Fox in the Snow

This workshop was inspired by a fox collage by Paige Balcer. You can see it here: http://lookaway.typepad.com/look_away/2009/02/woodland-creatures.html

We began by blowing white paint through straws to create snowy trees. I then provided students with pre-cut fox heads, bodies and tails which they covered in torn tissue. I touched some of them up with a little orange paint (just to help them along a little bit) before they added eyes and noses. I think the results are really sweet!

Paper Penguins

This project was a combination of ideas from Adventures of an Art Teacher and Mrs Picasso's Art Room. I began by getting the students to paint the background using blue paint at the top and white at the bottom and blending the two in the middle. All the students managed this really well. They then followed my instructions to make the large penguin out of black and white paper. I pre-cut the paper to the different sizes needed.They all required plenty of help from their carers but were able to draw the shapes with assistance and they are all great at gluing things down! The second, smaller penguin was drawn onto white paper using pens or pastels and then cut out and stuck down. They created the snowflakes by tapping a brush loaded with watery white paint. This is less messy than spraying or flicking paint and was a new technique for the students.

Paper Plate & Wool Christmas Decoration

This project uses very simple sewing to great effect. To prepare, I cut Christmas Tree shapes out of paper plates (I happened to find some gold ones) and punched some holes around the shape. I provided students with wool in festive colours and large plastic sewing needles. Students sewed in and out of the holes - some did it very systematically and some did it quite randomly - both techniques give a good result. After they had finished sewing I encouraged them to stick a few (hundred!) sequins around the plate. A loop of wool for hanging provided the finishing touch. Because the plates are gold foil they were quite hard to photograph but I hope you get the idea!
I had kept the cut-out tree shapes (of course!) and we used these to make some lovely Christmas cards.

Bonfire Night Collage

Remember, Remember the 5th of November!
In the UK we celebrate a foiled plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 with fireworks and bonfires on the 5th of November.
My students used paint and collage to capture the colour and glitter of the event.
We used some lovely deep blue card for the background. The fireworks were made by blowing watered down paint with straws and also by swirling the straw around in the paint to make patterns. The bonfires started with an oil pastel drawing to which they added scraps of tissue paper and sparkly sweet papers. The final touch was some glitter glue which was spread or dotted here and there on the fire.