Kingsmead Cave ~ Spring 2023
a term where we focus on caring for other people
Painting in EYFS
Children discussed the 1991 work by Turner Prize winning British artist, Lubaina Himid Between The Two My Heart is Balanced.
Before responding through their own work, children have a conversation with their teachers about the work.
Mrs Cotton hadn't noticed that it's a pile of books between the two women on the boat. But the children noticed and Mrs Cotton learned something too!
Himid says of her work: 'I have always thought in conversations.'
Reception children were studying The Gingerbread Man and in Art and Design painted characters from the story.
Same Sea Different Boats ~ Key Stage 1
Having studied Van Gogh's self portraits in Autum/Winter, children looked at one of Van Gogh's favourite artists, Japanese printer, Hokusai. Inspired by Hokusai's Great Wave, children made their work using collage and drawing inspired by Hokusai's manga style. Children drew their own family in a manga style, putting them in a boat just like Hokusai's fishermen. The sea and the waves may be the same, but each boat is different and each person has a different experience. Rather like life.
Work by the younger children in Butterflies
Work by the older year 1 children and younger year 2s in Bees
Work by the older year 2 children in Dragonflies
Out of Africa ~ Lower Key Stage 2
Year 3 and 4 studied the beginning of European Modernism through three artists of the last century: Miró, Modigliani and Picasso. All three we influenced by the African Art making its way to Europe for the first time. Without African art, European modern art would look very different. Children went on to study a Nigerian born artist, Emmanuel Jegede. Jegede lives and works in London and he is inspired by the work of Miró, Modigliani and Picasso. This unit of work invites children to think that in making Art, sharing and being inspired, there are no borders, only new ways of seeing.
Children learned that with the invention of photography and opportunities for travel, artists saw the world anew. With the invention of the camera, realism in art became less important. There were new opportunities to travel and work by artists from Asia and Africa came into Europe, inspiring artists here in Europe. A more symbolic approach took off which led to European Modernism and abstraction.
Do we always have to think first?
Like Emmanuel Jegede, children scribbled with the 'other' hand, the one they don't write with. The idea is to draw without thinking.
Children enjoyed a very different way of drawing, drawing first not with the eye and mind but physically, from the heart.
Images and symbols are then found in the subconscious scribble. Strong lines bring these out, creating dreamlike scapes.
The work they made uses the process of a contemporary artist working today but like his, work, their work is their own.
Women in Art ~ Upper Key Stage 2
Year 5 and 6 studied how artists and galleries have used women in Art and how women have reclaimed themselves as images and artists. With a focus on the Mexican painter Frida Khalo, children studied how art can communicate new ideas and so change established attitudes.
Studying the place of women in Art, as subject of the viewer's gaze or as the artist, invites children to think about other learning in other subjects, like PHSE and RSE. In an age where beauty (for men and women alike) can be reduced to touched up and unattainable images found online. This term's work invites us to consider a wider notion of what is beautiful and what it is to care about our own appearance. Is it healthy to strive to look like a stereotype we can never achieve? Or is real beauty being our most beautiful self, in all the variety that brings to the beauty table.
In Key Stage 1 children make a self portrait in the term where we think of care for ourselves. In Upper Key Stage 2, in Spring when we're really thinking about care for other people, children take on the responsibility for making a portrait of a classmate. To do this they need to find out about their classmate and what symbols to include. Each portrait included a flower crown and the iconic monobrow in homage to the inspirational Frida.
Children also learned that while their headteacher holds some Very Strong Opinions about Fortnite, she aslo appreciated that Art can be a place for transgression and not everything has to be 'On Message' to find its way into an Art Gallery!
Making Music
2023_02_Y4 violins1.MOVChildren in Year 4 began learning the violin in October
After around half a year of lessons Miss Meager came in to support the children with their first concert.