P6 made Duruma dolls that are traditional talismans from Japan. They made them by moulding clay into the shape of a doll and when they clay dried they painted them loads of different colours. When you paint the doll you don’t paint the eyes because when you have a wish you colour in one eye and when it comes true you colour in the other eye. The main colors of a Duruma doll are white and red because the Japanese flag is white and red.
This Is a Duruma doll
Category Archives: Expressive Arts
Printmaking Piccies
P5s’ Magical Mystery Journey in Art
Magical Mysteries in Art in P5C and P5A
Master Printmaker Nick Devison ran a workshop for the P5s on Burns Day and what a magical event it was. We had worked on Pressprinting and how to make a clean, clear print and Nick showed us how to develop our skills and play with the materials showing developing skill using line, shape and texture (EXA 2.03a). P5C extended this with the addition of watercolour to their favourite artwork on the 26th.
We used a specialist safe etching ink and experimented with cut-out shapes, making lines and creating textures with our hands, pens, cotton buds and cocktail sticks.
As you can see from the pictures we had abstract artworks which were quite mysterious as well more figurative works. P5C gave constructive comment on their own and others’work (EXA 2.07a)
Megan and Tiegan loved that they were not directed in their themes and could make as many works until the paper ran out! Megan even made a collaborative work with Annabel. Most of all the magic of turning over the monoprints to see what had been printed was the most magical thing of the morning.
It was great P5a got to find out more about the career of an artist and it was a lot of fun. Clearing up was not quite so much fun for the class teachers but nobody said learning had to be clean:-)
A HUGE thank you to Nick. It was a finale to our lessons on printmaking.
P7s’ Eye and Mind-Opening Visit to the Gallery of Modern Art One and Two in Edinburgh on the 28th November
Miracles at Mid Calder
A Leither who Left us all Thinking!
P7s went to the National Galleries of Scotland MOD2 on the 28th of November for a tour of Sir Eduardo Paolozzi’s studio and to explore a few of his sculptures in the gardens and cafe there. They went to explore further the work of this famous Scottish artist, born in Leith, who had great success not only in 3-D work but also in printmaking, collage and textiles.
In class we had discussed the Pop Art movement and worked on Pop Art posters with bright coloured backgrounds and collaged onto these with drawings of what they thought were the most popular cultural items of their times. Now it was time to find out from Duncan and Mo at the National Gallery more about his sculptures of man and machine such as the monumental Vulcan and The Master of the Universe.
So what did we think:
I was amazed by the fantastic responses of the children about the meaning of the artworks and what creative ideas they had. When we looked at the recreation of Paolozzi’s studio we discovered that maquettes were small models for sculptors to work from and we saw the explosion of interesting things he had around him.
Olivia enjoyed seeing the studio that Eduardo Paolozzi had and seeing all the finished and unfinished works that he made. She wants to learn more about him and how he fell in love with Art. Kiera thought it was interesting to see the artwork in his studio and there was lot to see.
Then we got the chance to “play with shapes” and were free to make our own 3-D artworks from card and tape and the pupils rose to this imaginative challenge and got the opportunity to evaluate their peers’ work. The parent helpers, Mrs Ramsay and Mrs Smith were invaluable in encouraging and supporting the frenzy of work.
Bethan enjoyed making the sculptures with her friend but wanted more time to finish them. Calum enjoyed making models and having fun with his friends.
Afterwards some of the children chose to look around some of the NOW exhibit at MOD1 and others chose to play in the sculpture garden. With a smaller group wandering through the sounds and sights of the Turner prize-winning Susan Philipsz’s work it was quite an eerie, melancholic experience with 7 turntables each playing single notes for 17 minutes and in the next room salt paintings of different kinds of tears that linked with the sad music. Really moving. Especially to see some of the least engaged pupils at the start of the day truly immersed in the experience. We had an opportunity to look into the mind and work of a great new artist and in doing so this allowed us to open our minds.
Cade liked the turntables because the men in the rooms told us about them and we got to listen to the sounds but he got bored quite quickly.
Well done to everyone! Great creative thinkers.
P2 Mid Calder Museum
At the end of our IDL topic about Dinosaurs, Primary 2 invited P1 and P7 to their Museum.
First, we made posters to inform the classes that the museum was about to open, and we put them up all around the school.
Then, we discussed the things we particularly enjoyed about our own visit to the National Museum of Scotland, and we talked about the kind of things we thought would have made our visit even better. For instance, we really enjoyed handling the dinosaur bones and looking at the huge skeleton models, but we thought that a short film about dinosaurs would have been really interesting too.
Thinking about these points, each Dino Discovery Team planned their own display. They had lots of amazing ideas! Soon, we had displays that included
- digging for fossils in the sand
- sorting dinosaur models into herbivores and carnivores
- working as a team to build an enormous jigsaw and name the dinosaurs
- using netbooks to create dinosaur pictures
- a quiz
- a short film clip about a stegosaurus
Primary 2 wanted their visitors to have lots of opportunities to pick things up and handle them, to play and to be creative as they learned about dinosaurs. They also created Fact Files about different dinosaurs, and carefully chose non-fiction books to display as well.
P4’s Amazing Dinosaur Assembly!
Primary 4 enjoyed presenting their Dinosaur Assembly today and had lots of fun sharing their learning from last term!
The boys and girls enjoyed:
- Learning scripts and adding their own special touch to them!
- Taking on different roles like dinosaurs and explorers.
- Sharing facts with the audience.
- Showing the audience how to sort dinosaurs into carnivores, herbivores and omnivores using a Venn diagram.
- Talking about the different stages of the fossilization process.
- Sharing their stories about ‘A dinosaur in my classroom!’.
- Managing ICT equipment by becoming Technical Troopers.
Well done Primary 4 for bringing dinosaurs back to life!
Nathans Granny visit!
Yesterday Nathans Granny Came In To Help Us Make Some Christmas Cards!
Here are some photos.
Nathan’s Grannie Lends a Brown Owl Hand!
Twit-twhoooooooo Christmas card pow-wow!
Nathan’s Gran, a former Brown Owl, dusted off her feathers and came into P4 to help the class prepare hand-crafted Christmas cards to fund raise on Parents Afternoon and Evening. The children had already made small paintings in the style of Alice Druitt at Gingerpaws card designs as an Art lesson and these were carefully double and triple-mounted to make roll cards with special inserts and made-by stickers.
The children all got to die-cut precise circles from their artworks to mount onto their cards. They hope that you will pay £2.00 for a unique card that will fit a standard 6 by 6 envelope. Have a look when you visit for your appointment on Wednesday and see what creative crafters we have at Mid Calder. More classes to create special one-off cards for sale soon.
Other children will be able to make Christmas cards from P3-7 in the Wednesday Get Crafty After School Club 3.15-4 p.m. Sign up soon as there is only 12 places.
Any crafty parent helpers will be most welcome.
Many thanks in advance,
Miss Brolls
Crafty Christmas Fundraising
We are getting ready for Christmas making cards using line drawing, painting and then cut-out collage in the style of Alice Druitt at Gingerpaws designs. Nathan’s gran is coming in to help with the careful mounting and card design at our Craft Club on the first Tuesday back after the hols and thereafter on a Wednesday. We have some very crafty staff helping too. If you are a keen crafter and want to help please let Miss Brolls know. We need small colourful or mother of pearl buttons for one of the cards so donations will be gratefully received. Get out yer button boxes and give for the fundraiser!
