The Year One Geography topic; ‘A Visit to China’ enabled the class to explore different artistic techniques.
Dragon Puppet: the children decorated dragons, added googly eyes and lolly sticks to make their puppets.
Chinese Lanterns: we discovered how easy these are to make, as long as you fold and cut correctly. It was fun decorating these.
Willow Pattern Plates: the children practised drawing in the style of the ‘willow pattern’. This pottery was always blue and white and depicted objects typical of Chinese culture, such as temples, water, boats, trees and bridges. Children used different shades of blue pencils and crayons on white plates to recreate this willow pattern effect.
Silk Painting: we learned about the life cycle of the silkworm and how the fully-grown caterpillars (silkworms) spin cocoons of thread. Chinese workers take about six threads together and weave them into cloth. In China, painting on silk happened before the invention of paper and the children discovered that it is very different to drawing on paper. They tried painting temples in this style, using white cotton material and fabric pens. The completed paintings were unusual with vivid and vibrant colours and everyone enjoyed trying this different medium.
