This week we have been learning about African artwork. We got into our co-operative groups and my group is Malawi. We had  all researched different aspects about our countries in our groups. Today we got all the research out and every group had a fraction of the wall to create a display. We all wrote things, cut them out and then mounted them onto coloured paper to display. Then we stuck them on the wall ourselves. We knew we were successful because we were able to share our knowledge we had learned with others. We learned by discussing within our group about all of our information then deciding what we would put where. Then we decided what jobs we were going to do (Mrs Hunter called this delegating tasks!) so we would get multiple tasks done at the same time. The skills we were using was communicating with others and managing our time as we had a set time frame to do it in so we had to concentrate. I am learning to use these skills so that if I have a job when I am older that requires skills like communicating with others and managing my time I will know what to do. I found trying to get all the group to listen to one person challenging. I overcame the challenge by co operating with my group and trying to grab their attention. I achieved being able to present and share my information with others . I think I could build on these skills and I could try and get even more work done for next time.
Category Archives: Expressive Arts
Inverclyde Music Festival
Recently primary 6 and 7 performed in the Inverclyde Music Festival. Every year we perform in the Inverclyde Music Festival . This year we performed ‘The Man Who Broke The Bank At Monte Carlo’. I had to communicate with others when the teachers were discussing the costumes and talking about our performance and how we could make it better . We to give each other constructive criticism by keeping it positive and helping other people improve. It was difficult to learn the song in a couple of weeks but we still learned them by working hard learning the words at home. I knew we successful because we came first place and high marks of 87 points  and that was amazing . When they said it was us, I was so excited . I feel we picked the singing and actions up quite fast but was still a challenge to try and get everybody to know them and do them at the same time. When we had ben doing it for a week we realised that our sound wasn’t very good so we worked on it . We worked as a team and got our act together and it worked. We are learning to use these skills because in the future we might need more confidence and remember to sing loud and clear and learn our words . It was a challenge to get everybody in the same tune and singing loud and learning actions. We overcame it  by just working on it regularly and supporting each other . We achieved 1st place . Next time, we will develop our confidence and hopefully score higher!
By Beth, P7a
Greenock Blitz
Recently we made a Greenock Blitz scene and it was lots of fun to make. Everybody went into groups to make lots of different things for it. There was a plane group where we had to do observational drawings of planes and add in loads of detail! Another group was a fire group were we had to make fire and to do that we got tissue paper yellow for the bottom, orange for the middle and red for the top. We had to tear small pieces of tissue paper and make a collage.  We also had a building group were we had to get lots of black card and look at silhouettes to make building shapes and we put white paint for the highlights of the windows. We put them along the bottom of the scene. We also had the sky group. In the sky group we got white paper and painted them strips of blue with hints of black, grey and different shades of blue. The second last group was the search light group and in that group we got cut black card in a triangle and brushed yellow and white chalk round the outside and some in the middle and we smudged it out. The final group was the bomb group. Some made black round bombs and some made the proper bombs they used in World War Two! We placed them down under the planes so its like they are dropping bombs! And that was how we made our WW2 Greenock Blitz scene!
By Cerys P7
How to Knit using a Loom
HereToday Ellie taught us how to knit using a special loom. Ellie has been busy making lots of knitted hats for babies and we were all really interested in how she made them.  Ellie plans to hand them in to a baby unit in our local hospital – how thoughtful! What a wonderful Whinhill girl! Here is a ‘how to’ video so you can learn to knit too!
Here is what Ellie had to say: It was so fun creating my hat ‘how to’ video for you. I love to knit. As I said in the tutorial, I am making the little baby hats for the babies in the hospital. This great idea came to my mind and I thought, why not? You can get all different sizes of looms. It is so handy to have this equipment because if it’s a cold wintery day you never have to go out and buy a hat why not knit one? Thank you so much for watching and if you did watch I hope this tutorial helped you. Please leave a comment below! By Ellie
A Picture of Outdoor Learning
Today we went outside to do some art in the sun. We were creating pieces of art using natural materials from the environment around our school. In groups of four we had to look around and collect anything that we thought would look good in out picture. It was important not to destroy any flower beds or vegetable patches and find things on the ground. Some of the things we found were stones, weeds, leaves, broken flower heads or petals, sticks/bamboo, logs, grass, bark and mint leaves.
We had to work together as a group by having some people as collectors and some to organise the materials. We had to communicate with one another to tell the collectors what to find and to decide what our picture would look like. It was good exploring parts of the school that we don’t usually get to go to and it was fun! We had to watch our time because we had a time limit. It was a competition to see who could think creatively and use the materials usefully. It got quite competitive hunting for unique things. Kai even turned up with the top of a broken bird table. We liked learning out doors and enjoying the environment. It was difficult to choose the winner but as a class we decided to have two winning groups – my group who made ‘Joanna Jelly’ the Hawaiian lady and ‘Funhouse’. Well done!
Our art inspired by Henri Matisse
This week we did some funky art. We looked at art by Henri Matisse, he is famous for his paper Cut-Outs and the dancer. We learned about making a paper collage using big blocks of colours and cutting them into shapes. Next we had to cut out a person from black so it would stand out. To make his body we had to cut oval and rectangular shapes and position him so it looked like he was dancing. Mrs Hunter taught us how to cut a circle from a square by keeping cutting the corners until its a circle. I found that difficult at first, I need more practice! We then added colour to give him crazy clothes and facial features.
I was really happy when I finished my Henri Matisse dancer because I found it really hard to do. It was especially difficult doing the head, arms and legs because they were an oval shape as I am used to cutting straight lines. I asked Arianna for help, when I needed it. I will upload the pictures underneath.
