Art and Craft Club

Hello and welcome back!!

This afternoon we had 2 sessions in the lovely Hideaway Café, overlooking the big lawn and being rather pleased we managed to dodge the rain when it came 🥳

It's fair to say that my timekeeping is still shocking (sorry...) but it was so good to be back with lots of new little faces and busy hands 🥰 The first session was collage with some fabulous Farrow & Ball paper. We decided whether we were going to make a furry friend, a landscape, a stylised plant picture or just freestyle with the patterns, and then we chose the colour and size of base paper to work from.

We tried really hard to cut smooth curves, some of us had a go at getting the tears to go where we wanted them to go, some of us learnt how to tuck edges in and some learnt how to get glue off fingers easily and without wiping them on our clothes 😉

The second session was all about air-dry clay. We had a quick look at how to squish and roll it out, how to make imprints in the surface, and how to pull and squeeze one big lump into a recogniseable shape. We weren't supposed to be making lots of component parts and sticking them together but if we did, we should remember that if they do fall off when they're dry, that we can simply glue them on again... Some of us were prolific and kept each and every creation, some of us were equally prolific but squished each and every creation and just seemed to enjoy the process. Some of us worked very hard to create a specific idea we had in mind whereas some of us were happy to have a play and then see what it looked like and take it from there.

I think - hope - there's lessons for us all in there somewhere. And I certainly hope that everyone enjoyed themselves today and is proud of what they made or learnt along the way. ❤

Thank you to everyone who came - I hope we get to do it all again soon xx

🐾 Congratulations to Isla in Y4 for winning The Bear Garden colouring competition! 🐾

Farrow & Ball paper bauble making this week 😊

Feel free to add photos of yours in the comments or send me a photo and I'll edit the post - have a lovely week and I'll see you all soon! Xx

I've just heard from school that clubs aren't allowed to go ahead before Christmas so we'll carry on with the Zoom sessions 🤓

Watch this space for more info about kits to collect and what we'll be getting up to!

Take care and hope to see you all soon xx

Hello!

There's no session this afternoon but I'll let you know asap if we can meet up again in the Learning Lab this term 🤞

And I'll be announcing the winner of the cuddly rainbow later this week too!

Take care and see you soon xx

Here's a little taster of what we've been up to recently 😍

We're currently having sessions over Zoom - it's not ideal but it's so lovely to be able to still see your faces and have some creative time together.

I think we might have to carry on with Zoom sessions for a few more weeks so watch this space for what we get up to together!

So far we've made pomanders, collages, and done some sponge (and finger) painting - well done all of you ❤

It may be grey and miserable outside but how about a colourful little competition to cheer everyone up?!

You're all invited to take part in The Bear Garden's upcoming rainbow colouring competition 🥳 It's free to take part, the rainbows will form part of The Bear Garden's winter window display and you might even win your very own cuddly rainbow...

Colour in your rainbow and clouds however you fancy (but not the background as they'll all be cut out) at home or join in our virtual colouring session on Zoom 😊

Good luck, happy colouring and hope to see you soon!

I've been having a few technical issues with my phone lately (even more than the usual) so forgive the lack of posts for a while. We've been busy with our virtual sessions though whilst we can't together at school and I'm very excited that we'll be painting together on Monday :-)

And with the news of another Lockdown, and the sad realisation that this afternoon would be the last session in the Learning Lab for at least 4 weeks, we crammed as much in as we could!

Most of us chose a picture of a cute alpaca to copy (some of us wanted to freestyle it and quite frankly, why shouldn't they?!) so there are are some rabbits and cats in the mix too. We tried to draw what we saw (unless we were making it up, of course...) sketched it out in pencil, then used oil pastels before using some huge brushes and having fun with some wet watercolours for the background.

Have a look at these - pretty impressive for just one session - well done Team Monday! ❤

I'll be reinstating the rather clunky Zoom Art and Craft Club sessions during the new lockdown so although I'll have to change what we were going to be doing, we'll still be able to sort of get together and get creative.

Stay safe (and sane) everyone xx

Oops - here's Team Friday's Halloweeny clay pumpkins, ghosts and monsters.

Compared to news of Lockdown, Part 2, however, I'm not sure that any of these are actually that scary...

I hope you all had a lovely half term - and here's to a safe November xx

Well done Team Monday!

We rolled up our sleeves, put on some aprons, and carefully painted our clay creations. We used some ready-mixed colours, made our own oranges and greens, used two different sized brushes and tried really hard to be kind to the bristles!

Those of us who finished early painted another pumpkin on some pretty big paper and added some spooky details - have a look if you dare! 😉😍

And then it was Team Friday's turn 😊

I give you Y1 and Y2's pumpkins, ghosts, a witch's hat and a selection of scary things... One of us made an impressive array of autumnal and spooky things (scary faces, masks, pumpkins, pumpkin people etc) but each time my back was turned (more often than I'd like but unavoidable with the new set-up, I'm afraid) the clay was squished up again and a new creation was underway. I'm thrilled that they loved the process - the feel of the clay, the different ways to blend pieces together, the marks to be made, the endless possibilities - but it's going to be tricky next week when we come to paint our creations!!

Just in case you didn't know, there's a Socially-distanced School Pumpkin Trail being prepared at the moment (and a virtual balloon race with big prizes to be won) 🎃 For the pumpkin trail, there'll be a map showing where to find the pumpkins (within walking distance of the school), a puzzle to solve and the chance of winning a prize! Keep your eyes peeled for more info at school soon!