Watercolour Painting

Here are some of the watercolour techniques I needed to think about in order to produce this amazing painting:

· Choose a broad brush and use it to wash the paper with water
· Switch to a finer brush; wet it and then dab it dry on a paper towel
· Select a colour, starting with the palest
· Look closely at the colours and shapes you see
· Add a bit of detail to show flowers or leaves
· Try not to leave any of the paper blank
· Dab the last of the water off with the paper towel
· Leave it in the sun to dry

Why not come to the classroom and take a closer look at my painting? I would love to know what you think of it.

Sketching at Chateau de Penthes

Yesterday we took our clipboards, some stiff white cartridge paper and a 3B drawing pencil to Chateau de Penthes. We were going to do some sketching.

I decided to draw the view of the trees. Take a look at my sketch.



How do you think it compares with the real thing?

Where in the world? continues.....

"My cousins live on a farm in Queensland, Australia. They saw a huge python wrap itself round a kangaroo to strangle it and then the python swallowed it."

Cave Painting (or drawing on the white chalk with a blackboard)

During our Unit of Inquiry on Materials, we started reading the book, 'Stig of the Dump' by Clive King. Stig is a caveman who lives at the bottom of an old quarry close to Barney's grandmother's house. Barney finds Stig one day when he falls through the roof of Stig's den. They become friends, even though they cannot talk to each other.

Since the quarry is no longer in use, people throw all their rubbish away down there; Stig is good at finding new ways in which to use old things.

On the same day that they cut down an enormous tree (getting warm once in the process) and then use it to start a fire (getting warm for the second time) Stig picks up a piece of charred wood and uses it to draw an amazing hunting scene on the chalk wall of the den.

Then we had a go at using charcoal and chalks to make our own hunting scene. We dusted the paper with charcoal powder and smudged it to give it a greyish background. Then we used charcoal and chalk to make our scene.



" I like your cave drawing, especially the deer with the arrow sticking in its neck," said Christopher.

Tuesday Newsday - Where in the World?

With our current unit in mind, this week we tried to tell 'Where in the World' our news happened.

"In America a male emu is trying hard to hatch a green plastic ball."



"Emu eggs are green, so when a green ball was thrown into the pen where the emu lived, he started sitting on it. He won't even leave the 'egg' for food. He hasn't yet been there for 40 days (which is how long it takes an emu egg to hatch) and the owners plan to remove the ball from him before then."

Mapping the school

We asked ourselves; how can we show what our school looks like? After taking a walk around the school, we had a go at trying to make a record of everything; from the classrooms to the kitchen, the music room to the French rooms and the library.

Take a look at mine. "I found it quite easy to draw the map. I could see it inside my head. I started with the hallway; it's in the middle of the school. I found it was quite big and it didn't fit so I did half on one side of the paper and half on the other side. I don't think I missed anything."



How does it compare with the real thing?

My Paper Mache Volcano

This is a paper mache volcano and it's solid. This is how I made it:
I started off by crushing the newspaper and we dipped the paper in glue. Then we let it dry and it went hard.



I made it explode. I put vinegar and red paint in the volcano and then mixed in some soda powder. It exploded when we mixed it together.

Hmm - I wonder what made it 'explode'. How do you think we can find out?