Crowle Primary Pupils Become Aztec Warriors!

Crowle Primary are studying the intriguing and beguiling world of the Aztecs! This week Years three and four came to visit the centre to be inspired by architecture and unusual printing techniques.

 

We started the day with drawing challenges to draw something to do with Aztecs in 20 seconds! This got everyone's creative juices flowing and made us think quickly as little artists for the rest of the day.

 

We took a trip around the gallery spaces to find architectural features that looked to be inspired by Aztec patterns. We thought about geometric shapes and repetition and drew our findings on research sheets.

 

 

Inspired by the drawings, we drew repeated shapes onto a piece of faom that became a relief pad for printing a repeated pattern over and over onto a template of a head dress.

 

We had to draw as many large feathers onto one piece of paper as possible and used these feathers as a stencil for something called screen printing. The screens are made of wood and silk which is pulled tight over the wooden frame. The silk allows ink to be pushed through its tiny tiny holes. Our stencils would make sure that only the feather shapes would be printed, meaning we could make lots of them from one sheet of paper. The feathers were dried, cut and folded to make them more 3D.

Using the foam relief pads, we printed onto the main body of our head dress, using block printing ink which is really bold and colourful. The feathers were attached along with the head of a bird (even though some people thought it was a frog). Aztecs were greatly inspired by nature and things around them. Birds were seen as gods and bird imagery was often used for warrior head dresses, which is why we used them to inspire our work today.

Once all the inks and glue were dry, the head resses could be assembled for us to wear on the bus home. We looked really colourful and bright walking across Church Square.


If you or your school are interested in the team at 20-21 building a bespoke workshop around your class topic, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us: 01724 297070 or email education.2021@northlincs.gov.uk

Brumby Juniors do it again!

Brumby Juniors appear to be one of the most art active schools in North Lincolnshire! They've been running the creative curriculum for two years now, with tremendous success. Our Education Officer, Hayley, went along to Brumby's creative showcase to see the performances she helped develop, and the beautiful artworks the children had produced in her absence.

Mrs Pitois bravely ran a shadow puppet workshop throughout the summer term. The children started by visiting 20-21 Visual Arts Centre and watching the popular Sharmanka exhibition before taking part in a "starting point" shadow puppet workshop, introcuding the idea of shadow play and performance.

Below are some photos of the very successful shadow plays, performed by the children at the showcase event:

 

A HUGE congratulations to all the shadow performers, who were a little worried the last time we met them. What a great success all the hard work turned out to be!

 

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Remember a few weeks ago when we hosted a workshop at Brumby Juniors to support their Everyday Objects workshop? Well, their showcase was great! Children were showing parents how to make the Flyer Flowers that we all made, together.

 

The children were taking the flyers apart to use them as separate sheets. They looked so much clearer and brighter than the ones we had previously made. Lots of critical analysis and reconstruction of ideas proves a big success!

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The whole school was animated with art, creativity and intrigue. Each classroom became a hive of activity with children showing parents how to batik, tie dye, do aboriginal art, and showed them all about pop art and Andy Warhol! Below is just a small selection of photos taken on the day of the showcase!

 

Once again, a massive congratulations to all the pupils and teachers who have worked very hard over the summer term to make some truly stunning artworks and performances. It is a delight to have worked with you all and encouraged the creativity out of each of the pupils in our workshops. What lucky children the Brumby pupils are, to have halls adorned with such bright and interesting art!

We can't wait for next year's showcase!!

Everyday Objects with Brumby Juniors!

As an ongoing project with Brumby Junior School, Education at 20-21 delivered an Everyday Objects workshop to year six's as part of the school's creative curriculum.

Mrs Musgrave was inspired by Jason Taylor's Everyday Objects exhibition, here at 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, and decided that her offer for the school's creative summer term would be for the children to get involved with recycling household objects into artwork!

We started by looking at some of the examples the pupils had made in the lead-up to our workshop:


Some really fun house plants made of household objects!

This one made us particularly hungry! A sports ball, crayons and packaging becomes a delicious hearty meal!

This crazed looking doll has mechanics that mean the head wobbles about all over the place!

The workshop set many timed challenges for the children to think outside the box, quickly. The class were split into groups of three and were expected to use their initiative and observational skills to recreate objects displayed. The workshop leader would hold up unusual objects for a matter of seconds. The children were expected to gather the correct materials and notice methods and patterns in the makings of the objects, before working as a team to recreate them.



The 20-21 Junk Shop

First up,  the Peg Bowl, a temporary small structure that followed patterns, repetition and direction:

Notice how the pegs are added in rows of colour/pattern and then another row of a different style/colour pegs is added in a particular direction. The bowls should stand sturdy on their own. Let's see how the children fared up!

An interesting example of pattern and repetition!

A proud group.



All children were asked to write words or phrases that came to mind when making all their objects, throughout the session. This was a good way of recording thinking process and decision making.

Starting again after realising it would topple over.

Working well as a team!

Some groups were more successful than others, noticing the patterns of colour and repetition. The outcomes were all beautiful and reminded us of lots of different things, including tarantulas and space ships.

Next up, The Straw Leaved Clover!  Thinking along the lines of Jason Taylor's humour regards titles for his objects, our Education Officer used straws and wire to create this "interesting" clover:



Children were shown this masterful piece for a few seconds, before fetching the objects they thought they'd need.

This group kept their straws straight and threaded the wire through in attempt to shape the leaf.

This group designed a very intriguing method of cutting along the length of the straws and flattening the curve of the plastic. This was then wrapped and tied together to form the shape of the leaves.

This group were nick named The Engineers after deciphering a very intricate and complex method to curve the straws... cutting them into small sections, but leaving the very end the keep them all joined together.

The Engineers, with their very successful Straw Leaved Clover!

Once all groups were complete, they were chosen to display and discuss their method of working as a team and the decisions they made as designers, to create their Straw Leaved Clover.

After a tidying up operation, the final creation session was for the pupils to work independently to create Flyer Flowers!

 

These fab creations were made using simple folding and stapling techniques to make some interesting geometric shapes.

Armed with a stack of old flyers from 20-21's archives, and a stapler filled with staples, the class created some truly lovely and greatly successful Flyer Flowers!

 

 

 

 

The highlight of the day was watching the class work together and notice the properties of various household objects. Some of the children really thought things through and recognised qualities in objects and each other, that they'd never seen before.

 

 

Thank you Brumby Juniors! we'll see on 12th at your sharing day!!

 

Creative Curriculum at Brumby Juniors!

A few weeks ago, we blogged about Brumby Juniors using our workshops and exhibitions as starting blocks for their creative curriculum for the summer term. Last week, our Education Officer went into the school to deliver a session on making puppets for Mrs Pitois' shadow puppet performance at the end of term.

Children have chosen to work on two stories. One story being that of the football game that took place on the front line of the secod world war. What imagery this conjurs up! This group are making lines of soldiers that march along to soundscapes of the world war, with air raid sirens and gun fire.

The other story is one of a woman and a flying head. The flying head tries to eat the woman during a trip gathering crops in the local forest. The woman spites the flying head after several failed attempts to defeat him, by cooking a hot stone and throwing it into his mouth. The children made some beautiful birds on sticks, that, as a result of our workshop are now flying birds, because we attached hinges for moveable wings.
One table of pupils worked especially hard to create a very large flying head, with a moveable jaw. The detailing was excellent!

All in all, it was great to be a part of Mrs Pitois' creative curriculum and to introduce shadow puppetry to some very interested pupils! No photos appear, because we have been kindly invited to the showcase day, at which we hope to take lots of photos and post them on our blog.

We are revisiting the school, this week, and are going to Mrs Musgrave's class who are studying Everyday Objects and recycling in art, as their theme. This class used Sharmanka and Jason Taylor as their starting point during a Self-Guided visit.

Stay tuned for most posts about how we are working with Brumby Juniors to enhance their creative curriculum, and for pictures of the beautiful work they're making!

PHEW! Mug mission complete!

...almost! Our Education Officer, Hayley, spent all of last week visiting schools throughout North Lincolnshire to present them with a gift from Education at 20-21! Those who haven't recieved their gift, worry not... it'll be with you before half term holiday!

The gift was this lovely bright yellow mug! Enough to brighten even the foggiest of winter term mornings!

Those schools lucky enough to have received their mug already, were all very welcoming. Some even offered a cup of tea and shelter from the wet and blustery autumn weather. (No, the tea wasn't served in their new mug.)

Some schools particularly caught Hayley's eye, for their beautiful artwork on display in the reception areas. Unfortunately, she didn't have a camera to capture the paintings and sculptures, to share with you all. A hearty well done to Goxhill Primary School, whose underwater fishy display was created with a local artist along with the gifted and talented pupils. They certainly were gifted and talented, documenting all the steps taken to make some beautiful textile fish in a mosaic sea.

Kirmington Primary School was so proud of their stunning Victorian building, that Hayley was taken on a tour of the small, very well behaved classes. And what a building to be proud of! There are 34 lucky pupils in the whole school, who get to walk into that lovely building everyday. Thank you for all being so kind and welcoming.

With all the travelling around still left to do, we must dash and leave you enjoying your cuppa (hopefully in our handsome gift to you!)

Thanks for reading! :)

Get IT savvy again!

Following on from the previous post, we have been reading up about the benefits of schools using social media, not only as a method of communication, but also as a teaching tool. The chances are, if you're reading this blog, you'll already be aware of some of the social media sites worth using in the classroom. This is a mere guide for the online spaces inspiring us, and the places we use to communicate with schools and general public. 

This excellent article by Matt Britland encourages schools to not be scared of the fast moving social media sites, but to utilise them: 

"I think it's important to embrace social media as it is the primary way that young people communicate... Much of the time we force students down the route of email. Do we do that because it is easier for us? In my experience of using Facebook groups with students they pick up communications far quicker than email."

"The great thing is that many people know how to use Facebook already, and Twitter is so straightforward it would not take long for people to learn it."

In the article, Britland makes recommendations to "follow", "like" and "pin" various sites. Our favourtie, here at Education at 20-21, is his recommendation to follow the American pinners Teacher Central. There are lots of innovative pins (visual links) to websites useful for the classroom.

"Pinning" is an action used on Pinterest, a virtual pinboard of images/sites to be inspried by or to remember on a later date. Working in 20-21 Visual Arts Centre., it is important for us to be continually inspired by exciting and innovative contemporary art. Pinterest is the perfect way to quickly capture moments of visual stimulation! Because of this, we've set up our very own Pinterest account! Follow 20-21 pins to discover what we are inspired by, the things that are making us think, and the artsits we currently have in our exhibitions!

Pinterest is an excellent way of virtually scrapbooking ideas and eventually building up an online portfolio of research, events and art projects. For help and advice on how to use Pinterest to its best potential, please contact Hayley McPhun, our Education Officer, on 01724 297074 or hayley.mcphun@northlincs.gov.uk

Get IT savvy!

You may have noticed, we've set up a links page. On it you'll find lots of lovely links to local and national websites that we find interesting for arts education and IT savvy schools.

One school we've discovered use online communications with their parents and pupils is Bottesford Junior School.

The website has some great newsletters attached and links to their own blogs which children post and upload onto.

Goxhill Primary School seem to take IT very seriously and upload films onto their podcast page. On there they have videos of taiko drumming, circus skills and latest news from the school.

Are your school on Twitter? Many schools nowadays are using twitter as a method of teaching literacy, phonics and numeracy in the classroom. If you're already tweeting, why not follow us? 20-21 have been using twitter for a few years, now, often posting images of exhibitions and curation of shows.

 One very successful classroom twitter project is Orange Class's ClassroomTweets, request to follow the IT savvy class, for their often very cute posts and status updates.

We are looking out for schools who blog about art and workshops in their schools. If you are an IT savvy school, writing posts about creative and visual arts, get in touch with us. We'd be happy to add your website to our Links page.

Exciting post!

Exciting post has arrived on Education at 20-21's desk! A long awaited parcel of gifts for schools has landed! We'll not be revealing what the gift is until we've met you all individually - otherwise it won't be a nice surpise, will it? There is one free gift for every primary, secondary and further education establishment in North Lincolnshire and we can't wait to meet you, in order to give it to you personally.

To get your free gift, just get in touch with our Education Officer, Hayley McPhun on 01724 297074 or hayley.mcphun@northlincs.gov.uk Who knows what mystery awaits?