It's a jungle in the office...

Tony, Ann and Carina have been busy in the office. The artwork commissioned by Olly has been installed. The office is now a wild place to work!

A New Commission for the Office

Last term Olly approached Year 5 classes to  make a piece of public art for the new office area.
The classes were working with Ann and Carina to develop skills in fine painting so they decided to use these new skills for the commissioned work. They looked at images of Colombian animals and plants, sketching and making collage images as their preparatory work before painting began.

 

Next the children used their ideas and images as they painted wooden outlines of their animals and plants. 

The work is nearly ready to be installed in the office. Watch out for those prowling jaguars and slithering snakes when you visit! 

Coral Class Installation at Peer Gallery

Coral Class worked with artist and filmmaker Savinder Bual on a short animation project. Savinder and some other artists were exhibiting their work through the windows of a local gallery. Coral class made a series of short animations which were then projected through the windows of the Peer Gallery in Hoxton too.

You can see all the animations on our Vimeo site.
http://vimeo.com/columbiaschool

The National Gallery

The beautiful banners from the Top Hall have disappeared! They are going to be part of an exhibition at The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. A curator from the National Gallery visited the school and thought the work was of a very high quality. It has been transferred to a gallery space at The National Gallery ready for an exhibition which will run from June till September. The exhibition will be free. Do try to pop in to see the artworks.

Bulbs

School House children went to Jesus Green to meet with some people from the council. The year 5 children in the group had been learning about their local area with their classes. They had been using ICT and Literacy to gather information about the litter in the area before making films to evaluate what they found out. 
In Jesus Green they learned about another way to improve the area. They were shown how to plant bulbs. The bulbs will develop into plants called daffodils.

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.

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.