End of Term Free Art Lesson & a lovely warm up exercise

Our last lesson of the term was a free art lesson - featuring the best of the art experiences of the year so far....

First however I wanted to mention the lovely warm up exercise we started last weeks class with.  Painting to music was such a fun lesson that I mentioned it to my drawing teacher who in turn suggested that we add another element where we all move along one place after each song or segment of music.

Progressive Drawings

You will need:

• Paper
• Oil Pastels (you could use any drawing medium)

How to:

• Have a piece of paper and pastels in front of each child
• Start the music and let them draw for say 5 minutes
• Stop the music and get them all to move one place to their left, leaving their paper and pastels where they were
• Start the music, the children add to the picture in front of them.  The pictures can be abstract if they wish.
• Stop the music, move again, start music, draw, stop music, move etc
• Continue with this until they have progressed all around the table and are back where they started.
• Discuss the pictures in front of them, how did the picture turn out?  Do they like what people added?  Which picture turned out the best?  Why?  How did it feel adding to others pictures?  

Free Art Lesson

Children could choose from the following:

Watercolour Painting
Using skills learnt so far this year.  I suggested turtles (see my post on that here) yet there was a definite Lion theme going on....

Clay Work
Hand building with Paper clay - anything they wanted.

Pottery Wheel:
Having a go at the basics of the pottery wheel.  At this stage its just about getting a feel for the clay and enjoying the sensation of the slippery clay beneath their hands.  For some of my students this was their first experience of using a pottery wheel.  We used paper clay so that if they made something that resembled a pot they would be able to keep it and paint it with normal paints later.

Children's Pots from the pottery wheel

This little video by Olive Us captures the thrill of children using the wheel so well....



Chalk Pastels:
Draw anything they wanted on black paper.  Cats were again popular..

Baking Soda Fizzes:
Dropping coloured vinegar onto baking soda.  Great for colour experimentation.  See my post on this here

Glazing:
Finishing off the glazing of pinch pots and pinch pot animals / monsters we have been working on over the past few months.  These should be ready early next term.

Another term comes to a close.  Have a lovely term break!

Cheers
Fiona