In today’s visual arts workshop we added to our print work from last week’s ‘Windows in the West’ input. We chose one of our prints from the previous week and had it photocopied smaller in black and white onto an A4 sheet of paper. As our photocopy was smaller, we were then left with a large amount of blank space on the paper. We were instructed to use our own imagination to complete the picture using a ballpoint pen and coloured pencils to enhance the picture. This activity would be a great extension task as unlike the first task which was based on the artists’ painting, this task allows the children to develop their own perspective on the painting by using their imagination.
In the music workshop we explored the music application GarageBand. This is an application that allows you to experiment with and create your own sounds and tunes to produce a piece of music. This is a great app as is allows children to explore their interest in music and express themselves. In this workshop we produced an 8 bar piece of music by exploring and using a variety of different musical instruments, sounds and beats.
Having developed our knowledge of how to work GarageBand, we then used an animation and created a piece of music using sounds and beats that would be appropriate to it. I believe this would be a great activity for children to be able to link sounds and emotions to imagery. This activity can link to various experiences and outcomes within the Curriculum for Excellence such as:
I can use my voice, musical instruments and music technology to experiment with sounds, pitch, melody, rhythm, timbre and dynamics. EXA 2-17a
Inspired by a range of stimuli, and working on my own and/or with others, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through musical activities. EXA 0-18a/EXA 1-18a/EXA 2-18a
In conclusion, both of the workshops today allowed me to be able to express myself through the arts and have the confidence in teaching them. Having been shown a number of different resources that I could use within the classroom environment, I feel a lot more positive about the prospective of teaching the arts to primary children.
References
Scottish Government (2017). Curriculum for Excellence: Expressive Arts. Available at: https://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/expressive-arts-eo.pdf [Accessed 30 October 2017]
