The afternoon of Friday the 8th of March, was spent with a year 5 class from Woodlands Primary Academy in Bradwell. Class 5B has approximately 30 all of which were very excited and enthusiastically greeted the plans for the 'Be Anything Do Anything' project and welcomed the opportunity to have their work shown in a professional gallery setting (providing they had their work was returned once the exhibition was over!).
As in previous sessions within the school a presentation outlining the project had been prepared, however it was fast discovered that the substitute teacher in charge (Mr Dibb) was without a computer, therefore there was a need to think fast and talk to the class without the back-up of visual aids.
Copy of presentation children should have seen
The projects themes were discussed and the children deliberated about what they believed to be stereotypes and if any of them had visited any art galleries, before the creative work began children were asked to complete a short questionnaire of what they considered to be male and female jobs and hobbies. They were so eager to start the artwork they completed the questionnaires very swiftly, here are a selection of their responses;
The answers were ranged from stereotypical thinking to students ticking both sides for all answers, it is unsure at this stage whether these exercises provide a true reflection of the workings of a 10 years olds mind, however it's a good starting point for future investigation.
The works planned for the afternoon session were;
Decorate a letter your own way
Space pictures (cut out and decorate astronauts and planets)
Polystyrene printing
Job role faces
Draw the job role
Colouring pages
Decorated letters will form part of a display of words within the exhibition.
Polystyrene printing
The children experimented with polystyrene printing, by drawing into sheets of polystyrene then applying ink to the created plate and producing the image on paper. Many experimented with letters and fast became aware of the need to reverse letters in order for the print to come out correctly, some students also experimented with mixing colours on the printing plates and adding embellishments to their final works.
The below example was created by one student who created the background colour by mistake and was not initially pleased with her result, but with a little encouragement and some patterned papers she transformed her print into a space landscape worthy for display.
Space pictures were created using paper cut-outs, paint and stickers, the students decorated their own astronauts giving many different results.
Too many chefs?? not in 5B! the creations the children came up with were fun and varied, Mickey Mouse even made an appearance, and why not? These faces will make excellent fun additions to the display in May.
Overall it was felt that the students enjoyed all the activities made available to them, they were very excited to have their work shown in the gallery and were keen to learn when the exhibition would be. The children were all very well behaved and extremely helpful when it came to tidying up at then end of the session.
One parent got in touch to say how much their son had enjoyed the session describing it as; "not only the best part of his day, but the best part of his week, in his words epic!", this was very welcome praise and gave a sense of pride as to the enjoyment levels for the activities provided.
Thank you 5B for being such an enthusiastic bunch and look forward to welcoming you and your families to view your work at the exhibition in May and to maybe have the opportunity to create a few more pieces of work together.
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