Thursday 27th February 2020
Today we took our inspiration from the artist Anne Ryan who creates beautiful work that is part drawing, part sculpture – all inspired by the human body. We’ve started by closely observing and drawing our own hands – mindfully drawing the distance between the fingers and marking the various lines on our palms. We’ll start to construct a piece with various body parts over the course of the term.
In attendance was: Lichtenstein x 3, Goldsworthy x 3, Cezanne x 2, Miro x 1, Kahlo x 4, Mondrian x 1, Hokusai x 2, Rousseau x 5
Special mention goes to Noah A from Year 2 who made a painstaking and dedicated drawing of the palm of his hand – excellent work!
In the afternoon the selected Royal Academy young artists tried using some new media including drawing using the sewing machine, water soluble pencils and two colour print making. They have each decided on their chosen medium and are developing ideas for the subject matter of their final pieces.
Look forward to seeing you all next week.
Thursday 13th February 2020
I hope you all had a great day! We’ve started work on a window curtain for Room 13; using our view of the outdoor Forest School as our inspiration and utilising print-making techniques to achieve some lovely designs.
Children from the following classes came along to join in the fun:
5 x Cezanne, 3 x Mondrian, 4 x Rousseau, 3 x Lichtenstein, 2 x Miro, 2 x Kahlo
Lunchtime was as busy and popular as ever – 18 children showed up to make pom pom creatures and if we could have squeezed them in we could probably have had about 10 more. Sadly we had to turn a few folks away as we were bursting at the seams and there was wool everywhere!
After lunch I had a lovely session with the 6 talented young artists who have been selected to enter the Royal Academy Young Artists’ Summer Show. We talked about the competition and some of their ideas for what they might make. The children will visit Room 13 every Thursday afternoon from now until entry submission in April and will try various techniques in order to create some really special work.
Have a wonderful half term break – we all need it! See you after the holiday.
Thursday 6th February 2020
Hope you all had a great day!
Very busy Room 13 today, we had: 3 x Goldsworthy, 3 x Lichtenstein, 2 x Cezanne, 4 x Rousseau, 1 x Mondrian, 3 x Moore, 3 x Miro, 8 x Riley
We spent the morning creating Picasso inspired textile portraits using heat transfer crayons and embroidery thread. A few of the children learned to sew for the first time and it was great to see them master this skill. We’ll continue to work on these and turn them into hangings.
The committee are continuing to run their lunchtime club with great results – 18 children attended today’s finger knitting session. Next week pom pom creatures!
Excitingly, 6 children are being selected to work on a project that will see their artwork entered into the Royal Academy Young Artists’ show. You can find out more about the project and watch a short video clip here: https://youngartists.
That’s it for this week – see you next Thursday and have a great weekend!
Thursday 30th January 2020
Today we created some fabulous wallpaper to hang in our Room 13 corridor. We practised drawing animals by looking at their shapes and details, working step by step from photographs and videos. The realistic animals look great against a freestyle messy background; the children learned that our eye likes to see differences and this is why neat drawings look great against some chaos!
We had another busy lunch time (15 attendees), thanks to the committee’s ongoing efforts to run a lunch club – this week leaf printing.
I spent the afternoon with Year 3 teaching them how to use glue guns safely. The children got on with it fantastically but I managed to burn myself twice and now have a lovely big blister. I’m really looking forward to seeing what they create now that they have this new skill.
That’s it for this week – see you next Thursday! Have a great weekend.
Attendance was: 3 x Lichtenstein, 5 x Cezanne, 3 x Rousseau
Thursday 23rd January 2020
Room 13 was extremely productive today – kicking off the morning with a special assembly put together by the committee. They created a PowerPoint presentation reminding pupils of the benefits of Room 13, and inviting them to attend one of our lunch time clubs.
As a result we had 22 children turn up for this week’s Collage Club. Attendees use old unwanted artwork from the drying rack to cut up and create something new.
Please remember that the committee are still offering whole class workshops in the Art Garden and if your class would like to benefit from one of these please do not hesitate to speak to one of us. The children are planning to branch out into community workshops working with Crawley Library & Museum in the summer term.
I spent the day creating tie dye experiments with Year 4 – my hands are now a funny shade of green but a great time was had by all. We’ve used eco dyes including turmeric and avocado, alongside synthetic ones.
Look forward to seeing you all next week – have a great weekend!
Thursday 16th January 2020
I hope you all had a great day – seemed like there were loads of exciting things going on! I got my own one to one chat with Nick the Rocket Man and it was very interesting indeed.
This morning was spent with 5 children from Goldsworthy who helped me to complete the backgrounds for our sea themed notice board – finally on display in the main corridor.
After that time was spent with committee members completing the display and preparing for the special assembly we’re holding next Thursday morning. This will help to remind all the children what Room 13 has to offer and encourage them to visit.
Much needed time has been had with the committee over the past couple of weeks and we have sent an email of requests & suggestions to Mrs Gosden this afternoon. Quite an ambitious list, but hopefully we’ll be able to achieve some of it.
Next week I will be helping Year 4 with their tie dyeing and making badges in aid of Australia – look forward to seeing you all.
Thursday 9th January 2020
Happy New Year! Hope you had a peaceful Christmas break.
A wonderful little team of Year 4 students spent the day in Room13 designing and planning the creation and sale of badges in aid of Australia.
After lunch the committee had a brainstorm session in order to come up with fresh ideas for 2020. They’ve already planned a special assembly, lunchtime activities and are hatching a plan for an end of year Art Invasion – watch this space!
Next week I’m brewing up some natural dyes to help Year 4 with their current topic – exciting stuff!
Today we had:
2 x Cezanne, 2 x Mondrian, 1 x Hokusai, 1 x Kahlo, 5 x Miro & all 14 committee members
Thursday 19th December 2019
Only 6 more sleeps to Christmas!! We had a lot of Christmassy fun today making Christmas cards and angels for loved ones, but at the same time also took part in an important project for Amnesty UK called ‘Write For Rights’.
For every Christmas card we made for our families, we created another beautiful one to be sent to someone round the world in less fortunate circumstances e.g. Marinel who has been imprisoned for being a Climate Activist. In this way the children were able to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas and how lucky we are to be spending the big day with our families.
A special shout out goes to Toby of Miro class who has spent 2 weeks planning, measuring, cutting, glueing and decorating to create a model of a nuclear power station. I have not seen such dedication in the 4.5 years that I’ve been coming to the school, and I hope he can be rewarded accordingly (see him looking proud in the attached photo).
I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas break and look forward to seeing you all in January.
Today’s attendance was as follows:
1 x Miro, 8 x Rousseau, 3 x Cezanne, 3 x Moore, 2 x Kahlo, 1 x Hokusai, 3 x Mondrian, 4 x Riley
Thursday 5th December 2019
We had another busy and productive day in Room 13 – one of our activities was working with a Gelli printing plate to create some lovely textured fish that will be added to upcoming sea themed wall display.
The committee excelled themselves at the Christmas Fair – despite the fact that Mrs Taylor was off unexpectedly they managed to organise themselves and facilitate the planned activity. They have voted to spend the profits made on delivering a workshop to children who benefit from Children In Need. We have sent an email to local charity Crawley Home Start to see if they could work with us to select children who could benefit from this opportunity.
Today’s attendance was:
4 x Kahlo, 5 x Cezanne, 6 x Riley, 5 x Rousseau.
Thursday 28th November 2019
We had a very busy time in Room 13 as the children have been preparing for the Christmas Fair tomorrow by finishing off their Christmas cards and organising an activity that involves making an angel finger puppet.
In the afternoon we held a workshop for Cezanne class in the Art Garden during which children made jellyfish and learned about bioluminescence, clean seas and the story of Stanley, the plastic bag who drifts into the ocean and is gobbled up by lots of sea creatures who mistake him for a jellyfish!
The committee are very keen to hold a workshop for Year 6 based around equality and will be approaching Year 6 teachers to ask if they would be interested in this opportunity.
Sadly, more and more children are damaging artwork around the school by punching holes in it and pulling it off the wall. This is so sad to see and perhaps they would benefit from a wee reminder that artwork is really precious and should not be touched?
Today we had: 4 x Kahlo, 2 x Cezanne, 5 x Riley, 3 x Rousseau, 1 x Miro.
Thursday 21st November 2019
Bec (Room 13 artist at Seymour) and I visited Crawley Library & Crawley Museum – 2 lovely spaces where we are planning on conducting community workshops May 2020. These will be workshops hosted by Room 13 committee after they have practised various sessions for children in the school over the coming months.
We have already carried out a Day of the Dead themed mask workshop for Hokusai and next week we will be holding a ‘Clean Seas’ jellyfish making session for Cezanne – all activities held in the Art Garden. The sessions give the children a chance to make something in a creative surrounding, whilst learning a little about the topic (the committee read to them from books on the subject and share simple facts).
Your class could also benefit from a workshop so if you would like one do please email me!
We also managed to make a whole batch of Christmas cards for the Christmas Fair next week whilst hosting a visit from Eva of Seymour – the children were so proud to walk her round the school showing off displays and the Art Garden.
In attendance we had:
3 x Hockney, 3 x Monet, 1 x Miro, 5 x Riley, 4 x Kahlo, 1 x Mondrian, 5 x Rousseau, 2 x Moore, 2 x Cezanne.
Thursday 14th November 2019
We had a really productive day in Room 13 with lots of children coming to participate – thank you so much for sending your punters – they really do get so much out of being in a creative space.
We had: 6 x Cezanne, 4 x Mondrian, 3 x Hokusai, 4 x Kahlo, 6 x Rousseau, 1 x Miro, 5 x Riley
We worked together to make some stunning prints of boats & ships on beautiful backgrounds. The backgrounds were all created through play, experimentation and chance – exploring the materials as a group on one long piece of paper and then working with the results by cutting out the best pieces. Please see attached images.
Next week we will develop these further by creating 3 word poems in response to the imagery – all of this will be used to create another display in the main corridor.
Excitingly, Laura (Cezanne) has booked a workshop for her class 28th November in the Art Garden – we are thrilled to be hosting this. Don’t miss out – your class could have the opportunity to benefit from one of these sessions. We can work on a theme of your choosing or can come up with some ideas ourselves. In the summer term we are planning to use our workshop experience by conducting sessions in the community in conjunction with Seymour.
Thursday 7th November 2019
We hope you’re all feeling refreshed from the half term break and that you have had a great week so far!
Today we spent the morning with Year 5 assisting them with their 3D photo collage project. It’s no mean feat ushering 60 children through a project in a morning and I take my hat off to Mr Banks & Mr Eagle! The finished results are going to look fabulous when displayed together on the corridor wall.
In the afternoon, thanks to the last minute hard work of several people, Room 13 managed its first outing – to Seymour Primary for a fabulous Puppet Show performance by Wishworks. The theme of the show was marine conservation and keeping the ocean plastic free. The children got to ask so many questions, handle all the puppets afterwards & investigate how they were made. They are so inspired that they are planning on writing a book about important global issues!
On another exciting note, Room 13 have had a booking for a workshop from Cezanne class!!! We are extremely pleased to be holding another session for Year 3 in the Art Garden – watch this space for photos and further info. Don’t miss out!
Thursday 24th October 2019
Room 13 was buzzing today as we had a mask making extravaganza – lots of children made funky facewear for the Hallowe’en disco this afternoon.
The role call for today is:
7 x Hepworth, 4 x Kahlo, 4 x Rousseau, 2 x Cezanne, 1 x Miro, 6 x Monet, 5 x Riley
and LOTS of children at lunchtime!
We managed to finish our Zine making project and have completed decorating the noticeboard in the main corridor with our results – we hope you like it! We’ll be filling the other board after half term.
After half term we’ll be working with Year 5 on a photo montage project and look forward to trying all sorts of other exciting things with our young artists.
Have an absolutely wonderful half term break – you all deserve it.
Thursday 17th October 2019
We have spent this morning working with Year 5, helping them take photographs for their photo montage work they plan to create to decorate the corridors. We took photos of them in various poses and with favourite objects – from footballs to paintbrushes. It was interesting to hear that their favourite places in the school are the Top Pitch and the Art Garden!
This afternoon we have had the committee helping to assemble our first noticeboard in the main corridor; it’s entitled ‘The Life of Zines’. It’s not completed yet but will be before the end of term – watch this space! The children have had a great time learning all about the art of zine making, using an old fashioned typewriter to transform Room 13 into a reporter’s office. They’ve been writing about everything from racism to climate change.
Next week we will be mask making all day to celebrate Hallowe’en – children will even be able to come at lunch time and make one so do encourage them to come along!
Thursday 10th October 2019
It was exciting times for Room 13 today as the committee hosted their first ever whole class workshop in the Art Garden. Hokusai class made masks and learned about Day of the Dead festival in Mexico.
Your class could book a workshop with Room 13 too! Please do consider this opportunity, or alternatively think about using the Art Garden space for your own lesson; the children simply love being in this space.
Room 13 will be practising their facilitation skills all through the year and in the summer term will be delivering sessions to the public. We’re currently working with Seymour hatching a plan that (fingers crossed) will see us working with Crawley Museum, Crawley Library and the wider community.
We’ll be back next week for more action!
Thursday 3rd October 2019
We had a super busy time in Room 13; thank you so much for sending your students. The roll call for today was:
9 x Goldsworthy, 5 x Kahlo, 4 x Moore, 7 x Rousseau, 5 x Riley, 4 x Cezanne
After making our own personal mini Zines, we’ve moved on to making a large collaborative one that explains Room 13 and other subjects that are important to the children. These have included climate change, pollution and racism – we’re exploring whether art can do anything to help change some of the challenges we face.
The children took turns on an old fashioned manual typewriter to become reporters for the day – interviewing each other on various subjects and writing up reports to be included in the Zine. As you can imagine this was a very popular activity! (pictures attached)
We moved on to editing and selecting various pieces of artwork and text to form an interesting design.
We’re looking forward to displaying the finished zines!
Next week the committee are planning on running a mask making workshop for Hokusai class in the Art Garden. We will film some of this and circulate – all part of their efforts to promote the use of the Art Garden.
Look forward to seeing you next week.
Thursday 26th September 2019
Thanks to everyone who sent their students, today we had:
3 x Mondrian, 3 x Hokusai, 1 x Kahlo, 5 x Riley, and then all of the committee members in the afternoon.
Work continued on our Zine making project – these will be displayed on one of the central notice boards before the end of term. Some serious issues came up as Year 6’s got involved; worry about climate change, racism, and other important world problems.
The committee had a busy afternoon; they are creating a wall display that will let the other children know how they feel about art. They also made their own badges (they are extremely proud of them)!
I met with Bec from Seymour Primary today and got to see round their lovely Room 13. We are hatching plans for some co-ordinated activity between the 2 schools – so watch this space!!
That’s all for this week folks, look forward to seeing you next week.
Thursday 19th September 2019
We started our Zine making project – the Zines will eventually end up decorating our new notice boards in the main corridor.
Zines are little handmade books that are full of art and words, usually the subject matter is something important to the person who made them. We had a wide range of subjects today from the existence of unicorns to melting ice caps and the break out of World War 3! All important stuff!
Particularly impressive was the work of Fletcher, Year 5, who announced to me, ‘this room is so creative!’ – we agree Fletcher!!
Today we had: 3 x Goldsworthy, 4 x Kahlo, 3 x Moore, 1 x Mondrian, 4 x Rousseau, 1 x Miro, 4 x Riley, 2 x Hokusai
I made it to the Art Garden today to make some repairs to work that had fallen down. I was really pleased to notice that no more holes have been punched into the willow sculpture – let’s hope that it lasts! It would be great if more children accessed the Garden – it’s a lovely space with tables and chairs that children can easily work in. Sadly, some of the children who come to Room 13 still don’t know what it is and have never seen it. I might try to remedy that by doing some art activities there.
Thursday 12th September 2019
The whole school from Year One right up to Year Six are contributing to our rolls of drawings by creating work side by side, on top of one another and in the spaces in between. We’ve got some plans for our rolls including filming them to create some moving artwork.
Next week we’ll be looking at Zine Making – using words and images to create an art book about something you feel passionate about. The finished Zines will help to form some of the new displays that we’ll be having in the centre of the school – look out for our new display boards in the main corridor.
The committee had a good chance to sit down and make some plans today; these included further work on the Art Garden to include miniature areas around the school, workshops for adults & children in a variety of venues including Crawley Museum, and an end of year exhibition. We’ll keep you posted!
Thursday 5th September 2019
Today in Room 13 we had a massive clear out and clean up in the morning. Lots of rubbish taken to the skip, lots of shelf sorting and felt pen testing.
In the afternoon we had 13 x Year 2 and 5 x Year 6 pupils who enjoyed messing the place right back up again!
Reece from the committee told me ‘As soon as I walk into this room I feel really warm inside. It’s the place I feel the safest in the school.’
I guess he was eloquently summing up what children get out of having a space to get messy and express themselves.
Look forward to seeing you all next week.
