“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” Michelangelo

I cannot believe we have arrived at the end of the second half term! What a wonderful term it has been, as we switched our attention to Design and technology and structures. We have had such fun experimenting and exploring a range of techniques with a plethora of tools to create and manipulate boxes and cartons to produce a castle out of junk. From joining various materials using different techniques and resources and constructing 3D shapes to form a part of the building. We have learned that a structure needs to be; strong, stiff and stable ( the three S’s) to be a viable structure. They have learned about the various parts of a castle and for what purpose they served. The children have been so enthusiastic to share their thoughts on processes, discuss why the three S’s are so important in the construction of buildings.

Next half term, we turn our attention to painting and mixed media, I cannot wait to work alongside the children to see what wonderful work they produce1 please can you ensure, your child has an art shirt in school, as we will get a bit mucky!

Have a wonderful, magical, holy Christmas.

God Bless

Mrs Mather

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” – Vincent Van Gogh

In year 4 the artists have learnt how to create a 3D drawing by adding tone, we explored proportion and tone when drawing. We did a “drawing with scissors” , by collaging random imagery into an abstract design, we then used that design on an abstract wax resist drawing, we coloured a pattern with wax crayons and painted over in black(paint + washing up liquid) after drying we scratched the paint creating contrast revealing the crayons from underneath. This was so much fun! We have then created amazing abstract prints on fabric.

"Everything you can imagine is real!" - Pablo Picasso

In year 4 during our food tech it was all about making a basic recipe into our own, but trying to be aware of the costs too.

We designed our own biscuits boxes.

Tried a very basic biscuit recipe and then bake it with our own favourite add ingredients, chefs had to work in groups and then be mindful of each others likes and come to an agreement on what ingredients to use so everyone was happy with the end result. I think the chef’s did really well at problem solving and everyone was happy with their end results. I even had some biscuits coming my way that were tried an baked at home. Cooking is a life skill, keep practising and changing ingredients!

"I would advise young artists to paint as they can, as long as they can, without being afraid of painting badly." - Claude Monet

This term in year 4 the artists learnt about sculpture and the many ways you can do sculpture.

We learnt about Magdalena Odundo and tried to recreate some of the 2D shapes used in her sculpture to create vases, we used different colour soft pastels in black paper for contrast.

Year 4 artists also learnt about Barbara Hepworth a British artist and Sculptor, we had a go at sculpting soap bars , this was proven to be tricky but so much fun and the classroom smelt amazing for days!

Looking at sculpture and the ways it can be made we had a go at modelling wire to create our own sculpture, this has given the children a variety of mediums to explore sculpturing with. Many sculptures can be made from found objects and reused materials too.

" Art does not reproduce what we see. It makes us see." - Paul Klee

In Year 4 this term we looked at Optical illusion art , we have researched some artists that use this technique and then had a go at making our own optical illusion piece. The Artists in year 4 were encouraged to draw their hands and then add straight lines across the whole page but we learnt that by changing the lines direction inside the hand drawing this would give the drawing an optical illusion as if the hand was inside the paper, children were amazed by this effect!

Year 4 also created some flags to cheer up our friends when we had a visit from Paralympic Stuart Robinson. We used print technique on to cotton fabric and added our own individual cheering message.

Together we found out all about sustainable art and how important it is for our planet and environment, we decided to upcycle everyday packages that would eventually go in the bin to each create a piece for a Christmas village, it was amazing to see the children’s ideas on their sketchbooks and there were so many great ideas! Because we were all in the Christmas mood we started our Christmas cards, children were encouraged to create their own using any techniques/mediums that they would prefer.