If I had Wings……Loreto Senior , Crumlin.
If I Had Wings
Sixth Class
Teacher Ms. Dunphy
The Beginnings
We began by changing paper and card into 3d forms and shapes. The children tried out cutting – multiple shapes and symmetrical shapes, tearing, scoring, slotting, curling, making cones, cylinders and cubes, etc.
During this time I found out that they were studying Greek Mythology. I decided to choose one story, Icarus, to inspire the children. They could use their new construction skills with paper and card.
From this story I made a slideshow of images of Icarus. I also added a photograph of KelseyMontague’s wing painting on a wall in Galway. She became famous on Instagram for her wing paintings on buildings all over America.
The last slide said – What if………?
The children finished off their plan from this. Their idea was to make a pair of wings using paper and card that would hang on the wall.
Every year the sixth class run a week of activities in the school to collect money for charity and the plan is that the wings, hanging in the main school hall would be there for people during the day of the cake sale. People will be charged to take their photos with the wings. All proceeds will go to charity.
They made drawings and constructions on what shape the wings could be.
I showed the children, the feathers printed by third class to these children. Two children visited third class and told them their idea and asked if they would be interested in joining them.
Third class liked the idea. See below third class’s work.
By the time we got to making wings I decided that each class would need to make their own pair of wings as they had made so many feathers.
I drew out a wing plan and cut each wing into 5 sections to enable the children to work on each section in small groups. They hung them in the main hall and I took two photos of each child. I will print these out give them back to them after our Christmas holidays. This will inspire the next phase of their work – If I Had Wings…….
Third Class
Teacher Ms. Quinn
The Beginnings
During my first meeting with Ms. Quin and her class we began mixing different hues and tones of colour while we worked out what they would like to do over the coming weeks.
Ms. Quin suggested we do some printing. The children were studying the Aztecs, so off I went to explore Aztec culture. I discovered a fantastic manuscript called the Codex Mendoza.
The Codex Mendoza, circa 1542, was created 14 years after the Spanish conquest
It contains a history of the Aztec rulers and their conquests, and a description of daily Aztec life, in traditional Aztec pictograms with Spanish explanations and commentary. There are a lot of images of costumes using feathers.
‘Different civilizations place higher value on various materials and therefore we cannot make assumptions about past cultures based on today’s value system. While some civilizations from the past deem precious metals like gold, silver, and copper to be objects of higher worth, others find value in a different variety of items. Archaeologists have determined for example that the Aztecs held feathers as one of nature’s most valuable gifts, as birds appeared to be very important in their culture. The Aztecs would use brightly colored feathers in headdresses worn by their leaders. Great time and care went into the making of any object involving feathers, as feather-workers spent weeks creating intricate designs to be used in battle shields and adornments, important buildings, cloaks and costumes of the nobles, and religious ceremonies.'(From the internet.)
From this information I put together a slideshow for the class for the following week. I also brought in lots of feathers to observe.
The children began with drawings of feathers. Some children put in Aztec patterns into their feather drawings.
From their drawings they drew the patterns on to foam, incising the lines in pen, and cut out the shapes. These were glued on to card to make stamps for printing.
The following week we arranged the classroom with tables on one side for rolling inks on to their stamps and the other side tables to print on to paper.
They used black and white inks for their first prints. These were printed on to the paintings from the first session.
The next week the children mixed coloured inks and printed on to white and coloured, gold and silver paper and card.
They would have been very wealthy if they were Aztecs. They had loads of feathers. These were all cut out and paper feathers backed with card.
Meanwhile I had been working in the same school with sixth class on the theme Greek mythology. We had chosen the story of Icarus. See above. Sixth class visited the class and told them of their idea to make wings and asked would they be interested in the idea for their class as they were now ‘feather rich’.
Each child made strips of their feathers. Putting them all together became my job as this wasn’t practical for a large group. Meanwhile the children made books titled ‘If I Had Wings’.
After Christmas the children will each get a cutout photo of themselves with wings. Using these as a resource we will explore a birds eye view of the world.
January 2018, Back to our Ideas
Sixth Class
Third Class
We spent our final sessions in the Irish Museum of Modern Art at the exhibition of work from the collection ‘Coast-Lines’. We found lots of connections to ideas we have been exploring.
