Reception

Observational Drawing

The children went into the woods and spent a very happy time looking closely at flowers. They concentrated hard to produce very accurate and beautifully delineated paintings and drawings. This shows what happens when you really look carefully.

New Term - New Art Topic!

In Art this term, we are exploring clay! We are learning about how to manipulate the clay. We are practising pinching, poking, smoothing, rolling, patting, wedging, imprinting, squeezing and etching the clay.

“It is soft! I made it into a ball and then I made a circle and then I got my buttercup and then did a pattern. I pressed the buttercup in gently so it didn’t get stuck to the table.”

“I rolled it into a ball, then I rolled it out with a rolling pin. I cut the shape out with the cutter to make a circle shape. I put a spiky ball on and then I put a flower in. I chose a dandelion because I like the colour yellow.”

“It feels good, it feels super good!”

“Can we squish it? Yes!”

“It’s hard rolling it!”

“It’s cold! It’s smooth. I like that it’s smooth.”

“It smells dirty.”

“I made a giant pancake!”

“I’m smoothing it by using my thumb and doing this. (Demonstrates stroking motion.)

In Art this term, we are exploring Block Printing!

We are looking at the artist Molly Mahon, who creates beautiful block prints using carved potatoes.

We have started our printing exploration by using a large variety of objects that we would find in everyday life and seeing what marks they make. We then chose our two favourite objects and used them to create a repeated pattern in the way Molly Mahon does in her artwork.

We are thoroughly enjoying the process of printing and are excited to use these new skills to create dynamic prints!

The children were enthusiastic about the process!

"You first dip something in paint, then you put it on a piece of paper, then you lift it up. That’s printing!”

"I had a comb and a circle. I made a repeating pattern. It’s that you do one, then one again, then one and one again.”

“Printing is putting something down really hard in paint and pulling it back up and then you put it back down on the paper. I liked it because we mix different colours. I done a sponge and a pinecone.”

“Adults use a machine that comes out in pictures for printing.”

“We made patterns with yellow, red, yellow, red paint. I used blocks. I was really sticking them down. I did triangles and spots.”

“So, in Art, I sticked and pulled a sponge in paint, blue paint. It feeled very weird because I don’t paint that much. It was fun!”

“We pressed things down in paint. I used yellow and red and I used a lid, a leaf, and other things. A repeating pattern goes like circle, square, triangle, circle, square, triangle again.”

“We made print patterns. I used the masher and some circles. I had some yellow and red paint. I like mushing things like paint.”

Chinese New Year in Early Years

We were lucky enough to have one of parents come into Reception to share with us how her family celebrate Chinese New Year in her home village in Hong Kong. She was very engaging and the children asked lots of really good questions. We learnt so much! She also brought in a pomelo to show the children and also one that she had already cut up, which we all tried and really enjoyed at snack time.