Outdoor Learning: Big Bold Art
Outdoor Learning: Big and Bold Art
Years 1, 2, 3, and 4 at a primary school near Lancaster were keen to work on large scale creativity and take advantage of their fantastic wooded surroundings. They worked during the second half of the Spring Term 2011 with artists from Green Close Studios to develop large scale approaches to art and the outdoors. This involved painting with unconventional and found materials, investigating minibeasts and enlarging their observational work, using viewfinders to compose landscape artworks, and placing three dimensional representations of wildlife in clay and wire out in the school’s grounds. Children began to appreciate art as a creative process and became less nervous about perfecting a final piece.
Impact
for children:
- began to appreciate art as a creative process and became less nervous about perfecting a final piece
- creative freedom by focussing on the process of art – benefits transferred to other subject areas
- approaching an exploration of ‘life processes and living things’ through visual art reinforced children’s science learning
- observational skills
- applied mathematics were integral to the process of up-scaling art works
- children experimented with new and different media
for teachers:
- confidence in the value of the process of experimentation and expression in art work
- inspiration to take fuller advantage of the resources presented by their woodland setting