Monday 4th. April, 2016.

More parcels from Vanya!

What could they contain?           The larger packet revealed an interesting selection of seaweed, sea salt and embroidery thread?????????????? The smaller packet contained some embroidery needles????? Everyone was intrigued.

Look……. Spring has really arrived in Belfast!!  Beautiful cherry blossoms, daffodils……….The place is suddenly alive with colour.

    

    

  

Leaves have opened on the horse chestnut trees and beautiful magnolia flowers are on show.

PLANNING: I received the schedule from Vanya, so I was able to tell the children what we would be doing on Tuesday. I had purchased some table salt and Epsom salts (for a later activity) and made the cones so that we would be ready to start promptly in the morning.

Tuesday 5th. April. Today Vanya had a wee bit of technical difficulty “getting into the room,” but that was no problem as Plan B took over!

We wrapped up well, left our classroom with Cloud Finders and boxes of chalk, and proceeded to one of our playgrounds to enjoy some “outside the classroom” learning.

 

   

    

      

 

Everyone looked at the clouds above them and tried to match them up with the ones illustrated on the Cloud Finders. The boys and girls then began to draw their own clouds. I encouraged them to draw patterns inside them, just like we had done last week. The results looked so good we decided to join all the clouds together to make an eeeeeeeenormous cloud. What a delight. The children had a ball! Some were very meticulous and were totally “in the zone,” while others were motivated to dance around the clouds in sheer delight! I was really surprised to see how much they enjoyed this experience. I think the huge expanse of the playground gave them an opportunity to be liberated, to draw on a very large scale, not being confined as they normally are to A4 orA3 paper.

The Acting Principal spied us from her office and commented later that she had noticed  the children being fully engaged and showing great enthusiasm in this activity.

As time went by, the clouds began to join in with a performance of their own, and drizzle ushered us back inside. When we got back to class Vanya had managed to defeat the technology and was waiting to join us. She asked us if we had received her parcels and I told her that everyone had been given an opportunity to look at the seaweed using a magnifying glass.

  

    

We had a discussion about the clouds which the children had drawn outside. Then Vanya asked everyone what they had done during their Easter holidays. There were lots of trips to the seaside, to caravan sites, to the cinema, to the park to roll eggs. Natalia and her Mummy had painted goose eggs and she gave one each to Mrs. May, Miss Callaghan and to the teacher (me). This is a lovely European tradition which her family practise every year.

Of course I had to share some experiences from my Easter visit to Iceland. I told everyone that there is a plethora of moss and cloud there!

I have included a few photographs:

          Clouds from the cabin window during my Easyjet flight.

There’s even a wall of moss at the Information Desk at Keflavik Airport.

        

“Clouds” at the roadside.                                        This copper sculpture reminded me of one

of the hats we made during Winter Hat Day.

                

At Haukadalur, a geyser named STOKKUR erupted in front of our eyes! It reaches 30metres/100 feet in height. The Icelandic word “geysir” means “eruption” or “surge.”

Back to “Virtually There“……………..Vanya showed us some photographs of unusual clouds that she had captured on her trip to Wexford. Pearse said that one of the clouds looked like an anvil (impressive). The children told her that they had seen clouds before which looked like: dinosaurs, crocodiles and dragons…scary!

After BREAK TIME  we looked at images of Beili Lui‘s beautiful glass balls.

They reminded me of Christmas baubles!

BEILI LIU is a Chinese/American artist. Vanya asked the children to guess how the crystals were formed on the glass. Answers included metal, glass, death stars (inspired by Star Wars) and one which I really loved…diamonds. She told them that the crystals were in fact made from salt!

Vanya showed us the jar in which she has been growing crystals. The process is very slow, so she said she would have another try using Epsom salts.

Then we were introduced to another artist:-

MOTOI YAMAMOTO – A Japanese artist who creates huge floor art pieces using salt. When his exhibitions are finished, the salt is swept up and returned to the sea.

  

We wanted to watch a video showing Motoi Yamamoto at work, but the downloading process took so long that we decided to watch this later and Vanya showed some photographs of his amazing work. Then she explained that the boys and girls were going to make patterns on black card using flowing salt. She showed us some patterns which she had made and we got to work!

      

Everyone was told to put their finger under the hole at the bottom of the cone to stop the salt escaping as it was being poured in. It didn’t take long for a discovery to be made……some of the holes were too small to let the salt pass through, so bigger holes had to be cut. The children were absorbed in this activity and produced great results. The photos below demonstrate the variation and intricacy of some of the patterns.

     

   

     

  

             

   

  

 What a super collection!

Because of time constraints we decided to look at the work of BRITT SALT at a later date. She is an Australian artist who makes dramatic sculptures and installations which seem to float.

LUNCH TIME was approaching rapidly, so this led to our tidy up and round up.

PLENARY:

The children approached the camera to give Vanya their opinion of how the activity had gone.

Dillon H said it was “incredible.” Others said it was: “different, interesting, difficult and messy.” The overall opinion was that it was great fun and they enjoyed using a totally new medium to produce their art work.

Some children used the cone to draw features in the salt….maybe this is an idea for another time??????????

I liked the fact that they could pour the salt back into the boxes and try a new pattern, plus  the salt can be stored and used it. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that the children had handled the salt pouring process so well. Of course it was messy, but definitely not as bad as I had anticipated. There’s another skill ticked!

AFTER LUNCH we made some more patterns.

On Wednesday I used the photographs of the children’s salt art to make a display in the corridor…..again receiving lots of positive comments from teachers who are now inspired to try this activity with their own pupils.    EACH ONE – TEACH ONE / PASS IT ON.

Looking forward to next week’s session! DOEI!