Christian Aid Week ~ Big Brekkie

Last week was Christian Aid week and we held a "Big Brekkie" event in the school hall to raise money for this important charity which this year is celebrating 60 years of fundraising for refugee families. We had a brilliant turnout and because all the food was donated by Morrisons in Wetherby and the school PTA, every penny raised went to directly to the charity. I hope you enjoy looking at the photographs!

It was a real team effort and a lovely family event. We raised a grand total of £279.79 for Christian Aid. Thank you to everyone for your support.

Class 4 Tonal Art Work

 Over he past couple of weeks Class 4 have been looking at using tone to create realistic form in their artwork. We have been working with a limited colour palette, create two-tone images with chalk on black paper / pencil, charcoal and ink on white paper and we have focused particularly on trying to draw shapes in correct proportion and only drawing what is actually there - this sounds obvious but it is common for children to draw an ear for instance even if it is covered in hair just because they know there is one there!

 One of the pieces we created used a strip method - we tried this out first as a whole class collaborative piece and it worked brilliantly (I need to take a photo of that to share in an updated blog) so the pupils attempted a self-portrait using very moody high-contrast mono photographs. The children were given thier portrait cut up into 1cm strips (these were numbered on the back with an arrow for orientation) which they then had to copy onto blank strips - for the image to work careful measuring was required and the clever part is that the children often didn't know what part of the image they were drawing as it was so small so they had to focus instead on the shapes and the light and dark.

 The children then placed their drawn strips on the original 'base' image.

 Some pupils found the strip method very painstaking! I offered them an alternative approach - the grid method. We used fairly large squared for this so drawing needed to be precise and carefully observed but it still really helps with overall proportion. Some of the images had an incedible likeness as you can see from the image below (note, the blue sheet which was used as a viewfinder so that pupils could view a portion of the image at a time). 

 Some pupils opted for a 'limited palette' approach whereby they chose three colours to represent light, medium and dark tones - this made for more stylised work and an interesting effect.

 Here is an half-completed piece using the strip method. Really excellent work!

 Some pupils also did additional landscape pieces using the grid method. The were drawn quickly using charcoal but were really effective too.

Great work Class 4. I'll upload more images of final pieces hopefully next week.

R.E. Club ~ Spring Term 2017

This half term some children signed up for R.E. club after school on a Thursday.

We made a star of David using lolly sticks.

We decorated each stick and carefully glued them together.

      When they were finished we tied a piece of ribbon to the top to make

a hanging decoration.

We made some clay thumb pots to put a candle in and painted then in bright colours.

Sikhs and Hindus might use these lamps during the festival of Diwali.

Light is an important symbol of all religions.

We made Mother's day cards for Mothering Sunday...

and wrote thoughtful messages inside.

We hope all the mums liked them!

There was some time to sit quietly and read some stories from the Bible.

We decorated a flower pot using a mosaic design.

It helped us to think about new life and the special season of spring.

We planted a sunflower and we are going to see whose flower grows

the tallest over the summer months.

We made some crosses using beads and talked about the Easter story.

We decided to make the crosses into necklaces.

Everyone received an Easter gift bag with a chocolate egg and an activity book about Easter and Lent. We have all really enjoyed R.E. club this term. There will be another club running in the autumn so join us then if you can.

Happy Easter!

Maple Crayford Vist ~ Class 2

This afternoon we were treated to a visit from Maple Crayford  who is a greyhound dog.

Mrs Crayford and Jacob told us that Maple was born in 2004 and that she was a racing hound until 2007 when she was dumped and then rescued by the Crayford family from Tia Greyhound Rescue.

At home Maple eats healthy dog biscuits three times a day and drinks water. She also goes for walks three times a day and sleeps in a basket with an old blanket. Maple's fur is not waterproof like most dogs so if it is raining she needs to wear a coat to keep her dry.

Mrs Crayford told us that Maple cannot be let off the lead when they are out walking as she chases anything small and furry especially rabbits and she runs very fast too.

We all enjoyed meeting Maple as we have heard a lot about her during out pets topic.

Thank you to Mrs Crayford, Emily and Jacob for letting us all meet her.