Y6 Creative Arts
Rod Walker
In Class 10 we were extremely lucky to learn alongside artist Rod Walker, who has recently led the exciting redesign of our climbing wall.
Throughout the day we grappled hard to produce breath taking rubbings from card collages. First we used our sketchbooks to let our ideas flow and after settling on a design, we made the base picture, cutting shapes cut from card and gluing them down. This was time consuming and fiddly at times but the more we stuck to it, the more confident and precise we became. We then used masking tape to fix the base to the table and put a sheet of paper over the top.
Next we used our skills in blending and layering colours with wax crayons. We started with the lightest and progressed to the darkest colours so that the lighter colours would still shine through.
Both Mrs McAvoy and Rod were dazzled by the outcomes. Here are some photos but please feel free to come and see our original artwork which is on display in our classroom.
In Class 9 we were delighted to have Rod Walker visit for the whole day. Rob came in with open arms and a glint of enjoyment in his eyes. We started off by making card collages before using these to make fantastic wax crayon rubbings. Our day was both fun and exciting! – Sascha, Natasha and Mollie
Class 8 worked alongside artist Rod Walker to create a collage from crayon rubbings. Using sketches from our sketch books as inspiration, we put together a collage using shapes cut from card. The next step in the process was to use wax crayons to create the rubbings. This took lots of resilience and stickability as we had to push really hard to ensure the colours shone through! We were really happy with the outcomes and were very thankful for Rod giving up his time to learn with us.
Class 8 Collage Europe
As part of Creativity Weeks Class 8 took up the challenge of collaging Europe! This was a mammoth task, which enabled us to link geography learning with our collage skills. Mrs Ahanan had the difficult job of drawing the outline of the continent, whilst everybody else was responsible for collaging a piece of the map. We had a range of media to work with and decided that we would follow a colour code to ensure we could make out each country. We are really pleased with our final outcome, and if you haven’t already, please come and see our amazing collage!
Shelter Building
Would you know what to do if you were stranded on a mountain for a night? Could you fashion a shelter from nothing but sticks and sheets? Thanks to our morning of shelter building with Mel Lester, Class 10 pupils are now fully equipped to do just this!
We began the morning with some team building exercises which helped us to realise the importance of working together and following instructions. After this we began constructing our own shelters. Some were successful at this straight away; others made mistakes and had to start again from scratch. The important thing was we all stuck at it.
We had a real flavour of being at the mercy of the weather when a swift but furious rain shower began, however this also proved to be a great learning opportunity as Mel showed us how to make sure our shelters were wind and waterproof.
Our shelters built, we assessed how well our own and others’ shelters fit the brief which was to ensure they provided protection from the elements, was comfortable and creative. We had a fantastic morning with Mel and were so proud of our new ‘homes’ that many of us wanted to stay in them overnight!
Capoeira
“Today’s capoeira workshop was absolutely amazing; everybody enjoyed it including the teachers!! We liked all the skill involved in this brilliant dancing and singing routine. Craig was amazing at what he does; he also made sure everyone had a job for the performance from clapping to tapping a tambourine. We really liked the different types of dance movements like the ginga (sway), roda (getting into a circle) and the esquiva (avoid). We learnt how to say 1,2,3 in Portuguese. It was the best dance ever!!”
By Kyran, Lionel and Charlie (Class 8.)
“Capoeira is a type of dancing crossed with sports, martial arts and acrobatics. It tells the story of the Brazilian slaves a long time ago. The story explains how the Brazilians went to Africa and brought slaves for their country. We learnt some Portuguese: how to count to three, some songs and the dance, of course! On top of that we were acting as animals to get the movement of capoeira right. We all had a whale of a time and we shall never forget this experience! We will all take away something from this entertaining, fun and enjoyable lesson.”
By Faith and Sinead (Class 8.)
Class 9 had both an exciting and educational experience with Craig (‘Kangaroo’). We had loads of fun learning the Jinga (swaying dance). We also learnt what a hoda is: a large circle formed by people in which the people take part in capoeira. Some of the students (and the teachers!) loved the martial arts crossed with singing crossed with dancing; others quoted that it wasn’t quite their cup of tea! – Jade and Erin
We enjoyed learning about the history as well as performing the fantastic capoeira! We also learnt to count to three and greet one another in Portuguese, as well as take part in several songs and dance moves. Also, he showed us some amazing moves and unusual instruments. – India, Lucy and Anna
Wow! What a day with singing and dancing – it tired me out! But it was fun learning to dance in the Portuguese / Brazilian way called the capoeira. The more we danced and sung, the more we enjoyed ourselves! We also learnt some key words in Portuguese. ‘Kangaroo’ (the person who taught us) also showed us some of the instruments they use in capoeira. He was amazing – he performed cartwheels and headspins! Class 9 had an amazing and wonderful time – we enjoyed it so much we pleaded to do it again! – Ann-Louise
Philosophy
“Is the hole in a polo part of the polo?” “Yes, otherwise it would be just be a mint!”
“Are you happy being you?” “Yes, but we’re always striving for something else. We’re never satisfied.”
So went the philosophical discussion in year 6, with a whole range of taxing issues being discussed with tremendous enthusiasm, reason and passion. If philosophy is the study of wisdom then it certainly looked as if year 6 would love it to be part of their curriculum!
Class 9 enjoyed the visit of a philosopher on Wednesday afternoon.
Philosophy was so cool! We were given really difficult questions like, ‘Is the hole in the middle actually part of the doughnut?’ Jason’s questions really got all our brains working and there was never a question where we all had the same answers or opinions! We also had to think about different issues such as murder and causing accidents, and then put them in order from the most evil to the most angelic. We took a lot away from this lesson! – Jamie, Friedrich and Joshua
Philosophy is all about hard thinking like, ‘Can you imagine a square circle?’ Jason got our brains thinking with these type of questions. The more questions he gave us, the more our brains had to think. – Milda, Henry and Brandon
I think philosophy would really help people who haven’t found themselves. Each question was very special as there was no single right answer. It was all down to opinion and then backing that up. It was okay to think differently to everyone else as we were all entitled to our own opinion. -Sylvie
Drum Crazy
It was both exciting and fantastic! The songs and drumming originated from Africa. All of it, including the singing, was a good experience for us. It was crazy as you can see in the name because we were all drumming crazily! – Reece and Chloe (Class 9)
Wow! What a fantastic morning! On the 10th June, Class 9 ventured down to the music room to drum crazily. Not only did we drum, we bopped and sang too. We volunteered to ‘rub out’ drummers and dance to the music while conducting. We strongly believe that you should have a go at drumming crazily! It’s really fun! – Joe and Erin (Class 9)
Year 6 have rhythm!!! Fact!!! A large dose of team work, a sprinkle of observational skills and a huge dollop of resilience all allowed the year 6 to compose and perform some terrific percussion pieces. They were then able to apply those skills to the singing of a South African song, which you can listen to right here!
Barbara Hepworth
All three year 6 classes enjoyed time at the Barbara Hepworth museum, sketching sculptures and learning about Hepworth’s life, her influences and her work.
Back in school, to follow up our visit to the museum we chose our favourite sketches and produced a series of charcoal drawings with a focus on line, blocking out and finally ‘pointillism’ to create texture. In the afternoon we then worked with acrylic paint to turn our drawings into abstract paintings. Using a limited palette of only four colours we mixed paint to produce a wide range of tones and tint before then creating our own Hepworth inspired works of art. A selection of our final pieces are here for you to enjoy.
Mum quotes ‘These pictures are extraordinary and excellent! I can’t wait until i see the paintings at the school. (Great work, well done!)’
Extremely enjoyable. I loved experimenting with the wax crayons and shelter building was very exciting for a real life experience.
Looks like you’re having a great time and learning lots. All the best for your last few weeks and the big move.
It was so good i loved capoeira and philosophy. Actually i loved it all so much and i might even try some of my own capoeira at home.
WOW! These things are such great opportunities for us young year 6′s. Shelter building was really cool because you got to work together rather than individually!
I’ve really enjoyed Creative Arts week, especially the Philosophy, you had to think hard and throughly in order to find your answer
Yes!! We are having loads of fun. I enjoyed the drum crazy the most, because it was really fun making up our own rythms with breakfasts…
Its been a jam packed few days and its the best send off we could ever have!
Yes we’re having a great time, I can’t wait to make puppets, it will be so fun. I also think Capoeira will be fun too!
it has all been amazing
I really enjoyed this week so far, it has been fantastic, the fun bit at the moment is drum crazy because we can make up our own rythms .
We have had an amazing week, I have thoroughly enjoyed it & can’t wait for the shelter building. It’s great being able to listen to class 9 again…you were fantastic!! Ann-Louise’s dad said “it looked like we had a really amazing time & would have loved to have been there.
I really enjoyed the Y6 creative arts week and i think class9 will agree.
The last couple of days have been so much fun, especially drum crazy. I can’t wait till the rest.
I think it was a fantastic experience for the year 6 pupils and would have loved to have gone myself.
WOW!!! The Barbara Hepworth museum was fantastic! I love the way Barbara is so inspired with what she does ! I also loved drum crazy !! What an exciting week it has been so far
Capoeira was really good i loved how we moved and how gracefully yet fast we did the moves of the dance.
Capoeira Was Really Fun Because I Like To Dance. Also I Loved Putting On The Show Even Though I Couldn’t Do A Cartwheel! It Was Really Funny When I Fell Over. Glad It Wasn’t When Everybody Was Looking ! x
I Also Loved Our Tent Making Thing. It Was Really Fun Because It Was A Real Challenge And I Liked Drum Crazy- That Was Cool. I Liked It Because I Like Music!
Capoeira today was really fun because I love to be active and it required a lot of ‘activeness’!!!
My favourite activity has been the shelter building and I especially enjoyed inspecting other peoples shelters. I am also looking forward to puppet making.
It is lovely to read all your thoughts- and such PMA- makes having organised it really worth it. Thank you. Lovely to hear from Mr Turvey too! Am hoping Mrs Baxter might add a comment from Australia… especially as Gloria Globetrotter is a special friend of hers!
My favourite activities have been the shelter building, the Barbara Hepworth museum, Capoeira and the rest of it! I am also looking forward to making puppets with the rest of the yr 6s.
I’m really looking forward to the puppet making as some of the ones made from the past years have been brill!!!
My favourite activity so far is the Barbara Hepworth paintings we did !!!
Wow. Such good memories looking back at it now.