St Colmans bann P.S . class journal

 

As our project is coming to an end we have been discussing the 14 weeks and how it is similar or different to other things we do in school.

We decided it’s a little like being in an art TV show because we can see Rhona and ourselves on the screen. We wondered what it would be like with other people watching us.

We suggested making an episode of our art show to show the other children in our school because sometimes some of them don’t understand or even believe that we have an artist up on our screen talking to us when she is so far away!

We are going to show our episode in assembly when we are finished making it. You never know, we could become famous!

 

Friday the 10th of March was the day we had our school trip to the Millennium Court Art Centre. We were all so excited that morning. Miss Mc Grath, Mrs Poland and Miss Mc Clean came with us .At 10 o’clock we got on the bus and travelled about 20 minutes to get there. When we got off the bus we couldn’t even see the place but it was right around the corner!

Rhona was coming down the big glass stairway when we walked in. She took us up to a room to put our lunch bags away and told us a little about what we would be doing that day. We began by looking around the exhibition. The first was a little confusing but Lily guessed it was a city that had some sort of disaster and the lady said she was spot on!
Next we visited a wooden one that was strange, it didn’t look like much but when you opened it out it was a shelter, table, chairs and even had parts you could climb or play on. We wished we could take it back to our school. The third exhibition was Rhona’s. It was by far the best. There were these things called ‘Huddle Wear’, they were basically silly clothes, like hats that are attached and cloaks which make you get involved with other people and encourage you to communicate because to move you sort of need to work as a team.

Then we had our lunch and we were allowed to bring more than one treat in our lunch as long as we were sensible.

Next, we cut out large circles for each of us to stand in. They were called ‘Our Space’. Rhona took us back into the gallery to do some fun exercises on these, some individual, some working with a partner and miming each other. Rhona gave us the circles to take home and decorate.

We learnt that galleries are definitely not just paintings hanging on walls, they are sometimes art you can actually step into and become a part of that is called ‘installation’ art.

We had a great day and hope Rhona has another exhibition near us very soon!

Today we were imagining and designing an upstairs to our classroom. We had so many ideas that Miss Byrne had to go round all the tables and take pictures because she couldn’t hear all of our ideas.

We decided that the second floor should have a clear glass bottom so Miss Byrne could supervise from down below. That would also mean that some of us  could look at the whiteboard and there would be more room on the carpet for the children down below.

Some children wanted a comfy, chill out space for reading and relaxing because it is nice to be comfortable during that time. Others felt a computer space would be great so we could have more ICT in the classroom instead of in the shared resource centre. Miss Byrne and Rhona loved our ideas and really wished we could create a second level but we would need endless money to be able to do it!

Today we decided that we needed to make some changes to our design because we thought it might be impossible if we didn’t! We decided it needed to be more spaced out which would mean we didn’t need as many bottle lids and also we decreased the length of each string by 20cm.

Liam, Lily and Fionn were in charge of measuring the string. Miss Byrne divided the bottle lids and we colour coded them and threaded them. Then we hung it onto our sculpture, we will continue doing this until it is finished but first, we need to collect more lids!

On Tuesday the 10^th of January Rhona surprised our class by coming to visit! It was brilliant.

We poured all the rubbish we have been collecting on to the carpet and sorted it into outside materials which are waterproof and inside materials like cardboard which can’t get wet or they will be destroyed.

Rhona gave us thick black wire which we put together and moulded into a large ring shape. Rhona and Miss Byrne began drilling holes in the bottle lids and we started to thread them. It was a very noisy classroom.

We can’t wait to see what it is like when it’s finished. We have to ask all our friends and families to help us collect bottle lids to complete our sculpture.

Arryn thought we could make it into a reading area for the Primary ones and Fionn said we should make seats for inside using tyres!

Today we had a new arrival to our classroom, a new class pet!

Using all the materials we had collected in school and at home over the past week we made our pet. Miss Byrne asked us to look at all the materials we had before designing our new pet.

Then we split into groups, there were three groups. One group worked on the head, another on the main body and the last worked on the legs and feet.

When we put the three sections together it was brilliant because the head was like a pug dog, the middle had a six pack and then feet had roller skates to help the pet move around faster!

We are still deciding on our final name for our pet, but here are some things we came up with and agreed on as a whole class;

Ø  He helps people recycle

Ø  He checks bins every day to make sure we are using the correctly

Ø  He us faster on roller skates, like Rhona!

Ø  He helps Miss Byrne set up work

Ø  He helps Peter and Michelle to put out the bins

Ø  He is always listening to us

Ø  He can change his body parts like Mr Potato head from Toy story

Ø  He wags his Lucozade tail when he is happy, especially when people recycle

Ø  Trubbish eats your rubbish

Ø  Sam cycle helps you to recycle

We learned a new term today called ‘animism’, this is when we believe an object that is not alive has thoughts and feelings, exactly like our new pet!

On Tuesday Rhona showed us our pictures from last week. Three people were off sick  so they had to get their picture taken so they weren’t let out.

Rhona showed us around her studio, it is cool to see what a real life artist does everyday.

Rhona showed us pictures of useful inventions, some were really funny like the toliet roll hat, which would be really useful in our classroom at the minute for runny noses! We also liked the Butter stick as it would make buttering your toast so much easier in the mornings.

Rhona showed us useless objects too but we were able to think of ways that they could be made useful, Liam said we could use the welly-boots to plant flowers in.Fergus said we could use the spoon to crush things between and pick things up.

It was so much fun picking our objects and making them useless. Some of us changed the material like making a saucepan wooden and some people took things away or added them on like batteries or extra parts that wouldn’t work well! We were thinking outside the box and it is good because there is no right or wrong answer.

We have to collect packaging from our school lunches and from home for our next session with Rhona, it is part of our homework this week. We can’t wait to make some art from the junk.

We really loved our session with Rhona.

The portals helped us to know where to stand because sometimes Rhona isn’t able to see us when we are talking to her.

The best thing about the session was using the brain box which is very ugly!

We learned that lots of people and jobs are creative and not just the ones you would normally think of. Hairdressers, teachers and engineers are all creative too!

We are looking forward to our next few sessions especially making things and getting messy.

This project is going to be really fun!

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