Welcome to the Art and D.T Page!

Here you can find out what we've been up to during out Art and Design and Design and Technology lessons.

At St Peter's we believe all children are artists and inventors and we try to instill this belief in all of our children.

We hope you enjoy looking at this page and can see the children's creativity and individuality through their fantastic work. 

At St Peter’s we are proud to source many of our Art and Dt resources from The Scrapstore. The Scrapstore is a part of Birmingham PlayCare Network who are a third sector organisation passionate about promoting both the importance of play and high quality play opportunities for children and young people.

They support the reuse of unwanted materials that have been donated by businesses and individuals across Birmingham. The Scrapstore collects and sorts waste/surplus materials which would often be diverted to landfill and redistributes it to out of school providers, schools, community groups and individuals. The Scrapstore offers out of school providers, schools, community groups and individuals the opportunity to access a wide range of high quality materials, save money and promote the reuse of waste materials.

We visit The Scrapstore each term to collect a variety of resources needed to support the teaching of our wonderful Art and Design and Design and Technology curriculum. We really value the relationship we have with all of team and hope to have a long lasting association with such a fantastic organisation.

At St Peter's our children are able to attend Create Club. It is an after-school club that provides children with a hands-on experience of process art. The activities aim to encourage children's creativity, imagination and critical thinking skills through a variety of open-ended art activities. Using various art activities, children are encouraged to develop their imagination and create artwork that reflects their own ideas and interests. Children are encouraged to make decisions, problem solve and experiment with different materials, equipment and techniques. We celebrate a child’s natural curiosity, individuality which in turn helps with their self- esteem. Our Create Clubbers enjoy working together with others who they may not know that well which builds a sense of community within the club.

The 3 year rolling programme looks at different aspects of art, but also builds on the curriculum with strong links to English, Science, Technology, Art and Design, Geography, History and Maths.

We believe Create Club benefits children by enhancing creativity and expression, developing fine motor skills, helps to develop their own learning journey, encourages social interaction and collaboration and provides a safe space where children can confidently explore new materials and ways of thinking about art.

Our Create Clubbers have lots of fun during sessions, are proud of their achievements and are happy to talk to their friends, teachers and family about all their awesome creations!

Summer Term

Nursery

In Nursery the children have been thinking about two big questions. Why is water wet? and How many colours in a rainbow?

The children have had lots of fun exploring colour in different ways. They have matched objects according to colour, recognised and named the primary colours, mixed primary colours with their friends and enjoyed using a variety of painting tools.

The Nursery children loved creating the background for their display in the classroom. They used primary colour food colouring in spray bottles to explore what colours they could make when they sprayed them on a white piece of paper.  I'm sure you will agree it looks super effective! 

Reception

In Reception our big question this term is 'Why do ladybirds have spots?' In literacy the children have been researching facts using non-fiction books. They have looked closely at lots of photographs of different insects and talked about their similarities and differences. Then we looked at a selection of junk and talked about their shapes and which ones would be best to make particular insects. After the children designed their insect and had a go at making it using our junk collection. The children used bogers and plasticine to make holes in the materials to help attach the different parts of the insect using split pins and treasury tags. 

We have also been exploring clay. The children used different techniques to mould the clay to create their desired creature. They then used tools to impress and apply decorations and texture to the clay insects they had made. We talked about appropriate colours for each insect and the children were able to choose from a range before choosing the ones they wanted. 

This term Reception class have been learning all about Eric Carle. Firstly, they learnt about who Eric Carle was and what it means to be an artist. The children were given opportunities to look at and read variety of his story books to discuss their likes and dislikes and how they think his illustrations were made.  

Then they watched lots of videos showing Eric Carle at work and talked about the processes he went through to make his famous illustrations. They talked in depth about collage and looked at various artist who have used this technique. The children were then given the opportunity to make their own paper which they could later use in their collage. The children had a look for things around the classroom which they thought would make interesting marks on their painted paper. 

After the children helped separate the colours and added them to their creative rainbow boxes. Next, they used 3d shapes and stencils to draw shapes on to their paper. They then cut these shapes out ready for the class to choose from when they came to create their collage. 

Once all the shapes were cut the children decided which minibeast they would like to create. They looked at non-fiction books to help them decide which shapes they would need to create their insect. The children then used the scissors to create the exact shapes they needed and glued each shape in place to make their collage. 

Year 1

Year 1 have been learning about James Rizzi. They started describing various street view images, including what they liked or disliked about the compositions. The children were encouraged to explain how the places and buildings shown in the images were similar to or different from each other and began to articulate their observations by using simple artistic vocabulary.

After, the children were given examples of Rizzi’s work and asked to study the images. They were then invited to offer their initial responses, describing aspects of the work, such as colour and composition. Then the children to choose an image to study more closely, recreating a part or whole of it, on a small-scale. 

The children were the taught how James Rizzi created form by using layers of foam to create a 3-D effect. Children practised his technique using tools and equipment. At the end of the session, the children were asked to explain the challenges of creating a 3-D effect through layering and the success of their final piece.

Year 2

Year 2's topic is Magnificent Monarchs and the children have been learning about famous monarchs through history. The children were given a selection of portraits and were invited to say what the pictures are and suggest reasons why they were made. The children were encouraged to look for similarities between the portraits, suggesting what the poses and accessories tell the viewer about each monarch. They were then challenged to consider ‘What can historical portraits tell us about English and British monarchs? Do all royal portraits show the power of the monarch?’ After the children were asked to bring in a item of personal significance. They posed with this object for a photograph and then had a go at drawing themselves. 

Year 3

Year 3 continue to build on their colour knowledge by studying the work of Georges Seurat and his pointillism work. The children start by selecting their 3 favourite pieces of Seurat’s work and answering some simple questions about them.

The children where then given a small view finder and choose a part of Seurat’s work they would like to emulate. They were given a range of mediums chalk, oil pastel, pencil crayons, paint and water colour to experiment with.

They went on to learn about the science of optics that Seurat used to create solid colours created by tiny dots.

Then, the children were given a pointillism colour wheel where the children explored making secondary and tertiary colours using only primary colours. They explored lightening and darkening colours by creating wide and small gaps between the dots.

Next, the children used different combinations of water colours to make new colours using pointillism. The children experimented with different sized paint brushes, these explorations were recorded in their sketchbooks.

The children were reminded that many artists do not use pointillism to create new colours they make tints, tones and shades using one colour. The children were able to make their own tint, tone and shade using one colour and mixing it with white, grey or black.

Year 4

In Year 4 the children learnt about British artist Robert Bradford. First, the children were exposed to lots of ‘found object art’. The children answered questions about the images including is this art? How long do you think the sculptures will last? And how will the sculptures be effected by time?

The children then used a view finder to look closely at a part of one of Bradford’s sculptures. They then sketched what they could see and thought about their likes and dislikes od his art.

After the children were taught about how saving the planet is not only for environmental activists anymore and that many artists have opted to reuse and recycle waste as part of their work. The children were then encouraged to think about the waste product they produce. They decided the main waste they produce is from food and toy packaging.

Then, the children were told that they would be making their own sculpture using waste packaging they produce. They planned their animal through sketches in their sketchbooks and planned colours and materials. Next, they were taught different joining techniques to help them make informed decisions about how they would make their own sculpture.

When making, the children were given the freedom to adapt their work when necessary and learnt to secure their work in preparation for the next lesson. Once the basic structure was completed the children thought about adding detail to their animal sculptures. This included eyes, eyelashes, tails, claws and fur.

Finally, the children discussed and reviewed their work and others by expressing their thoughts and feelings. They also talked about modifications they would make to develop their structure further.

Year 5

Year 5 started the summer term thinking about what they had learnt in autumn. They revisited what still life art was and recalled facts about the artist they studied. The children were then introduced to Vincent Van Gough’s work and produced a double page spread about him and his work, including the key art movements he was involved in.

The children were told that Van Gough began painting still life with the goal of experimenting with contrasting colours. They each chose one of Van Gough’s flower paintings and where taught how to talk about the painting commenting on colour, tone, line, shape, space and texture.

They then went on to focus on the textural effect Van Gough created and used a view finder to choose a part of a painting which showed texture and then they had a go at sketching it.

Next, the children were taught about how Van Gough used the impasto technique to create texture. The children then had a go at creating texture using acrylic paint whist painting fruit. After, the children used their experience of acrylic paint to explore colour by looking at contrasting colour, mixing shades and tones.

Using all that they have learnt over the past term the children had a go at mixing and matching colours to create atmosphere and life effects using Van Gough’s still life paintings as inspiration.

Year 6

The children revisited environmental issues, previously touched upon in Year 4, in Year 6. They were asked about the possible impacts of climate change on people, specifically the Inuit people of the Artic. They were shown example of Inuit art and asked What might they be trying to communicate? What themes can you see in their artwork? What forms?

Then the children went on to study the work on modern Inuit artist Kenojuak Ashevak. She was less concerned with accurate portrayals of animals but rather with their personalities and characteristics.

Using all previous knowledge of colour and form the children were able to emulate her work by creating their own animals.

Art and Design Staff Training

2023

On Tuesday 2nd January the staff at St Peter's had a teacher training day. We used this opportunity to develop our art and design skills. This year we focused on drawing. We spent the morning reviewing the teaching of art and design across the school and we had a 'sketchbook buffet' where all teachers could look at the progression of skills by looking at each year groups sketchbooks. 

In the afternoon we had a visit from Sue Guthrie who is a local artist who works with Birmingham Education Partnership. She also work in 4 local school teaching art across all year groups. Our aim of the training was to develop our drawing skills including using chalk and charcoal to draw 3D objects, observational drawing, drawing portraits and figures. 

We all enjoyed learning new skills and relished the chance to be immersed in art for a day.  There were so many tips and teaching points which we felt were really transferable to classroom teaching and we can't wait to try them out.

We also uncovered some hidden talents during the session!

2022

For our teacher training day in January 2022 all teaching staff took part in an Art and Design day. Andrew Fox who is the Birmingham Arts consultant at Birmingham Education Partnership came in and lead the training with Mrs Carby. They talked about the rationale behind our new art curriculum and the steps we need to take over the next year. In the afternoon we were joined by Sue Guthrie who is a local artist. All staff took part in a printing workshop where we learnt different printing techniques and skills to take back into the classroom. Take a look at the the fabulous prints we produced and mess we all made!