Donaghey P.S. | Teacher Journal

Understanding how light and how different types of materials react with light, was a big part of our discussions for the initial part of the project.  Ann and I both felt that the children should understand how light passes through different types of materials early on in the project in order for a deeper understanding to develop.  Lots of investigations were carried out on a variety of materials.

Eventually we discovered that some of our materials blocked out the light, some let a little light through and some let lots of light through.  We used the investigations to help sort the materials and use them to create light wheels.  The children tried to layer up the different materials to create patterns for their wheels.  The results were amazing!!

After experimenting with the torches and playing about with light and learning how to use darkness and backgrounds in order to make a perfect silhouette,  it was time to combine both in a different way – drawing with light.

I had never tried using the shutter speed of the camera before so much experimentation was needed in order to achieve the desired result.  The excitement in the classroom was fantastic when we reviewed our photographs. Everyone in the class was able to create a light drawing.

When we reviewed our work at the end of the session we came to various conclusions – some torches had brighter lights than others and some torches produced light in broken lines – which gave a completely different line structure to the photos, some of our torches also projected a more orange/golden tone to the light.

I remember thinking to myself that the project couldn’t possibly get much better in terms of the skills being taught and used and in terms of the end results – how wrong was I – this was just the beginning.

Such excitment this week – lots of activities were given to the children in order to give them opportunities to use cameras and torches.

The children had the freedom to experiment – especially with the natural light within the classroom – how to block it and how to use it correctly.

Lots of experimenting too with torches and cameras.  It was important that the children would have an understanding of how we could use light to create shadows and silhouettes.

As you can see from the photograph we had to really experiment with the light in the classroom and the torches to try and create the correct effect – we needed to create a shadow which we could then use to create our silhouettes.

New project

New children –  P4/5

New theme  –  LIGHT

Same old teacher and same artist

(Didn’t like to add the ‘old’ bit to Ann just in case she would be offended!!)

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