Finished animal sculptures on display in school office

If you have visited our school office recently you may have felt many sets of eyes looking at you. What? You may ask. There are animal sculptures positioned around the reception area – elephants in front of the fish tank, two oran-gu-tan’s either side of the door, another elephant staring at you as you speak to Mrs. Holland and Mrs. Smith.  Oh and what is that you see out of the corner of your eye under the table? A dodo peeping out watching the daily routines of people coming and going.

These are the sculptures made by the Artclub, an after-school club.  Since Christmas the children have designed and made these each week.  They were inspired by the book The Journey Home by Frann Preston-Gannon which we read and then the pupils chose to either paint or make sculptures. You can see how they were made on the Art and Creativity blog.    http://artandcreativityrobinhood.blogspot.co.uk/

The artwork has been created to be displayed in Tropical World, Leeds.

Pom pom Sheep at Hollings Mill, Bradford

The pompom sheep made by Robin Hood Primary School has gone to stay permanently at Hollings Mill in Bradford.  It is placed in the Reception area where visitors to the mill will be able to see it.

 I am so pleased that Mark Hill has agreed to display the sheep as so much of the wool was donated by his mill for the project and also for the pompom owls which are on permanent display at Lotherton Hall in the Education Rooms in the Bird Garden.

When delivering the sheep Mark showed me the working side to the mill. That day they were preparing wool to be sent to Denmark.  I saw many of the processes the wool goes through, such as washing, drying, relaxing, winding into balls and packing.  It was fascinating to see!

I was lucky enough to see their sock machine in action.  The mill is home to “The Bradford Sock Company” and I could see how the socks are made.  It is not just wool, but silk and alpaca that are used too and Mark’s knowledge of the yarns is truly incredible.

I so enjoyed my visit and know the pompom sheep will have a great home there.   

New Artwork on display at Tropical World

Tropical World in Leeds is showcasing artwork made by our pupils in Key Stage 1 and Foundation Stage.  Three banners are on display which add colour and pattern to the area.  Two of the banners feature fabric prints sewn together to create a huge bright montage of rainforest animals and their habitats.  The prints were created by the children in KS1 during their Rainforest topic.  This was a printmaking topic and the children enjoyed learning how to use a roller and printing block, making monoprints and overprinting. They learnt how to repeat images and I’m sure the most memorable bit was rolling the ink onto a bed of jelly.  It smelled gorgeous!

The Nursery and Reception children created fabric prints inspired by Jungle animals. There were tiger stripes, giraffe markings, leopard spots and zebra stripes.  These prints were then sewn together to make a banner. You can see how we did this if you go to http://artandcreativityrobinhood.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Printmaking

These banners have hung in our school mall and we have walked under them admiring the images, patterns and colours.  Now we would like visitors to Tropical World to do the same…