Welcome to our summer term art blog. This term has been packed with creativity.
At the beginning of the term we had our annual Camp Out Day, which involved everything from face painting to a craft area and story-telling.
On World Music Day (21st June), Dr Clark led an Olympic themed dance festival on the field, including all the children and lots of the staff. Everyone absolutely smashed the moves and loved the music – from Florence and the Machine to the iconic Chariots of fire. The Bollywood dancers entertained everyone, looking amazing in their costumes and acing their dance moves. Eid celebrations at SSMJ this term showcased some amazingly skilled henna art.
The year 4 singing group attended the Festival of Voices – an annual celebration of song at the beautiful Dorchester Abbey. Always a special event.
In art, year 5 began the term by presenting their 3D wartime trench models to their peers. These ‘gallery walks’ help the children to talk about their processes and have confidence in their ideas. They then followed the Access Art pathway and designed shadow puppets and created their own shadow puppet stories – artfully presented to the class against a backlit screen. A final 3D session this week was linked to their water cycles topic.
Year 4 made fine drawings and messily energetic mixed media responses to an amazing nest which was bought in by a member of staff. This was a really challenging task, but as always, they stepped up with some great artwork. They also carried on the still life theme with observational drawings of exotic fruit (linked to their class book – The Boy at the Back of the Class).
Year 3 enjoyed a ceramics workshop – making hybrid creatures – led by one of Magdalen College School‘s art teachers Tom Hunter and inspired by potter Dylan Bowen. They have all been fired in the MCS kiln and are looking amazing. The children are very excited about them and we are very grateful to Tom and MCS for sharing their skills, bringing the clay and for firing all the pieces for us.
The link between the wonderful Story Museum and SSMJ continues, with a visit to the museum for year 1 this term.
Finally, the year 6’s bought us their production of Pantastic. Music has emanated from the big hall for a few weeks and the children have been diligently learning their lines. The backdrop got finished in the nick of time, despite the mixed weather making painting it outdoors quite challenging this year! The production marks the end of a very busy and creative term culminating in the year 6’s enthusiastically presenting their drama, dance and singing skills to the school and parents.
Ali Moreton
Sarah Blackwell
and the arts team
