Arts Week in Year 4

Every afternoon this week, Year 4 have been getting their creative juices flowing. They have been creating pieces of art using a wide range of resources and tools. Our inspiration has been our topic ‘Ancient Civilisations’ and we have tried to use a range of light and dark colours. Here is a breakdown of what our week has involved…

Monday- Mrs. Aitken worked with the children to start designing and creating their very own canopic jars. They have learnt all about these and what they were used for. Next week, the children will be moulding their designs using clay and we will of course share these with you next week.

Tuesday- We then explored the digital artwork of Mr. Lân Nguyen. Interestingly, he uses his playful imagination to transform photos of the sky using silhouettes. He creates black silhouettes of various shapes to turn skies into recognizable objects. We used this as inspiration in order to create an Egyptian-themed silhouette. The children began by using oil pastels in order to create the background. They blended the colours using their fingers in order to make the Egyptian sunset look authentic. They then designed and created a silhouette of Egypt using black card. We discussed what we might seen in Egypt, such as: pyramids, camels, trees and birds. The children then cut this out carefully and stuck it on top to create the foreground. I must say they looked very effective!

Wednesday- On Wednesday, the children learnt all about mummification. We learnt all about how the embalmers prepared the body as this was important in Egyptian culture for them to be accepted into the afterlife. It was fascinating learning all about the masks they made out of gold to make the person look young, fresh and beautiful. The children were then given a whitewashed picture of themselves which they were then tasked with creating a mask for themselves. These looked really striking as the children used gold and silver pens to make the masks really stand out.

Thursday- We then looked at hieroglyphics and how Egyptians used this writing system. It was fascinating learning about how people used pictures and symbols instead of letters and words. These were written on the temple walls and public monuments of Ancient Egypt. They would carve them into stone and would also paint them on wood and other smooth surfaces. The children had a go at using paint in order to write their name on tea-stained paper. Some of the children even began writing their own secret message to a friend.

Friday- On our final afternoon of Arts Week, the children looked at art illusions. We loved looking at various examples in art galleries across the world and the children thought this was really cool! The children then had a go at creating their own optical illusion involving a pyramid. Feel free to have another go at this at home…simply follow the link: How to Draw a 3D Transparent Pyramid – Simple Trick Art – YouTube 

We have had some action-packed afternoons and the children have created some brilliant pieces of artwork that they can be very proud of.

Mr. Prior