Tuesday 22nd March 2016.
BEFORE THE SESSION BEGINS
In preparation for today’s session, Vanya sent me a outline plan and details of the materials which she is going to introduce. Our main focus is on CLOUDS and PATTERN.
I love looking at clouds and when I fly, I ALWAYS have my camera ready to snap up a beautiful formation. With this in mind, I searched through a bunch of memory cards and found this image which I had taken 2 years ago on a flight to Southampton.
Many of the boys and girls have never been on an aeroplane, so I think they will find this view unusual and I hope that it will provoke some interesting discussion.
READY, STEADY, LET’S START!
After a discussion with Vanya about signs of Spring and today’s weather ……. comparing the weather in Belfast and Sligo, our plan was to go outside.
Task 1: Go outside for a cloud search. Make chalk drawings on the playground surface.
OK. We were planning to go to the playground with our Cloud Finders, but good old Norn Ireland weather decided to cover the entire sky with cloud that was so dense we had to abandon this activity………… but then Plan 2 kicked in, and the result was FABULOUS.
Vanya recapped on our moss investigation and looked at some of the children’s drawings. The boys and girls showed her a few examples of their drawings using felt tipped pens. Some of them said that the pens were easier to use than paint and cocktail sticks.
She showed the class an unusual lichen, and explained that it takes many years to grow and it will only thrive where there is clean air. She looked it up in her Irish Wild Life book and told us that its Latin name is HYPOGYMIA PHYSODES! She asked the children to suggest a “common” name, and one idea was “cherry.” She said that was a coincidence, as the lichen grows on cherry trees. I said it should be named “fussy” as it has such special requirements and takes so long to mature. Vanya suggested that a bird had used the moss to make a nest. This led to a discussion about what type of birds we see in our playground. Seagulls, robins, crows, magpies, blackbirds………..and a squirrel were mentioned!
We looked at a photograph of frogspawn, and Vanya said that the shapes reminded her of clouds. Great discussion about CLOUDS was initiated because of a photograph of a scene in Moscow showing low-lying yellowish snow clouds. We listened to a very fancy poem about clouds and we thought that we might have a go at writing some poetry during one of our later sessions.
Next on our agenda was PATTERN. We have recently been working on mirror symmetry in Maths and we found out that a pattern repeats itself. Vanya drew a pattern on a photograph of some clouds and this is where the fabulousness begins………………
This is how Vanya outlined the clouds and then showed us how to draw a pattern inside them!
PLAN 2: Each child had to draw his/her own cloud and make a pattern inside it. Then the cloud was cut out, and all the little individual clouds were put together to make a large one. Such concentration and ideas ensued. Take a look…………………
Vanya told the children that she wanted to share something which she had bought in the Ulster Museum – The Amazing Crystal Garden. She showed them a jar containing rocks which were covered in vinegar and said that we will have a look at it every week to see if any crystals are forming. WOW! She also told them about Ukichiro Nahaya, a glaciologist from Japan. CONNECTED LEARNING at its best.
BREAK-TIME already??? How did that happen?
After break we embarked on Task 2:
First of all…………….
Vanya introduced us to a new trio of artists and we were impressed.
Berndnaur Smilde is like a magician – he creates clouds inside buildings! He is Dutch and he lives in Amsterdam. Vanya showed us a video of how the makes the clouds. They only last for 10 seconds….what a lot of work and then it disappears so quickly!
Jeff Wall is a Canadian photographer. We will look at his work entitled, “A Sudden Gust of Wind” in another session.
Tara Donovan – WOW – She is an American artist who creates installations from everyday materials, such as plastic cups, paper plates, pencils, straws. Vanya showed a selection of her 3D work and asked the children what materials they thought she used. The answers included: paint – collage – fluff.
We talked about how snowflakes are formed from crystals and that every snowflake is UNIQUE. Vanya showed us a collection of snowflake patterns. She then demonstrated (just like a presenter from Blue Peter) the process which she wanted the children to follow. She had an acetate on which she layered strips of paper in order to make a “snowflake” pattern. She reminded the boys and girls that each section should have a repeat pattern. She also gave them a very good tip on how to apply the glue correctly to the paper.
As well as using strips of white paper we also used pages from travel brochures and magazines. Some children approached the camera to show Vanya what they had done, and she told them she was very pleased with their work. She has a beautiful rapport with the boys and girls and is so supportive of everything they do!
Time just flew by and the session drew to a close. We will spend some time in the morning finishing off the “snowflakes” and then we’ll superimpose them together to create a large snow cloud. We are going to put them on the classroom window. With the sun shining through it will be like a light box. The idea behind this is to create CHAOS – a theme which we will pick up again in our next session.
We said our goodbyes to Vanya: Doei! …. followed by a hasty tidy up and then off to the dinner and lunch halls.
After lunch the children posed at the cloud display to wish Vanya a Happy Easter.
