This week during integrated Arts we looked at artistic photography that evoked emotion. We were given a card and were to talk about the feelings within the picture and how they made us feel. Our photograph made us feel as though the artist was trying to get across his need for a safe place and that everyone has somewhere where they feel safe. Our picture seemed particularly normal and was a picture of a woman sitting on a chair and gazing out a window. Then we realised the second pair of feet poking out from under her dress. This gave the lady a maternal form and as though the artist went to his mother for comfort and when he needed somewhere to feel safe . We then went into pairs and spoke about the various components the picture was made up from and the overall effect it gave to us as the audience. I think this would be a particularly useful way of showing children the meaning behind art and seeing through the eyes of an artist. This could be used to teach children about emotion within art or even various topics such as bullying. We could also use this to progress onto story-writing surrounding the topics each particular photograph covers. I felt this workshop in particular gave us an opinion on the art we were looking at and evoked emotion and therefore would be interesting to use in a classroom. Children would be able to talk about their own thoughts a feelings towards the photographs and would be an opportunity for discussion within pairs, groups or even as a classroom.
The second workshop we attended was music. We looked at various websites and tools we could use to assist our teaching of music within a classroom. My favourite was charanga due to the unlimited options of musical teaching it held. We were taken through the website and shown how to utilise it to the best of its ability. I think children would really engage with this type of learning due to the fact we are able to pitch it to the correct level, the type of music we are learning (such as world or country) and also what musical concepts we are teaching. Overall I felt this was really useful due to the fact it gave us guidance on what we could use and various materials we could use in a classroom environment to assist our teaching and assist the children’s learning. For example we could pick a song suited to the learning and charanga would break it up for the children into different components such as rhythm and beat to then be out together to create the piece of music as a whole. This would give children a better understanding of the piece they were learning. Children were also able to play games suited to their own ability and have a bit of freedom on what they choose to do on the website.
Overall I felt these inputs were both very useful as both of them stripped the art/pieces of music into their smaller components to give the overall effect of the art/music and to encourage a better understanding of them.

This week during integrated Arts we had some Norwegian students over visiting our campus and we were lucky to have them join our class for the day and show us various ways in which art is encouraged in Norway. We were told how important outdoor learning is in Norway and how valued it is. Norwegian schools use outdoor learning for every class in one way or another. I found this really interesting as I would love to use outdoor learning when I am out teaching in schools as it encourages new ways of learning in different environments. For this input in particular the use of outdoor learning was a great success as there were so many different types of art we could create using nature as our pallet. As put by Birch, (2017) –
“Nature is everywhere which means so too can art. Whether you are out in the backyard with the kids, the park, the beach, even just the sidewalk waiting for a bus there is nature around us. And with nature, both children and adults alike can express their creativity.”
Nature is everywhere which means so too can art. Whether you are out in the backyard with the kids, the park, the beach, even just the sidewalk waiting for a bus there is nature around us. And with nature, both children and adults alike can express their creativity. First of all we went outside to look at what was on offer around us to use within pieces of art nature. For example we used rocks, leaves and sticks to create many different pieces of art. My group created a frame using sticks and strips of long grass to bing the sticks together. This was the outcome of the frame we created.

We then went a walk around the campus to have a look at what the other groups created and all were very different due to the different parts of the campus people stopped at meaning different things on offer. This was really increasing to see and would be good for children to see different ideas and what different materials could be used for. I really enjoyed this input as it would show children how many different things could be created from using natural resources around us and therefore encouraging art in different environments.
After the art input we went into the Mac labs to create an autumn theme tune to match our walk around the campus. We used garage band to create these theme tunes. We thought about what noises and what atmosphere we found whilst being outside and in turn put it into the music we began to compose. I felt this was a really useful lesson as it incorporated the art within the music. It also would assist in teaching children about rhythm and beat and also the value of notes. We were able to create a song that suited us to our own experience outside. We were able to choose the instruments we wanted to use and therefore this would also help children in understanding the values of different instruments. In using garage band, we were able to work out different ways of getting the final outcome of what we wanted our theme tune to sound like. It also went from using nature outside to create art, to using technology to create music. I think this is also a really valuable lesson to show children due to the fact that both can be used in completely different ways but have extremely successful and important outcomes.

References

Birch, Rebecca (2017) Art in nature, it’s everywhere. Nature Play, QLD. [online] Available: https://www.natureplayqld.org.au/art-in-nature

The first workshop we went to was the art workshop. We looked at an artist called Bob or Roberta Smith. This is an artist who goes by these two names , even though neither are actually his real name (Patrick Bill). Bob and Roberta Smith’s trademark artwork is printing and he uses different phrases and words to get points across. Many of which are passionate statements about art. He also used bold colours to fit the bold statements. We then went onto coming up with our own bold statements about areas which were passionate to us. First we came up with our own statements and then we went into groups or pairs to create prints. This involved writing the words down in a bold black pen and tracing it into a piece of foam card. We then rolled paint onto the side which we had stencilled and then printed it onto a bit of paper. The outcome was this – 

The results were very good and worked really well with the statements we had come up with. I really enjoyed doing printing and I would love to use it in a classroom. This could be used for children to express how they feel about certain topics. They could also use it to create pictures of different things. It is also a relatively easy and effective way to create powerful art in a really simple way.

The next workshop we were in was music. During it we looked at we looked at rhythm and beats. By doing this we first looked at shapes (circles and squares). The world circle has two syllables, and then word square has one. We then looked at different patterns using them shoots and clapped out the syllables the patterns made. This created a ground basis before notes were introduced and showed the different rhythms. We then looked at the value of notes and how they could even be used to show fractions in a classroom. After this we got drumsticks and done some tapping with them to help gain better understanding how the notes looking in music and the different rhythms they created. Overall I think this would be a really good lesson to use in a classroom over the course of a few weeks to help children gain an understanding of the different note values and slowly introducing them in how to read music and note values.

The integration of the two workshops today taught me that by breaking the artwork down into different components and building it up that way, really effective artwork can be produced. For example we created the prints step by step and part by part using really simple methods and materials. This same method could also be soon during the music work shop due to the fact we broke the music down into small components to help teach it and then were shown how it can all be pieces together to create music and learn how to read/play music.