On A 4 paper. I over-exposed the pictures slightly to make the shadows stand out. You can do this on your camera first or on your computer after taking the pics. It's fine not to bother. 

I always tell them to draw around it as if they're cutting it out. 
For the shadows, they simply find the most prominent shadows, draw around then and shade them in. Black marker works best. Avoid too much around the eyes and mouth, because it gives a moustache and punched-in-the-face look! Remember the hair and shirt. 

We used sticky-tac to attach it to the windows. It doesn't take long, so they can take turns. They just trace the outline and the outlines of the shadows. 

Use marker or maybe waxed crayon

. The square gives it the pop art feel. You can talk to your children about their colour choices after looking at some pop art examples. The squares also mean that you can put them all together in a grid on the wall (see top photo). When they stick them onto the square, they'll have to do a bit of arranging and trimming. 

Voila! Easy-peasy pop art! Enjoy! 

​The background was created by blending chalky pastels. For bodies of the Maasai, we stippled red and yellow poster paint and used black poster paint for the heads, flicking it for the limbs. 

​I think these have a real sense of movement, but also show the emotion of the dances. I like working with mixed media love exploring abstract art! One of my favourite things about this project, was that children who are not very dexterous still managed to create a beautiful piece of art.  

I love teaching art! I was never good at art, which I believe actually makes me teach it better. Those who have natural artistic talent can struggle to connect with those who don't. Plus, if I can make something beautiful, so can anyone!

As part of our Extreme Weather topic, I thought we'd have a go at painting some atmospheric cloudy skies. 

I began the lesson in one of my favourite ways: I asked them to do the task with no help. So, I gave out watercolours and asked them to paint me a cloudy sky. When they asked for more information, I just said to paint any cloudy sky however they wanted. On the example below, this is the picture in the top left. 

After that, we experimented with some different techniques I had found online:

1) Blotting (not pictured)
Brush water over the paper, paint different shades of blues, purples or sunset colours onto it, then dab with paper towel.

2) Dripping and dribbling (pictured bottom left)
Wet the paper thoroughly, then use a very wet brush to pick up a lot of paint and drip it onto the paper, then tilt the paper around, allowing the paint to run and bleed. 

3) Negative space (pictured top right)
Using a clean paintbrush, paint water in patches around the paper. Then, using very wet paint, paint your sky colour into the dry space and right up to the wet areas. It will bleed into them, giving an effective smudgy edge to the cloud. 

The children evaluated each technique and experimented with them on scrap paper. They then chose their favourite technique to create a final piece with. For this, we still used only A5 size, but on card. The results really were spectacular! Take a look:

Our Religion topic continues! Yesterday, we looked at the Aboriginal creation story. I found a great video of it on Big Myth.
We discussed the story and how it compared to the others we have looked at. We then looked at Aboriginal art and its features. Using cotton buds, we created our own piece to represent the story:

I'm so pleased with the results! They are really effective and each is unique. 
The children worked in pairs. I wasn't sure that would work for an art project, but it really did. They discussed what motif to use and their colour scheme, then one of them lightly sketched just the main image while the other got the paints they needed. They then had to work together, discussing who was doing which part and having to take care not to get in each other's way. It was lovely to see them chatting together and helloing each other! They really politely gave each other tips for improving their technique. I also enjoyed seeing their patterns evolve - they didn't pre-sketch those, just went straight in with the cotton buds.