Year 5

Term 1

Year 5 researched the work of ancient Greek artists and discussed the features that they could see in the artwork. They then had to design and make their own vases and another artefact of their choice, selecting appropriate tools for the job. They then learnt about light and shadow, form and space and did a series of drawings using drawing pencils, pens and charcoal.

Finally they looked at some artwork by the artist Jannis Kounellis Hirshhorn from 1980. They discussed how they could use their clay models to create something based on his work. They agreed to paint all the objects white and then worked in small groups to arrange their art as a display. They took photos of their artwork on the Ipads and we had a mini exhibition within our bubble.

Term 2

This term year 5 have been learning about one point perspective. They followed a Youtube clip showing them how to create a one point perspective drawing of a street. This was quite tricky but they all persevered and created some brilliant drawings which they were proud of. They then painted them using water colour paint and then finally went over the lines using black pens.

After that they looked at the work of Peter Thorpe who creates lots of space themed paintings. They created a page in their sketch books all about him and his work and then using the techniques they learnt previously all had a go at designing their own rocket drawings. They evaluated their work, verbally with a partner and then fed back to the rest of the class.

Term 4

Since returning to school after lockdown we have been learning about the artist William Morris. We looked at some examples of his work and discovered that his work was usually based on the natural world and that he often used symmetry in his designs. We each created a page with facts about him and sketches showing examples of his work.

After that we learnt how to fold paper over and cut out shapes so that they were symmetrical. We all had to design and make some wallpaper, based on his work. We incorporated flowers, trees, plants and birds into our designs.

Term 5

This term we created our own animations based on the work of author and illustrator Eric Carle. We started off by watching an animation and then designed our own animations in our sketch books. Then we created our own coloured paper.

We experimented with the use of texture in paint by adding glue, shavings, sand and sawdust. We also tried out scratching and splashing the paint and created lots of different colours.

Next, we photocopied the paper so that we would have lots of sheets with different colours and then we created our backgrounds. We then had to create all of the moving parts. Finally we had to move each part a tiny amount and take lots of photos with our caterpillars and butterflies moving across the page. We then played them back to animate our work.

Term 6

This term Year 5 have been creating 3D sculptures. We researched sculptor Thomas Hill and then had to design our own fish based on his work. We drew our fish on A4 card and then had to manipulate the wire to make the shape around the edge of the fish. We learnt how to spiral the wire around another piece to make joins. After that we had to use smaller pieced of wire to create the lines across the body of the fish, ensuring that the ones in the middle were wider, at the widest point of the fish.

We were given different challenges to add more intricate patterns such as zig-zags, wavy lines, waves, circles or scales depending on how confident we were at working with the wire. Finally, we displayed our fish as a large shoal in the art studio and evaluated our work.