Artifical Snow

At last - found artificial snow in Poundland.It increases in size when watered - by one hundred fold- so keep away from mouths in case of choking etc.
.Last year was the first time I was lucky enough to learn about this wonderful resource. There it was- a  dry pile of it - sitting innocently in a water tray in a P1 class just waiting to be examined and activated!!! The rest of the room was full of other activites to do with Wintertime.
Memories flooded back of the awful experience of my Primary one when the only creative activity was playing with  green Plasticine or a lacing card.
Well anyway back to the point - as a supply  teacher going round the classes one day doing McCrone cover. It became to me obvious that the further up the school a pupil went - the less creative activities were planned by the class teacher - and I wondered why that happened.
 The P7 class were very bored and could have been  looking at interactive snowflakes - see www.zefrank.com- using the whiteboard as one of their activities for the afternoon.Another group could have made Christmas cards and one must be sure they would have preferred to experiment with the artificial snow instead of finding how many words could be made out of Winter-wonderland!!

The next few weeks will be fun because of my responsibility to do the Art at the special school while the H.M.I. are visiting. Am not worried much but spent the last few hours making a puppet called Frosty the Snowman - who will be very good at getting the attention of the children who have hearing or visual impairment. - The puppet has jingly bells on it too for good measure. That's all very well having a puppet - I can hear HMI say - but what will you do with it - well it is to engage the children in the lesson initially and to keep their attention during it.
Another activity which seemed important  to do before an HMI inspection is to print out the learning outcomes for Expressive Arts and Science   -  and to learn them off by heart. As it turns out the artifical snow ties in with the science outcomes and so maybe one should download the whole curriculum outcomes. After all - it is part of  a teacher's responsibility to promote health and well being and encourage literacy and numeracy across the curriculum. Wish me luck.

The photography bug

I always liked photography and was taught by the best - in fact one of my peers was Calum Colvil the well known  photographer. We had the same teacher who was like a father figure to us all - Mr Fraser. He was so laid back about the subject. I used to escape to the photography studios when the smell of oil paint and turps was too much in search of his kindly advice.

We developed the free films ourselves. Of course the film was always black and white and I learned how important it was to get the image right first time. Now we are spoiled for choice what with all the settings which can be added instantly to the camera and the fact we can see the image instantly.
 My first camera was a Zenith - Russian made but as good as a Nikon and half the price. We were encouraged to take the camera everywhere and to include people in our pictures.
That is maybe why  digital photography is a great medium to use - it is instant and can be changed with post production without having to develop the film. It is a lot cheaper in the long run.

Now I have a camera which can upload pictures onto a computer along with my written words - it is amazing and am glad to have this technology now.

Today - I drew using only yellow to focus on the lines and shapes found in the rubbish. A cartoon sort of image began to emerge which was quite stunning to look at considering the simple technique used. So I have taken the theme of rubbish in my environment and looked at the colours and lettering and am bringing it to images which are pleasing to the eye.

This has been quite a leap of faith for me to keep doing as barriers which had stopped me creating kept on coming to the fore for example - at one point my creative drive was driven by praise and what others thought and by marks etc. which would overwhelm me completely. Instead my  new attitude is now more laid back and am glad to have the chance to create anything now and grateful for the technologies which enables one to share art globally!!! Someone somewhere has got to like it !

Art is in the eye of the beholder after all.
Okay now to download again.

Thanks again to Gordon for the tutorial

Space- the final frontier before Christmas.

Well only one more week to go until the school starts to do Christmas as a whole school topic.  Meanwhile my lessons are - making aliens using a paint blob on a piece of folded up paper  and making play dough with the class - to make aliens also.This last activity is a sensory activity - but how does one split art and sensory activities??

For example - I looked at the timetable under sensory activities for the next two weeks - the activites are - making craters in the sand , playdough aliens orange pomanders decorating Christmas logs. These activities might also be classified as Art activities - maybe in a nursery class.. This is a special school timetable and sensory activites are  very much part of the children's development. 

 I am looking for the hidden art activities in the curriculum because if we can identify the use and importance of art and its benefits to the development of children - then maybe art will begin to be seen as a very important skill throughout a child's school life.When I chose art as a subject at school my peers would say art is a useless subject. However over the years I realise that my love of art has been a vehicle for plenty of cross culture learning for me.This has helped me to become a more confident person.Although I still fight against the silly voices in my head telling me negative thoughts about my art - I move forward happier and more at peace with myself as I look for beauty in life..and try to capture this in my art.

Last week we managed to produce plenty of space ships. I had a feeling to buy extra strong tin foil - which was to be used to cover the top of the flying saucer. The children really enjoyed  crunching up the tinfoil and we made space rocks from it as well as using it to cover the flying saucer.I stapled two paper plates together and left the base plain to be decorated with glitter glue. The children were encouraged to squeeze the glue out of the tube - thus encouraging muscle strength. Some of the children are visually impaired and so it is important to have bright art materials to use. Others are hearing impaired and so the act of scrunching up or squeezing out or finger painting is an important part of their sensory/creative development.

I had rocket templates which were also decorated with glitter glue. The children also painted sun and stars using a mixture of medium. The result was a great display wall covered in space ships, flying saucers moons stars and space rocks. We also put up the learning outcome on the wall. I will ask if I can photograph this display.

That reminds me - I wanted a small compact camera to take with me on my walks in the environment. We have two big cameras which are difficult and awkward to carry. Thank goodness the other Sony Cybershot with 10.1 megapix turned up and is now charged up. It fits into my pocket and is very good. As I was walking about at the weekend - inspiration struck me again.. The skies are so beautiful and so is the vegetation the idea of me making images of the earth and sky could be the next project. The work in progress just now is exciting and today I did some more on the theme of rubbish found in my environment. Well now is a good time to take a picture and post it on this blog. Wish me luck...

Success!Thanks to my computer literate husband I now have them downloaded and am pleased with the results of the small camera. In fact the camera's viewfinder has actually helped me to frame the parts I like best.I am just using all the media I have to hand just now am mixing oil paint with acrylic paint and charcoal and using blank spaces too. Its all good fun!