Art and Design

Creating and discussing abstract art at Key Stage 2 level

Great lesson ideas for Key Stage 2 pupils learning about abstract art. Teacher, Zoe Sharples, takes her KS2 pupils on an abstract art journey. She asks them to look at abstract art and then create a piece themselves.In displaying existing art works and discussing the artist's intentions, she encourages pupils to imagine a map, and that the paintings are describing a journey. The children are allowed to react to the abstract art in a very honest way. Zoe then shows the class her own pieces of art and answers questions about its symbolism. The children use oil pastels to create their own maps and discuss the meanings behind each artistic decision they make. Finally, they critique each others work in a classroom gallery.

Abstract Art - My Journey

Explore the importance of performing and visual arts in Cuba

This video explores how performing arts, visual arts and cultural learning are taught in three Cuban schools: a primary, a secondary and a school for young art instructors. The importance of teaching performing and visual arts is a legacy of the 1959 Cuban revolution. Today, the Cuban government continually looks for new and better ways to deliver arts education. Learn about the sophisticated support that televised classes on Cuba's educational channel provide. Young art instructors are trained from the age of 14 to teach music, dance, drama and the visual arts in primary and secondary schools across the country. Cubans believe that school should be the cultural centre of the community. It should be a place where young people can learn about their cultural heritage, and develop the skills to express themselves creatively.

Cuba - Performing Arts

Schools collaborate to produce an online advent calendar

Electric December gives primary and secondary schools the opportunity to work on challenging ICT and animation art projects alongside media professionals. This programme follows the experiences of a rural primary in Cornwall and an urban secondary school in Bristol as they use video, animation techniques and Flash to create a digital, online advent calendar. The initiative, created by Bristol's Watershed Media Group, was launched in 2004 with a live web conference between the two schools. During the programme, the teachers talk about the initiative's benefits and discuss the enjoyment of obtaining new skills from such collaborations.

Electric December

A school who linked up with their local art gallery

This programme shows how one primary school linked up with their local public art gallery in Wolverhampton to enhance their pupils' creativity with a stone-carving outreach project. This project sees Nisha Patel's Year 4 class from Merridale Primary School working with an art interpreter from Wolverhampton Art Gallery. It all starts with a visit to the gallery's Sensing Sculpture exhibition, where pupils can touch, feel and smell the exhibits, and gain inspiration for their own pieces of art. The class then take part in a stone carving workshop back at school where each pupil designs and creates their own stone carving, with guidance from a gallery expert.

Hands-on Art

A primary school employs a secondary art teacher to boost skills

A primary school shares its solution for teaching art, making use of the skills of a secondary art teacher to boost the artistic ability of both staff and pupils. For primary school teachers who are not skilled artists, teaching art can present a challenge. Staff and pupils at Kender Primary School have turned to an outstanding secondary art teacher to help build skills and confidence. Ben Naylor, who has recently been judged outstanding by Ofsted, is working with Year 5 and 6 students one day a week, to help them explore their art skills. At the same time, teachers and support staff benefit from watching his practice. He has also been asked to run INSET for the staff. In this lesson, Ben looks at developing the pupils' skills of observation and introduces the materials of watercolours - through painting fish.

How to Teach Art if You're Not 'Arty'

A look at three ICT resources for primary creative arts

In this episode, we highlight three great ICT resources for teaching primary creative arts. Kevin Mathieson, independent art consultant, recommends: <ul> <li>Artisan Cam - a free website</li> <li>Photoshop Elements 4 Software - image editor</li> <li>Volito 2 Pen Tablet - a mouse replacement</li> </ul> Mathieson joins presenter Hermione Cockburn in our London studio to discuss the resources with Year 6 teacher Anna Pettit and education consultant Adrienne Jones.

ICT Special: Primary Creative Arts 1 (Art)

A trainee teacher delivers a cross-curricular theme on farming

Rachel Jenkinson, a third-year trainee teacher with a chosen specialism in art, wants to deliver a cross-curricular theme on farming to a Year 2 class. Her tutor at Edge Hill University Cait Simpson, and Lucy Price, the class teacher at Garswood Primary, support her through the process of formulating a scheme of work and putting it into action. The results of Rachel's preparations are displayed as the class spends a day at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, where she has planned activities based around a detailed look at a painting of a farm in the nineteenth century. The class also visit a working farm to encounter live farm animals and learn about where food comes from.

ITE - Planning a Cross-Curricular Theme

A KS1 art lesson on Indian block printing

A KS1 art lesson explaining the techniques of Indian block printing. Teacher Rita Gupta shows pupils at Easton Primary School in Bristol examples of traditional carved wooden blocks. &Rita demonstrates how the prints that can be made. As well as what happens if too much or too little paint is used. The pupils then create their own blocks out of polystyrene, drawing out a design then removing pieces with a pen or pencil. Rita explains to viewers how to carry out each stage of the session so that viewers can run the same lesson with their pupils.

KS1 Art - Indian Block Printing

An artist shows a KS1 art class how to make peacock masks

Artist Zoe Carter-Beedie demonstrates how to make 3D peacock masks, in this video for KS1 art lessons. Zoe shows the class at Fonthill Primary School in Bristol, pictures of peacocks and discusses the colours and designs of the bird. Next, she shows them how to draw a peacock face on the templates that have been provided. Once the faces have been drawn, Zoe demonstrates how to paint and colour the details of the peacock. When the masks have dried, Zoe folds the mask and staples them to create a 3D shape.

KS1 Art - Peacock Masks

Emma Myers takes a class in making pop-up puppets

This video for KS1 art lessons features teacher Emma Myers showing her class how to make pop-up puppets. Emma hands out colourful striped cardboard tubes to her pupils at Elmlea Infants School in Bristol. To prevent them getting distracted Emma gets them to think of things that the tubes could be used for. The pupils each attach a piece of wadding to the top of a stick using an elastic band. This goes up through the tube. Using a second elastic band, they fix a large circle of fabric or foam over the wadding.This forms the head of the puppet. The outside edge of the fabric then attaches to the upper rim of the tube, forming the body of the puppet. The puppets are then decorated individually by the pupils, creating their own characters.

Professional Development for Quality Teaching

Subjects

> Primary Art and Design