paintings on canvas from drawings.

 

School: Mater Dei N.S.

Class: First Class

Teacher: Ms. Cosgrove

After spending seven weeks working with first class we invited the childrens parents and guardians into the school to take part in a workshop with their child. I talked to the children and their parents about the links that they make with people throughout their lives. The very first link a child will have, will be to its parents and family, as they grow they develop links with neighbours and friends and then links are formed with teachers and their school. We all continue to form links with others throughout our lives. All these links are so important to all of us and make us who we are.

Using willow and wire the children and their parents made circles and linked them together like a chain.

Then the children started to link their willow chains up with eachother.

Everyone left the classroom and carried the willow chain down to the school garden.

We hung our chain of willow between the trees.

From now on when we see this chain of willow hanging in the garden, we’ll think about our family and friends and all those people who care about us.

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School:3rd Class Warrenmount N.S.                            School :First Class,Mater Dei N.S. ,

Teacher: Ms. Noone                                                                 Teacher: Ms. Cosgrove

In early September I met up with both schools in the Botanical Gardens for the annual “Sculpture in Context” exhibition. The weather was glorious and the children had a very busy time walking through the gardens and enjoying all the art works on display.

Throughout the gardens the children continued to come  across the strange and the wonderful, their imaginations were certainly being geared up to tell some fantastical tales from these encounters.

Some of the art works we looked at led to lengthy discussions. This piece above was made by Andrea Cleary, If you look closely you can see that the felted wool is wrapped around tiny toy cars. We talked about pollution from cars and how it affects our environment. we talked about the important job that the trees play in out environment. Breathing in the carbon dioxide from the cars and breathing out oxygen. The children really enjoyed the idea of the cars being sucked up by the trees!!!

WIRE, CERAMIC, GLASS , STEEL, CONCRETE, LIMESTONE, BRONZE, WOOD, PLASTIC, MIRRORS,

BOG OAK, IRON, TERRACOTTA, STAINLESS STEEL, SANDSTONE, PORCELAIN, BAMBOO, PAPER MACHE,

BRASS, COPPER WIRE, FIBERGLASS RESIN, PAPER, BRANCHES, TWINE, FEATHERS, MARBLE,

PERSPEX, NYLON, BEECH, LEAD, COPPER FOIL, SCAFFOLDING BRACKETS, COPPER TUBING, PINE NEEDLES, RIBBON, GRASS, BONE, CONCRETE AND THREAD are just some of the materials used by the artists in this years exhibition.

School: Warrenmount N.S.

Class:3rd Class

Teacher: Ms Noone

The girls from Warrenmount N.S. really loved the teepee made by Brigitta Seck. This tee pee was made  from pine needles and ribbon and sewed together using a sewing machine.

Throughout the gardens we also noticed many other conical shapes. In the classroom we began to construct our own teepee.

Using hula hoops, lengths of willow and tape we created two large conical shapes.

Then the girls began to weave coloured wools and fabrics into one of the teepees.

We then used  leaves to cover the other conical shape. Some of the girls sorted the colours of the leaves into different shades and then we wove the leaves in between the willow and attached some with glue.

We left an opening at the side of each teepee so that we could go inside once they were finished.

The girls really loved making these teepee tents and they have been given a permanent spot in the corner of their classroom. Ms. Noone  put cushions inside and the girls  spend time sitting inside ( one at a time!!), reading and dreaming.

School: Mater Dei N.S.

Class : First Class

Teacher: Ms Cosgrove

After our trip to the botanical Gardens we began working with clay. The children looked back over all the photographs that had been taken for inspiration for their clay panels.

First they rolled out their clay before working on their designs.

The children used both red and grey clay to create their panel. They used lengths of willow at either end so that they could be hung up. Some children broke up their willow sticks and used them as part of their design.

Then the children painted them.

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Third and Fourth Class, Bluebell

Teacher Ms.Dalton

During the past few weeks the children in Ms.Dalton’s 3rd and 4th class have been working with rocks. They began by observing the various patterns and colours and identifying each rock.

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They studied fossils.

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They took plaster casts of plants they found in the school garden to understand how fossils were formed .

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They invented their own plant fossils by pressing objects into clay and taking casts of them.

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The parents/grandparents/guardians  were invited in to make a Jurassic  park type garden using the fossils, paint, sticks, stones and oil pastels.

They worked together to produce the gardens. Finally adding photo portraits of themselves in their wonderful creations.

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The children started their first weeks of Senior Infants in September 2011 exploring the world of stories.

They began listening to lots of stories read to them by Ms. Lavery.

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They made their own characters in puppets. They had aliens, princesses, pigs, horses and all kinds of creatures and people.

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They worked in pairs making stories with their puppets.

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Together they drew these stories.

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The class went with 6th class to an exhibition- ‘Sculpture in Context’ in the Botanical Gardens.

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The drew from the sculptures and told each other stories about some of them.

Back in school Senior Infants drew their own stories inspired by the artworks. Here are some with the theme “The Nest’.

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They made their own books.

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Bedtime Stories.

On the final session parents were invited in to create stories and books with the children. The theme was bedtime stories.

We looked at how the illustrator Lauren Childs uses collage in her books. The books were made using collage so the parents and children could collaborate on the same book.

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JUNE 2011

Class: Senior Infants                                     Class: First Class

School: Warrenmount N.S.                        School: Mater Dei N.S.

Teacher: Ms. Doherty                               Teacher: Ms. Mullen

Both schools visited I.M.M.A. in May. The Irish-American artist Philip Taaffee was showing his paintings.

We talked about how Philip Taaffe might have created his paintings, We also learned that  Taaffe travelled all over the world for his inspiration. One of the curators at imma explained how Taaffee had a huge interest in symbols, traditions and rituals. He used symbols in some of his paintings and repeated them, making patterns.

The children were very impressed by the scale of the paintings on show.

We looked closely at how Taaffee made his work and the children noticed that some of the images were cut out in a fine paper and stuck down on the canvas. We learned that some of the images on the paintings were transfers made by the artist and attached to the painting, a bit like the way you might transfer a water based tattoo to your arm. The children loved the idea of this.

Back at the classroom we talked about the paintings we had seen,We talked about the repeat patterns that the artist used. This led on to talking about carpets and rugs with repeat patterns. The childrens parents were due in the following week to take part in a workshop. We decided we would continue with patterns and repeat patterns and make designs for carpets. I asked the teacher to read  “Aladdin and his magic carpet”  to the children before the next class. The following week, along with their parents they were  going to make Aladdins Magic Carpet!

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JUNE 2011

School: Mater Dei N.S., Basin Lane          School:Warrenmount N.S., Blackpits

Class:Senior Infants                                        class:  First Class

Teacher: Ms O’ Doherty                               Teacher: Ms. Mullen

For our final week we invited the parents of the children to come into the school and take part in an art class with their child. There was great excitement in the class at the prospect of having parents in to take part. We started by talking a little about the patterns we had seen in Philip Taaffes work at imma.

We talked about aladdins magic carpet and what it might look like, how could we make our carpets magical?? what patterns would we use?? Using black sugar paper and oil pastels the children and parents set about creating their magical carpets.

After the children and parents had finished making their patterns with oil pastels. They used gold and silver paint to embelish their carpets. Instead of using  paint brushes, they used small matchsticks to apply the paint . This helped keep the patterns delicate and gave them greater control in applying the gold and silver in small quantities.

               JUST SOME OF THE CHILDRENS’ MAGICAL CARPETS

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