Kingsmead Cave

caring for ourselves in autumn/winter 2022

Starry Night in EYFS

Reception children were studying light and dark. What better painting to learn from than Vincent Van Gogh's famous painting. EYFS children learned about Van Gogh's beautiful mark making. They made their own beautiful marks in these paintings of a starry night with a limited colour pallete.

Some people are afraid of the dark - studying and understanding them is step one to things being less scary. 

Self Portraits in Key Stage 1

Year 1 and 2 studies portraits and self portraits. We learned to recognise different artists by their style. We looked especially at Dutch painter, Vincent Van Gogh who children had first met when they were in Ladybirds. Van Gogh used bold brush marks to make his self portraits. His work included things (symbols) about him - a favourite hat, sitting in his bedroom alongside a favourite picture, nursing an injury to his ear.

In our self portrait we needed to think how we wanted to be shown. What would we wear? Would we include an object about us? Where would we be? What might we be doing?

We mixed all our colours from primaries@ red, yellow and blue. Using black and white, we made shades and tints. 

Joshua chose to paint himself at a football match. He's wearing his red kit. He's used Van Goghy brush strokes to show a crowd.
Sammy loves his cat who he's incuded in his self portrait. 
Kaitlyn's beautiful composition shows her love for her baby sister. 
Josie and Lottie like gymnastics. Josie does a mean back flip and Lottie is master of the handstand. 
Emilia chose to be oustside in her purple T shirt. Well done Emilia - purple is a really hard colour to mix well. 
Jacob has really captured his own cheeky grin!
Rafeef's painting has used beautiful colours (they remind Ms S of French painter Watteau).
Sienna's self portrait shows her carefully handling her gerbil.
Blake's self portrait shows him reclining with his dog on a beautiful sunny day. 
Leon loves being on his bed surrounded by teddies. 

And at the end of all our work there was one question left. 

How will we curate our work? 

We looked at exhibition catalogues from Art Galleries.

We have exhibited our self portraits turning the corridors into our gallery. We made exhibition catalogues of our work. 

Our work moved from 

Taking us rather neatly from Autumn/Winter (ourselves) into Spring (others)!

Prehistoric Art in Lower Key Stage 2

Year 3 and 4 studied prehistoric art, a tradition that goes back into pre-history and still inspires artists working today. We learned that art predates writing, mathematics and maybe even language. Making visual marks (Art) unites all our human family. 

Prehistoric artists made abstract and figurative work 

They used positive and negative images - just like artists working today

The size of the ring fingers has led experts to conclude that many prehistoric artists were female. Handprints, positive and negative, have been found in Europe and Asia made by artists who had no knowledge of each other. It seems the hand is a very important symbol for humans - makers of art and other works. 

Aboriginal artists in Australia 

work in a way going back to prehistoric times. They don't go to art school but learn to make their work in their community, apprenticed to a working artist. They may be taught to make work by their mothers or fathers.

To make our own work we first tried to understand how Aboriginal artist in Australia today make their work. 

We documented our learning in our sketchbooks to inform our own work.

Our work, inspired by the Aboriginal Art of Australia, includes symbols. Our abstract works include symbolic information about ourselves, perhaps special places and things that are important to us. The work is abstract but it carries meaning about each artist.

We reflected on our collaborative work in our sketchbooks. We thought about the process and what our work means to us. 

Our final piece was made in pairs or a group of four. Each individual in school is part of many communities: family, friends, class and schoolmates. Our work took us from Autumn and caring for ourselves into Spring where we think about caring for others.

This beautiful work shows how that while we are all individuals, when we come together and make work together we achieve results that are more beautiful and interesting than we could achieve on our own. 

Ancient Greek Pottery in Upper  Key Stage 2

Year 5 and 6 studied Ancient Greece in history and learned about the red and black figure painting from Athens that we first think of with Ancient Greek vase painting. Ancient Greek potters showed their beliefs and daily lives through their pottery.  

But what would the potters of 2022 show archaeologists of the future about our lives and concerns?. 

Making Music

Children in Upper Key Stage 2 Wind and String Bands began playing together in September. By half term we were concert ready!

IMG_0674.MOV
The Last Post marks the start of 2 minutes silence on Remembrance Day.
IMG_0675.MOV
Mr Harper playing The Reveille signalled the end of our 2 minutes silence.
Strings_SpanishViolin.MOV

Spanish Violin

Can you hear how the violins imitate the sound of the guitar?
Strings_Autumn_Vivaldi.MOV

Autuno

From Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Can you hear the Autumn winds gusting and the leaves blowing about?
Band_Grandfather's Clock.MOV

Grandfather's Clock

Can you hear the tick tock of the clock in the music? Can you hear when it stops?
Band_Orange and Yellow and Brown.MOV

Orange and Yellow and Brown

Autumn colours are everywhere in this piece.