Print and Play, and a Visit from friends

This was my first attempt at leading an activity for fellow homeschoolers. I did a printmaking leson, using potatoes and sponges to "stamp" onto paper. Some of the children really got into it, unfortunately, mine did not. Andrew surmised it was probably because our children were "oh, it's only mum, I'll just do my own thing" which is exactly what they did. But it was good, the children who were there got a lot of fun out of it, and Labyrinth got very messy. Raven, Kai and Dante enjoyed the play at Dru Point very much indeed.



Here is a selection of photos, as I did not obtain permission for the other children to be in this blog, they won't be shown. Here it is:

Labyrinth insists I mention she was the only one who did handprints! Dante did the three blue faces and the other prints/paintings belong to the other children.\

Here is the simple Lesson Plan:

The Elements of Art.

There are base elements to artistic practice. Think of them as ingredients we might use to make a cake. We have to think about how we might use the ingredients to get a particular type of cake, and with this in mind we’ll explore the types of ingredients.
The elements are Line, Shape, Space, Value, Colour, Texture, Unity/Balance, Repetition and Pattern, Contrast, Rhythm, and Movement. It’s the way we use these ingredients that will make our cake different from another cake.
Today we’ll be looking at several of these, we will be using various colours in repetition and pattern, and we will explore shapes. When we do printmaking, it’s a bit like reverse drawing; we have to think about it backwards. What we draw (or cut away) is the part that won’t have the ink in it, and so we will think about the spaces and shapes and how we are going to get the image we want.
Another wonderful thing about printmaking that stands it apart from other 2D media (like painting and drawing) in that we can use the “stamp” or the “printing block” over and over again, we can experiment by using different colours or by mixing colours there right on the piece or by laying other colours over it to give it layers. We can even print it up and then draw or paint into the spaces that have been left blank.

Afterwhich we had a morning tea. Andrew and the children and I hung around and enjoyed more playing and a BBQ afterwards. It was really good.

We had guests for tea. We had Spicy Australian Salmon with fresh home made pasta. The children ate ice creams after. The children got along quite well, they watched Hamtaro together. My friends and Andrew and I talked in the kitchen. **** asked her mother to homeschool them! Sweet! It was a wonderful evening, and the children really enjoyed it, as did we all. Q.