Banners in the Mall at Robin Hood Primary School

Yesterday Mr. Reynolds and Mrs. Mistry helped me (Mrs.Chin) take down the spacemen/robots that had adorned the mall for a while now and in their place three banners have been put up.

The banners have been made with fabric prints created by the children of Key Stage 1 and the Children in Reception and Nursery (Foundation Stage). There are prints on both sides so whichever direction you are walking down the mall you can see them.

During their topic “The Rainforest” the KS1 children learnt about printmaking and produced these fabulous prints by block printing. See if you can spot some animals hiding in the trees and the rain falling on to the forest.

The Foundation Stage children used some experimental techniques to create these monoprints.  As part of the “Animals” topic we looked at the patterns on some jungle animals and recreated them by ripping up paper, laying down wool on to a block and many children overprinted one colour on to a background.

It was great fun making the banners, choosing which prints looked good next to eachother.  Hopefully each time you walk under them you will spot something you haven’t seen before.

To see the prints being made go to http://artandcreativityrobinhood.blogspot.co.uk and click on the label Printing.

The Pom-pom Owls join Sheep at Armley Mills

All three animals in our pom-pom family can be seen together at Armley Mills, Leeds this summer.

They are in the Spinning Room, a magnificent area which shows the animals off in perfect surroundings:- amongst  bobbins, shuttles and spools of wool.

It is just so right that they should all go back to where the pom-pom project started back in 2012.

I am delighted they can be seen by lots of visitors to the museum and hopefully they will raise a smile from all ages.

They are on display until October so if you get chance to visit the museum this summer, you will see them.

Printmaking Workshop - Key Stage1 pupils invite family and friends into school.

To celebrate all the lovely printmaking we had done over the last three weeks in class KS1 invited their friends and family into school to try their hand at printmaking themselves.

The hall soon was filled with people eager to have a go and our children were experts at teaching them what to do.

Printing with jelly was very popular…

As were other types of printing…

The children took home their portfolios of prints which they had been putting together over the past three weeks during the topic in The Rainforest.

They had experienced repeating patterns, monoprinting, jelly printing, block printing all of which can be seen on the Art and Creativity blog http://artandcreativityrobinhood.blogspot.co.uk

Fishes on display at Rothwell Library

Robin Hood Primary School have a display of brightly coloured fish on display at Rothwell Library.

The fish were made by the Year 5/6 pupils as part of their topic on Japan.  They are inspired by Japanese Koinobori flags which are seen across Japan from April to May to celebrate Children's Day on May 5th.

The fish is a carp, chosen by Japanese tradition because it is the most spirited of fish, swimming upstream through strong currents.

By flying the flags to celebrate Children's day they hope to bring good fortune to the children and prepare them for a healthy and good future.

The fish have been painted on to white cotton pillowcases and then the pupils have used fabric paint to create vivid patterns.

The art work is on display for the near future.

Finished Artclub Sketchbooks

Here at last are some pictures of what the finished sketchbooks looked like.  Some of the best pages I cannot show unfortunately, as they have photos of the children's faces on, but I am sure you will agree they have created some great original experimental artwork.

The children were asked to bring in some photos or comics or something they felt they wanted to say about themselves in a sketchbook. They then had enormous fun experimenting with different backgrounds on which to mount their photos and then work into them.


We had the added bonus of visiting Rodillian Academy and being taught some new experimental techniques by their Art teacher, Mrs. Roberts (see previous blog) which we have included in our sketchbooks.

Did you notice the owl at Rothwell Library changed colour?

You may have seen the owl made from pom-poms on display at Rothwell Library.  One day it was cream, white, grey and brown - the next day - red, white, green, grey and black.

How is this possible?  This is the second owl, made in school colours.

We swapped the owls, so that the natural coloured one is back in school and the red and green one is on display in Rothwell Library in the Childrens' section of the library.

I visit the library every couple of weeks and staff say both owls have been well and truly stroked, which is fabulous!

Nativity Backdrop for Christmas Productions

In the four weeks leading up to Christmas the Artclub painted a backdrop for four of the Christmas productions. 

It shows a stable in which there are many animals and a manger whilst in the centre your eye is drawn out to the hillside beyond.

It does not have any of the characters featured in the painting as it is to create a setting, and our pupils are the characters on stage.

Often the Nativity scene is pictured looking into the stable.  We liked the idea of looking out to the hillside, beyond.

We were fortunate to have help from Miss Jordan and Miss Campy who helped the children draw and paint their chosen animals or detailed part of the painting.

Once the background was finished we glued our detailed paintings on to it, making a fabulous backdrop, even adding some straw.

In the week before Christmas the two Nursery productions, Reception and Key Stage One productions played out in front of this scene.  It certainly added to the already magical atmosphere.