Ideas For Art Activities.

[Guest Reb3]

Has anybody got any art activities that work well linked to the topic of ourslves.

 

We did simple paint self portraits during our transition days & they're going to be up in the class when the children come back to school.

 

I have a few ideas but am always happy to hear you suggestions.

 

Had thought of doing a Matisse style self portait where children could do a whacky coloured background first & then come back to it to do a self portait in black over the top.

 

 

Collage style self portaits where they could be given a face shape & then cut bits out of magazines etc to make a face could also label the different parts. Thought they could possibly do this where they make their own face parts in isolation so eyes one day, mouth another & then stick it all together to make a face.

 

I know it doesn't all have to be about self portraits, would love to hear your ideas,

 

Thanks,

 

Rebecca xx

[Marion]

Lots of body printing?

[belle06]

Not sure if this is what you where thinking but our children love making plaster casts of their feet & hands and then decorating

[Elfy]

How about taking the childrens photographs, pirnting them off and then allowing the children to enhance their pictures with a variety of medium - for example they could have black and white pictures and change the colours with pastels. Or you could import photographs into an art programme and let them adapt them on the computer.

 

elfy

x

[Guest Reb3]

Some great ideas thank you everyone.

 

Love the idea of letting them customise their own black & white photos. My order of Making faces by Nick Butterworth has just arrived in the post aswell so going to have a flick through that & see if I'm inspired!

 

Rebecca xx

[Steve]

Hi -

Just to follow on from the suggestion of using plaster, I've kindly been sent an email from a non-member who happened across this post. I've quoted her email below. I guess Shelley is really talking about hand and feet imprints rather than casts, but I think the warning against casts is a good one to put here.

 

I ask you kindly to respond to yesterday's post where someone suggested making plaster casts of hands and feet.

 

I STRONGLY advise against this. Recently a girl in a secondary in lincolnshire lost almost all of her fingers because the plaster gets very hot as it sets. You need to be an expert to cast body parts as it is a very specialist skill.

[Marion]

The teenage girl in Lincolnshire was mixing the plaster of Paris by hand which resulted in the terrible accident as there is a chemical reaction.

 

There should be is no problem if the plaster is handled properly. Making a cast of a hand if you don't put the plaster in direct contact with the skin using a mould made from plasticine or playdough then an adult would mix the plaster of paris and pour into the mould. You could also make a mould using a foot print in wet sand and again letting the adult use the plaster of paris.

 

 

 

Remember too that modroc is plaster of paris impregnated so also gets hot while reacting to water.

[Guest]

how about drawing around each child so you have life size children to put on your walls and dress up etc!

[Elfy]

During our recent art week we did as you suggest marion and made imprints in playdough and then poured the paster of paris in. This was really effective and we used them to make a great board of hands for our school entrance area. However they were really, really fiddly and lots of fingers fell of as it is quite difficult to get the childrens hand deep enough into the dough to make a strong enough mould.

 

Elfy

x

[Marion]

It sometimes works better if you put the dough into a bowl and use it to make a relief rather than a cast we have done this and it makes a plaque that can be painted and hung up.

[Inge]

Thats how we do it, we put a card ring around the dough , then imprint with the hand and fill with plaster so it is level over the whole area, ending up with a plaque, remember to put a paper clip in the back of it as a hanger before it sets.

 

very easy to remove the card ring and dough when plaster is set.

 

Inge

[Guest]

Lat September I did a "You are Special / getting to know you" topic.

We did Life size cut out models, toilet role photo puppets, face silhouettes using the projector, facial features guess who pics, extended to family / home, mosel of house, door numbers, then pets to caring for self and others. These ideas lasted the whole term.

 

 

 

Peggy

[Susan]

We had that warning sent to all schools in our LEA and our head has deemed that plaster of paris can no longer be used on health and safety grounds!

[apple]

why not use mod -roc instead of plaster of paris? much easier and safer to use; available through most educational suppliers

[Helen]

On the topic of art activities...

we gave the children an outline of a huge eye (an A4 piece of paper) and they mixed their exact eye-colour (mirrors to look closely!) and painted the eye. They then curled brown/black paper for eyelashes, and we stuck them on the wall as a bar chart, so we could count how many children had a particular eye colour. It looked great!

[Guest]

As the leaves are falling and harvest is approaching (as well as doing healthy eating!) we went on a nature walk around the grounds collecting sticks and leaves etc. I also took lots of fruit and veg into school which we then used to make faces/portraits with - the children LOVED it and we got lots of fantastic photos from the day too!

Lets see if I can add some (not done this before!!!)

[Guest LOSINGTHEWILLTOLIVE]

Hi there

 

We used marbling inks to make beautiful leaves as part of our display on Growth. The children also looked closely at leaves under the digital microscope and I projected the images onto the interactive white board. Another similar art activity is to use crepe paper and encourage the children to use different hues of the same colour, tear them up and lay them onto pre cut leaf shapes then add water over them with a brush. When they are dry the children can peel them off and the result is a very beautiful watery background that can be used for a display.

 

I will try to find some photos of their work.

 

I hope this helps?

Edited February 19, 2008 by LOSINGTHEWILLTOLIVE

[Guest LOSINGTHEWILLTOLIVE]

Hi there

 

We looked at Andy Goldsworthy and the children were challenged to think about using natural materials and joining limitations. I was also inspired with the weaving I saw at the Eden Project last year and hope to do a similar thing for the outdoor area this Summer. The frame was a piece of chicken wire bent into a tube and the children were given strips of material in different shades of the same colour to tie on. Then the following month or week I am not sure the colours changed so that in the end it looked like a rainbow cascading down - lovely!

 

I hope this helps?

weaving2.bmp

Edited February 20, 2008 by LOSINGTHEWILLTOLIVE

[Guest]

i love the eye idea!!! doing ourselves next year and finding some brill ideas. thank you!

[Guest]

i love the idea of the little people in the tv and house fab! thats my small world main activity sorted for sept

[Guest]

Has anybody got any art activities that work well linked to the topic of ourslves.

 

We did simple paint self portraits during our transition days & they're going to be up in the class when the children come back to school.

 

I have a few ideas but am always happy to hear you suggestions.

 

Had thought of doing a Matisse style self portait where children could do a whacky coloured background first & then come back to it to do a self portait in black over the top.

 

 

Collage style self portaits where they could be given a face shape & then cut bits out of magazines etc to make a face could also label the different parts. Thought they could possibly do this where they make their own face parts in isolation so eyes one day, mouth another & then stick it all together to make a face.

 

I know it doesn't all have to be about self portraits, would love to hear your ideas,

 

Thanks,

 

Rebecca xx

[Guest]

I went to a fantastic EYPS network meeting the other week where 2 of the speakers were artists/teachers who attend settings in certain areas and try to inspire art in the setting.

 

One of the ideas they had was to make frames to put fabric over for the children to paint on, (sorry am brain dead and cannot think what they are called!!). They said when the children came in to the room the sun was out and the children played for ages just using their shadows. So wouldn't it be a great activity to have several frames up and get the children to draw each others outline on the fabric. You could then leave the outline monochrome or the kids could just paint or collage their features on to the fabric. What a great way to learn about shadow and light! I might even do it with my kids at home.

 

They really had so many fantastic ideas it was wonderful to hear such enthusiasm.

 

It was a canvas, I knew I would think of the word eventually!!!

Edited September 26, 2008 by Guest