"Council Meeting"

A council meeting has been called 

tomorrow at 9:20 am in the Town Hall.

The issue to be discussed is:

Should graffiti and street art be made legal in certain areas of Tower Hamlets?

All local residents are invited to discuss this idea at the meeting. 

We hope to see you there. 

Year 6 classes used their thinking skills while taking part in a debate about graffiti. In the drama, they all took different roles in the debating chamber; there was a chairperson and a vice chair and the rest were local residents with differing views. I wonder what they decided.

Rivers

The banners in the top and middle hall have been put up and the river scenes from Year 5 classes look spectacular. Here's a preview of the finished banners.

 



The River as imagined by Year 5

Working with Ann and Carina, Year 5 have created stunning banners to hang in the Top Hall. The work has been part of a project called Take One Picture developed by the National Gallery.

The children were first inspired by Bathers at Asnieres by Georges Seurat. They sketched overlooking the Thames and developed their ideas back at school with Ann, Carina and their teachers. They drew figures and bridges in much more detail.

 

Then they tried all sorts of different ways of painting water. You can see different techniques and mark making representing the water on the finished banners.



It is interesting to think about how Year 3 and 5 looked at the same painting and have been inspired to create very different work in response to it.

iPad Images

Year 4 used iPads to create portraits for their classroom this year. Artists like David Hockney choose iPads as one of the ways they create images now. Can you guess who's who?

Art in the Library!

The library is open on Mondays and Wednesdays after school. If you haven't popped in recently, you should visit to see the finished wooden 3-D artwork inspired by Georges Seurat made by the Year 3 classes with Ann and Carina. You can borrow a book with your child while you are there!

 



Award Winning Film

More news of Coral class' amazing win in the National Youth Film Festival Awards. Follow the link below to see clips from other winners.





http://www.filmclub.org/whats-new/details/1743/the-national-youth-film-festival-awards-and-the-winners-are



The National Youth Film Festival Awards

Today a group of Coral Class filmmakers went to a huge and exciting awards ceremony in central London. Their film had been one of only 3 nominated in the short film category for 5-10 year olds.

The children met all sorts of important people from the film and TV industry.

 

We went into the cinema and realised that there were hundreds of other children who wanted their films to win the award. 

We were so excited as we waited for the ceremony to begin. The nominations were read out by an important guest and then we watched short clips from the films. 

"And the winner is...

...Columbia School!"

A big spotlight picked out all the children as they walked to the stage as they went up to receive the award.  Anis and Emile made a short speech on behalf of all Coral Class.

Everything was projected onto the huge screen.

The children had more photos taken with their award and Fidha and Poppy even gave a short video interview.

We all had a fabulous time and felt so excited about the whole experience.

Don't forget you can watch the award winning film on our vimeo site.

On The Red Carpet

Coral Class' film, 'Wow! Mayhem in the Music Hall' has been nominated for an award at the National Youth Film Festival! 

It is a huge honour to have been chosen by the judges from hundreds of other children's films.
A group of children will be dressing up and going to a glitzy award ceremony in Leicester Square with Olly and Philippa on Friday afternoon. 
Fidha, from Coral Class, will be tweeting back to the rest of her class during the afternoon so that everyone can hear how it's going. 
Don't forget you can watch this and many of our other films on our vimeo site.
http://vimeo.com/columbiaschool

Sharing a Shell

Children and teachers in the EYU have been reading "Sharing a Shell" by Julia Donaldson. They have been thinking about the kind of creatures that live in water. 

Reception children looked at  fish  and water creatures in class and then the "experts"  visited a fish shop to look at  fish in tanks. 

Now the Reception children have made some suggestions about the kind of fish that could live in our new school pond! Some children in the School House are going to research further  to find out if it is the right habitat for those fish.

Our Local Area

As part of our topic on the local area, Sapphire and Silver classes used our sketching, painting, printing and photography skills to create our own Columbia Road!

First we went on a walk to sketch the buildings and features of the local area.

Then we made our own buildings, using colour mixing and printing to make them look real.

We took photos of each other and thought about how we wanted to look. Can you tell what some of us are doing or how we are feeling?

Year 3 Mural

Year 3 continue the work on their huge 3-D mural inspired by 'Bathers at Asnieres'. They have painted the 3-D models and the next step was to add the details to the background.


These children are working collaboratively to stencil small details of waves to make the water more realistic.

Latin Jazz Day

Continuing the celebrations of Black History Month, our brass, percussion, recorder and guitar students worked alongside leading Latin instrumentalists to develop our understanding of Latin music and its African roots.

The day culminated in a performance for parents in the top hall and a video of this for those who could not attend will soon be on our vimeo site.

Bhangra dance and drum workshop

As part of Black History Month celebrations, children in Year 5 have been working alongside a drum teacher and Bhangra dance teacher to learn new drum and dance skills. Children had a chance to use dhol drums as well as the school's djembe drums. 

The children worked with the specialist teachers over a number of weeks, learning new skills and enjoying themselves immensely.Finally, they performed their music and dance to other classes in the school.

Bridges and Figures

Year 5 are continuing work with Ann and Carina to make artwork inspired by Georges Seurat's Bathers at Asnieres. They have been doing detailed sketches of bridges, trees, 'street furniture' and figures.
Next they turned their images into stencils and practised stencilling them onto large sugar paper.

 

 

Bathers at Asnieres

 

 

Year 3 and 5 are taking part in The National Gallery's 'Take One Picture' project this year. They went to sketch the Thames and then went to look at Georges Seurat's painting, Bathers at Asnieres. The painting inspired Year 5 to make their own images.

 

 

 

 

Year 3 are making a wooden mural of the Thames inspired by the same painting. They are in the process of making sculptural images that will come together like a giant jigsaw. The pupils are excited that their mural will be displayed in the library.

 

 

 

 







On the Hungerford Bridge...

Yesterday, Turquoise and Coral went out on an Art trip. They were sketching on The Hungerford Bridge and a familiar face walked by. It was Mary!

 

 

She was very pleased to see that Columbia pupils were out and about sketching so near the beginning of the year.
Remember, her message to us was..."Keep sketching!"

 

There were some problems with the blog entries last year and some of you have said they didn't seem to be updating. So I'll attempt to keep on top of the technical things this year! PJ

The Quilt

The secret is out! The wait is over! For months there has been so much sneaking around going on in the school. The entire school has been making a surprise for Mary. And we have all been learning while we were doing it! All the teachers learned about different printing techniques. They tried different techniques and went printing at the Geffrye Museum. Liz learned to make tinted printing inks using pigments. Liz also had to do lots of maths calculations. The children observed and sketched plants, flowers, fruits, vegetables and seeds. Then they worked with recycled materials to make their own print blocks from their sketches. Finally they printed their image onto a small square of cotton fabric.

When every child in the school had printed a square, all of them were stitched together in to a beautiful, double-sided quilt for Mary.She was so surprised and delighted when we presented the quilt in assembly.

 



Goodbye Mary, we will miss you. 

Open City Award Ceremony

3 children in Bronze Class worked as a team and came 2nd in an design project run by Open City. They went with Mary and their families to a grand award ceremony at a building in Canary Wharf. Well done!

Under the Sea

Amber and Jade classes and their teachers worked with a dancer. She was a ballet dancer. She took them on a magical journey under the sea. The children had to work really hard and move exactly with the music. They became really good at listening to the sounds and moving in time with them.

 



The Meerkat is in Japan!

Year 2 have been receiving postcards from Sunny, their meerkat friend. He is travelling the world and visiting many places. Year 2 have been following him on a map. While he was in  Japan, the class looked carefully at Japanese buildings. They sketched, painted and finally made their own 3-D Japanese inspired buildings.

Wow! Mayhem in the Music Hall

Coral Class children had the Premiere of their animated film at the world famous Wilton's Music Hall yesterday.
Parents and friends met the children and the filmmakers at the music hall. Coral Class were all dressed up for the occasion in their own top hats!
The film was amazing. It was full of excitement and suspense.



 If you couldn't join us, we will screen the film again at Family Learning day.





Living Things -Amethyst and Ruby

Amethyst and Ruby have made 3-D models of living things. They've been thinking about Avocado Baby and how he grew so strong. They are thinking about healthy living and soon they are going to be growing their own vgetables!

Inspired by Hockney

David Hockney is one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century and an important contributor to the 1960s’ Pop Art movement. He’s now creating paintings on his iPad.

Hockney has emailed 300 iPad drawings to an exhibition in Paris.
The iPad is has become a new tool for the artist, mainly in that it allows him to paint at any time of the day and employ the full spectrum of the colour wheel.

 

Inspired by David Hockney's ipad paintings, Year 4 used their iPads to think about setting in Literacy when they studied 'The Green Ship'.

 



Music Hall Stories

 

Coral Class are working with Skidaddle Animation to write and make their own animated film! They are using objects that could have come from an old Victorian music hall to inspire their own stories. Follow the progress of the project on their special blog. Links below and in the panel to the right.

http://musichallanimation.blogspot.co.uk/

Pandora's Box

As part of their Literacy topic about understanding myths and legends, Year 3 have  each made their own Pandora's Box.

They thought about what it would be like to open the box and in groups made tableaux of Pandora opening the box.

Recorder Big Band at The Barbican



Recorder Big Band have been invited to play at the Music Education Expo that is being held at The Barbican Centre on Wednesday 20th March.
It is a great honour to be invited to play. They are the only primary-aged ensemble playing.