Art lesson inspiration, please.

[doglover]

Hi, sorry, I know it's half term but I'm panicking about next week at school. We're having a pre-Ofsted inspection and I've just been told that I've got a Y6 class for 2 hours (I'm a 'float' teacher, covering PPA). The children are working on a 'graduation' theme - moving on to secondary school, sex ed, personal safety, independence etc. Their class teacher would quite like me to offer an art activity but my creative juices are running dry! I did wonder about making up a story based on an ancient civilisation about a 'coming of age' stone to mark their moving on to the next stage of their life. Stones could be decorated using paint / collage etc and then placed outside as a Y6 feature.

Any thoughts? Any other suggestions? Many thanks.

Bump for evening crowd.

What do they already have in their sketchbooks?

I'm not their class teacher so am not hugely au fait with previous work but they've very little art this year. I know they've looked at work by Escher, Kandinsky and Mondarian and also some watercolour paintings. I'd like to extend their creativity in my lesson.

Get a rook of stuff, boxes sticks, glue paint anything you can think of and tell the kids to make something that will make you think of moving on.

I like your stones idea
could you make one massive one, like a totem, with everyone contributing? you could use representations of their faces, add text (lyrics?) in graffiti, make it really mixed media
in fact you could have a sound dimension too with the children recording coming of age thoughts

or decorate a tree if you have a suitable one in your outside space, talk about world trees, roots in the ground, branches in the air etc, growth
hang the recordings/portraits off the branches, paint the trunk, use reflective materials like mirrors

Oh, thanks so much. Fab ideas - I really needed a boost to get me going! I'm going to play around with all the suggestions tomorrow (hands-on!) and try to narrow things down. I'm very grateful for your help. Ninah and Zoekinson.

www.jeron.je/stARTing_points/

Great link, Mrz. I'll be using this frequently. Many thanks.

look up suminagashi on the internet. you mix some wall paper paste solution in water then use pipettes of ink and swirl with end of paint brush then you can make individual unique ink patterns. look up phillip taaffe, gemma lewis.

there is a how to on you tube somewhere aswell.

Thanks for the tip about wall paper paste I buy the thickening powder which is expensive

I plan to use fabric marbling inks and print on silk so great tip