Art: Blog items
Year 3 - Art Day - Paint, Cloth, Thread!
Date: 13th May 2026 @ 9:19pm
Year 3 have made an exciting start to their new art topic, Cloth, Thread and Paint, all in one creative day! We explored the work of artists like Alice Kettle and Hannah Rae, discussing how they combine fabric, thread and paint in imaginative ways. The children recorded their ideas and responses in their sketchbooks. We then focused on mark making, looking closely at how artists use different lines and patterns to create texture and movement. The children experimented with their own marks, building confidence and beginning to develop their own artistic style. It was fantastic to see so much creativity and enthusiasm! 🎨
Year 2 Art: Nature-Inspired Masterpieces 🍃🎨
Date: 12th May 2026 @ 3:43pm
In Year 2, we have been busy mastering our art skills, taking inspiration from nature and our key artist, Alice Fox 🌿✨. The children explored how natural objects can inspire beautiful and detailed artwork.
We began by creating observational drawings of a variety of leaves 🍁. The children looked closely at each leaf, carefully considering the lines, shapes and sizes, and worked hard to sketch every detail in their sketchbooks 🖊️📖. It was wonderful to see their focus and the progress in their drawing skills!
Next, we brought our work to life by using crayons and wax resist paint 🖍️. The children applied a colourful paint wash over their drawings, watching as their crayon lines stood out brightly through the paint ✨. The results were vibrant, textured and full of detail, showing fantastic creativity and effort from everyone 🌈
Year 5 - 🎨 Exploring Fashion Design in Art
Date: 11th May 2026 @ 2:18pm
- Measuring materials accurately
- Cutting carefully and safely
- Layering materials to build their designs
Date: 8th May 2026 @ 11:00am
The children explored the life cycle of a butterfly through a range of engaging activities. Using a variety of art resources, they created butterfly artwork, focusing on symmetry and developing their fine motor skills through cutting and attaching materials.
This learning was enriched by a real-life experience in the classroom, where we observed caterpillars as they transformed into cocoons. The children showed great curiosity and excitement while waiting for them to hatch and become butterflies, encouraging discussion and questioning.
We also shared non-fiction books about butterflies, helping to deepen the children’s understanding of the life cycle and key vocabulary. The children were highly engaged throughout the activities, showing enthusiasm and creativity, and produced some fantastic butterfly artwork.
"I saw a butterfly in my garden... it was on a flower" Bonnie
"We looked for them ouside with Mrs McAllister- I saw a colourful one" Faith
"The caterpillar transforms into a butterfly" Theo
Year 4 - Story Telling Through Drawing 2
Date: 8th May 2026 @ 9:15am
Year 4 Art & Design: Storytelling Through Drawing – Final Artwork
To complete our Storytelling Through Drawing art journey, Year 4 pupils created a thoughtful and imaginative final piece inspired by poetry. Pupils began by experimenting with soft sketching pencils in their sketchbooks, practising how to use light and dark tones to create atmosphere, detail, and expression.
The children then listened carefully to readings of the poem Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll, discussing the vivid language and unusual imagery used by the poet. Pupils shared their interpretations of the poem and talked about how words can inspire powerful visual ideas, even when meanings are unclear or open to imagination.
Using this inspiration, pupils selected their favourite part of the poem and created a detailed pencil illustration to show the story they imagined. They focused on line, shading, and composition to communicate mood and narrative, drawing on techniques explored earlier in the unit and inspired by artists such as Shaun Tan and Laura Carlin.
The final artworks show fantastic creativity and individuality, with each drawing telling its own story. Year 4 should be incredibly proud of how they used drawing as a tool for storytelling.
Year 4 - Story Telling Through Drawing 1
Date: 7th May 2026 @ 3:36pm
Year 4 Art & Design: Storytelling Through Drawing
This week in Year 4 art, pupils began an exciting new creative journey inspired by the AccessArt ‘Storytelling Through Drawing’ project. The focus of this unit is on how artists use drawing to tell stories, share ideas, and communicate meaning without words.
Pupils explored the work of illustrators Shaun Tan and Laura Carlin, carefully looking at how their drawings create mood, suggest narratives, and invite the viewer to ask questions. The children discussed what they noticed in the artists’ use of line, detail, space, and expression, and shared their own interpretations of the stories they felt the images were telling.
Through sketchbook work and discussion, pupils began to understand that drawings do not always need to show everything clearly—sometimes mystery and imagination are just as important. They reflected on how images can guide a viewer’s thoughts and feelings.
In the next lesson, pupils will build on this learning by creating their own artwork to tell a story, drawing on the techniques and ideas they have explored. We are looking forward to seeing their creativity and storytelling skills come to life on the page!
Date: 7th May 2026 @ 2:35pm
This term we have been exploring houses. During our art sessions we have created a house and sorted objects to go into a living room and a bathroom. Developing engagement in adult led activities, understanding and independence during activities.
Date: 6th May 2026 @ 7:44am
🌍 Redwoods Class Blog – 3D Planet Sculptures 🚀
This week in Redwoods class, we had an exciting and creative time making 3D planet sculptures using paper mache 🎨🖐️. The classroom was buzzing with energy as we transformed simple materials into impressive models of planets from our solar system ✨🌌.
We had to show lots of resilience and patience 💪😊, especially when building up the layers of paper mache. It took time for each layer to dry properly before we could add the next one ⏳, but we didn’t give up. Our hard work really paid off in the end 🌟.
Once the sculptures were ready, we carefully painted them 🎨🖌️. We chose planets such as Neptune, Earth and Venus 🟦🌍🟡, making sure to use the correct colours and details. The finished results look fantastic and we are very proud of what we created 😄👏.
Well done, Redwoods class, for your brilliant teamwork, creativity and determination! ⭐👏
Date: 5th May 2026 @ 2:17pm
🎨 In this art lesson, the children explored drawing using their sense of touch instead of sight.
They carefully felt objects with their hands 👋 and used what they noticed – shapes, textures and edges – to help them draw ✏️📄.
The children learned to slow down, be curious 🤔, and trust their hands to guide their pictures. This helped them understand that drawings can look different when they focus on how something feels, not just how it looks 👀
Date: 1st May 2026 @ 8:02am
🎨 Year 6 Art Lesson Two: Fonts & Collage ✂️🖍️
In their second Art lesson, Year 6 focused on developing key skills for their upcoming project. We began by practising a range of font styles ✏️, exploring how lettering can help communicate messages clearly and creatively.
The children also started investigating different collaging techniques 📰, looking at how images, textures and layering can be combined effectively. These skills will be used in their main piece of work 🎨, helping them to express ideas with impact and confidence.
Date: 1st May 2026 @ 7:51am
🎨 Year 6 Begin Their Art Activism Journey ✊🌍
Year 6 have begun an exciting new topic in Art, exploring the idea of activism 🖌️. We started by discussing what activism means and talked about the political 🏛️, social 🤝 and environmental 🌱 issues that people choose to protest about. The children shared thoughtful ideas and showed great awareness of the world around them 💭✨.
To capture their learning, the children created a double page spread 📖 highlighting some of the issues we explored. This is the first step in their journey of using art as a powerful voice 🗣️ to express opinions and inspire change 💡💚.
Year 2- Continuous line drawing 🎨
Date: 28th Apr 2026 @ 2:22pm
In Year 2, we have been developing our drawing skills by focusing on the technique of continuous line drawing 🖊️✨. The children explored how to create drawings without lifting their pencil or pen from the page, encouraging careful observation and steady control.
We experimented with a range of different pencils and pens, using them to create lots of different drawings and objects 📝. The children then reflected on their work and thought carefully about which tool worked best for continuous line drawing and why 🤔.
Once they had chosen their preferred tool, the children created some beautiful observational drawings of shells and feathers 🐚🪶. They concentrated on looking closely at shape, pattern and detail, while keeping their line flowing smoothly across the page.
Year 5 - Rowan: Unfinished Drawings
Date: 24th Apr 2026 @ 2:18pm
As part of our Always Time activities, children from Rowan had to complete an incomplete image. This week the challenge was "What am I lifting?". Take a look at pictures to see how our imaginations ran wild!
Date: 24th Apr 2026 @ 11:42am
As part of our Space topic, the children developed their oracy skills by learning and confidently using new vocabulary. Key words introduced included:
moon, rocket, stars, planet, Earth, satellite, and space station. Children practiced saying these words in full sentences during discussions, circle time, and shared activities.
In Maths, children explored space-themed learning through counting, number recognition, and simple problem-solving. They used rockets and stars to count objects, compare quantities, and talk about size, shape, and position using early mathematical language such as more, less, tall, and next to.
In Creative Art, the children designed and created their own rockets, selecting materials independently and talking about their designs. This supported fine motor skills, creativity, and expressive language as children explained what their rockets needed to travel to space.
The children also watched informational videos to deepen their understanding of space. This included learning about the first moon landing and discussing recent space exploration such as NASA’s Artemis missions, which aim to return astronauts to the Moon. These discussions encouraged curiosity, questioning, and early understanding of the world beyond Earth.
Nursery Explore Butterfly Symmetry
Date: 23rd Apr 2026 @ 4:25pm
Our Nursery class has been learning about symmetry by looking closely at butterfly wings. The children discovered that both sides of a butterfly’s wings look the same, which led to a fun and creative activity.
We painted one side of a butterfly wing, then carefully folded it in half to see the pattern transfer to the other side. When we opened them up, the children were amazed to see two matching wings!
This activity encouraged curiosity, creativity and careful observation, while helping the children to understand an early maths concept in a hands‑on way. The finished butterflies were bright, colourful and beautifully symmetrical! 🦋✨
Date: 23rd Apr 2026 @ 11:25am
Our Nursery class enjoyed a colourful experiment exploring colour mixing using coffee filters, food colouring and water. The children watched with excitement as the colours spread and blended, talking about what they could see and predicting what might happen next.
Once the filters were dry, we turned them into beautiful butterflies, each one unique. This fun activity supported the children’s curiosity, creativity and early scientific thinking — and our classroom was soon full of bright, fluttering colour!
Date: 23rd Apr 2026 @ 9:17am
Redwoods Space Theme – A Blast Off into Learning! 🚀🌌
This week in Redwoods class, we launched our exciting space theme for the half term! 🌍✨ The children began by learning about the Artemis 2 Mission 🚀, focusing on how the spacecraft re‑entered the Earth’s atmosphere 🔥. We explored what this experience might have been like for the astronauts and discussed the emotions they may have felt, including excitement 😄, nervousness 😬 and relief 😌.
During Lego Therapy 🧱, the children used their creativity and teamwork skills to imagine what the surface of a Lego planet 🪐 might look like. They shared ideas 💬, built together 🤝 and explained their thinking, developing both communication and problem‑solving skills 🧠.
To finish the week, the children designed their own astronaut badges 🎨🧑🚀, carefully choosing symbols and colours to represent themselves as space explorers ⭐. The results were fantastic and showed great imagination!
We are really looking forward to continuing our space journey over the coming weeks! 🌠🚀
🌿🎨 Year Two Nature Art Inspired by Alice Fox 🎨🌿
Date: 21st Apr 2026 @ 3:03pm
Year Two have been busy exploring the wonderful world of nature art, inspired by the artist Alice Fox. Alice Fox creates beautiful artwork using natural materials she finds in her garden and allotment, such as leaves, twigs, branches, vines and natural dyes 🍃🪵🌱.
We looked closely at how Alice Fox uses the natural world around her and talked about how art doesn’t always need paint or pencils. Instead, we explored lines, spirals, symmetry and different sizes to help us design our own nature-inspired creations 🌀📏✨.
The children collected natural resources and carefully arranged them to make their own artworks, thinking about patterns and balance as they worked. There were some fantastic discussions about textures, shapes and how nature can be used creatively 🎨🍂.
Year Two showed great imagination, teamwork and respect for the environment while creating their artwork. We are so proud of their thoughtful and creative nature art – well done, Year Two! 🌍💚👏
Date: 16th Apr 2026 @ 2:20pm
This half term term in Year One, we have been exploring digital painting and learning how technology can be used as a creative art tool. The children have enjoyed discovering how drawing programmes on tablets can help them create pictures in exciting new ways, while still using many of the skills they practise in traditional art lessons.
We began by learning how to use simple drawing tools to create digital self‑portraits. The children explored using different brushes, colours and lines, and learned how to undo mistakes and try again. This helped to build confidence and encouraged them to experiment freely, just as they would when drawing with pencils and crayons.
Next, we explored shape and colour by creating artwork inspired by Piet Mondrian. Using the drawing programmes, the children practised drawing straight lines and shapes, then quickly filling them with bold primary colours using the fill tool. This activity helped the children understand how digital tools can make some processes faster, while still requiring careful choices and creativity.
Finally, we explored pointillism by creating artwork both on paper and on tablets. The children used small dots to build up pictures and then compared the two methods. We talked about which one they preferred and why. Some children enjoyed the tactile feel of paint and paper, while others liked how quickly they could work digitally and easily change colours.
Reception make 2D shape rockets
Date: 14th Apr 2026 @ 9:38pm
This week the children enjoyed a creative learning experience in the creative area, where they designed and collaged their own space rockets using a wide range of materials. They explored different shapes textures and colours, selecting and combining resources such as paper, card and foil with care and creativity. This activity encouraged the children to think carefully about shape and structure, supporting early mathematical understanding while developing fine motor skills and hand–eye coordination. The open‑ended nature of the task allowed each child to express their ideas freely, resulting in a variety of imaginative and unique designs. Throughout the activity, children demonstrated focus, independence and pride in their work, while confidently talking about the shapes they had used and the choices they had made.
🌿🎨 Year 2 Begin Their Nature-Inspired Art Journey 🎨🌿
Date: 14th Apr 2026 @ 2:48pm
🌿🎨 Year 2 Begin Their Nature-Inspired Art Journey 🎨🌿
Year 2 have started an exciting new art journey, taking inspiration from the beauty of the natural world! 🍃🌸 We began by exploring the work of textile and mixed-media artist Alice Fox, whose artwork is inspired by nature, textures, and the changing seasons.
The children created a special page in their sketchbooks all about Alice Fox 📒✨. They explored key words, added pictures, and experimented with watercolours 🎨. We looked closely at her colour palettes, the materials she uses, and discussed what inspires her work 🌾🪵. The children thoughtfully shared ideas about how nature influences art and how artists can capture natural beauty in different ways.
This artist study will be the starting point for our learning, and we will continue to use Alice Fox as inspiration throughout the rest of our art journey 🌍💡. We are so excited to see how the children develop their creativity, curiosity, and artistic skills as we move forward!
Watch this space for more wonderful artwork from Year 2! 🌟🖌️
Date: 14th Apr 2026 @ 2:13pm
This week children in Year 5 have begun their art journey into fashion design. In this lesson, pupils were inspired by a fashion designers Alice Fox and Rahul Mishra and created their own double-page spread to demonstrate their understanding of their backgrounds, influences and designs. Alice Fox, for example, takes inspiration from the seaside, something that we could do for our final designs!
Date: 1st Apr 2026 @ 12:56pm
Year 4 pupils completed their Festive Feasts sculptures by adding colour and detail using acrylic paint. After carefully shaping their clay food models in the previous lesson, the children focused on making their creations look as realistic as possible. They thought closely about colour mixing, shading, and small details such as texture and pattern to bring their food to life.
Pupils worked patiently and independently, applying the paint in layers and taking pride in the accuracy of their work. The results were impressive, with many sculptures looking good enough to eat! Once finished, pupils evaluated their final pieces, reflecting on what they did well and how they could improve their work next time.
This lesson was a fantastic opportunity for pupils to develop their painting skills while celebrating creativity and attention to detail. We are very proud of their finished sculptures!
Date: 27th Mar 2026 @ 3:24pm
Redwoods Class have been busy unleashing their creativity this week as they designed and made their very own brilliant bug art! Using paint pens and a range of collage materials, the children created an amazing collection of colourful creatures. 🌈✨
From spiders 🕷️ and ladybirds 🐞 to butterflies 🦋 and beetles 🪲, every child produced a unique bug bursting with personality. The children experimented with patterns, textures and colour combinations, showing fantastic artistic flair and imagination.
It was wonderful to see how confidently they used the materials — layering collage shapes, outlining with paint pens and adding tiny details to bring each bug to life. No two creations were the same, and the classroom quickly filled with a vibrant swarm of beautiful, eye-catching artwork. 🎨💛
Redwoods showed brilliant focus, creativity and pride in their work, and their finished pieces look absolutely fantastic!
Year 4 - Festive Feasts Sculptures
Date: 24th Mar 2026 @ 2:41pm
As the exciting culmination of our Festive Feasts art journey, Year 4 pupils have been busy designing and sculpting some of their favourite foods—using clay! After first experimenting with plasticine to explore shape, texture, and detail, pupils moved on to creating their final clay models independently. They showed fantastic concentration and creativity as they shaped everything from burgers and pizzas to cakes and fruit bowls.
Once their sculptures have fully dried, the children will bring them to life with acrylic paint, adding colour, shading, and fine details to make their foods look even more realistic. The final step will be an evaluation, where pupils reflect on what went well, what they found challenging, and how they might improve their work in the future.
The classroom has been filled with imagination and enthusiasm, and we can’t wait to display their wonderfully sculpted creations. Year 4 should be very proud of their artistic achievements!
