their ‘Lost Thing’ abstract sculptures. The pupil’s work was inspired by Shaun Tan’s picture book ‘The Lost Thing’; their own observational drawings of natural forms and ‘not so' natural form objects and sculptures by the artists Grayson…

A big thank you to Creative Folkestone for running another Art workshop for a group of Year 5 and 6 pupils at the end of term one. The children worked with two local artists Tania and Emily who delivered the art workshop: Drawing Installation.

The session began with a warm-up task of…

This week, Year 2 were privileged to have a stained-glass window expert, Buffer Tucker, visit them in class and run a special workshop. Buffy is now retired but used to work in the stained-glass windows department at Canterbury Cathedral. As well as a career restoring historical windows, Buffy has…

Year R have begun practising and developing their gross motor skills within their art lessons. The children will now be taking part in weekly Write Dance and art activities aimed to strengthen muscle groups and improve the children’s agility.

Within our first Write Dance session, we…

As part of their ‘All About Me’ project, Year R have been painting self-portraits. A great opportunity for the children to explore their own faces through observation of their mirror image and through touch. They initially used paint as a background, matching skin, hair and eye colours. Once dry,…

Mark-making inspired by ‘Billy and the Beast’. 

This term, Year one pupils have been reading the book ‘Billy and the Beast’, by author and illustrator Nadia Shireen. Within art, we looked at Nadia Shireen’s illustrations and as a class discussed how she used her marks and lines to…

First Art blog of the year! What have year 5 been up to in their Art lessons?

Pupils in Year 5 have been learning about the artist’s colour wheel.

The modern colour-wheel is based on Sir Isaac Newton’s experimentation with light. While Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge…

Throughout the academic year, pupils in Year R have been working hard to develop and strengthen their gross and fine motor skills. Our journey began in September with the children making large whole-body movements through play, exploring activities and in Write Dance lessons. Children gradually…