Arts Week Day 1
What a tremendous start to our Multi-cultural arts extravaganza! Each child took part in a fabulous Chinese Dance Workshop with Sin Man Yao from the 'Primary Workshops' company, learning the 'Peacock' hand position and using ribbons to create 'snakes' in the air. As the children left the hall they responded to my question about whether they had enjoyed it, with answers like, "It was awesome"; "It was totally brilliant"; "WOW! That was fun!"; "I loved it so much!" I think it may have been a success.
A huge thank you to Jamie and Paris who joined us for the morning to talk to the children about life in China. Jamie is the son of Mrs Lawman (one of our reading helpers) and is a teacher in China. Paris is his Chinese wife. They were kind enough to spend their time with the children of The Dassett, despite only being in England for 2 weeks and Paris never having been out of China before. Children learnt how to count in ten in Mandarin and about Chinese writing. They also found out about the culture and lifestyle of this distant country. I know that everyone who listened to their presentation was hugely impressed and keen to learn more! Absolutely fabulous!
Mrs Evans and Miss Purnell from the Art Department at Kineton High School joined Year 5 and 6 for the morning to create gargoyles based on African masks from clay. They have taken the work to be fired in the kiln and will return with it next week and were very impressed with the hard work and superb attitudes and enthusiasm of our children. The gargoyles were looking excellent when I saw them.
Mrs Askew was working on using tones and tints with Year 3 and 4 pupils, to produce work based on a piece of artwork by an Australian artist of Uluru at sunset. The trick was that the children should try to only use one colour creating different shades.
Mrs Irons was working on Indian art with Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children, using the paisley design from a Shalwar Kameeze as inspiration.
There was lots of wondeful work taking place in the classrooms involving aboriginal paintings, african patterns, jewellery and totem poles!
A totally fabulous day! Well done to you all.