Art – West Earlham Junior School

Into University Week

Last week, 6CD took part in a focus week, put on by the lovely people at Into University. We spent 3 days with them at the local community centre where we learnt about different icons in the creative arts area. We had a product designer called Ole Christiansen, a fashion designer called Stella Jean, a writer named Jacqueline Woodson and Bruno Reddy, who created the app Times Table Rock Stars. We worked together in our groups to make posters and presentations about our famous person. On Wednesday, we took a trip to the Sainsburys centre of visual arts to walk around the different galleries. We made our own zines (mini magazines) about the art we had seen but with different prompts to make our art unique. On Thursday, we spoke about the different university options available to us and where we would go when we are older. We learnt about lots of new courses we didn’t know existed or that we could study. On Friday, we got a tour around the University of East Anglia and the presented our new knowledge to parents and carers that came along. After this, we ‘graduated’ from our mini creative arts degree of the week.

Welcome to our 2023/2024 Year 5 Blog

Year 5 Trip to Norwich- ‘Our Fine City’

We went to visit the centre of Norwich. Once there we were given a number of challenges to complete on our trip. These included:

Visiting Norwich Market
Creating a map of key Norwich landmarks that can be viewed from the top of the market.
Going on a George Skipper building hunt to think about how one architect can make a difference to one city.
Viewing the George Skipper’s botanical tiles in the Royal Arcade.
Sketching the botanical tiles to provide inspiration for our printing designs once back in school.
Investigating the modern Norwich streets for historical clues as well as journeying underground to find out what hidden secrets lie beneath our feet.

**Looking for Norwich landmarks.**
**Here is the spire of our Norman Cathedral.**

Sainsbury Centre Visit

On Wednesday, the whole of year 6 took a visit to the Sainsbury Centre at the UEA to do some work based around our art topic of this term – Brutalism. Throughout the day we got to explore the art centre and look at the architecture as well as some of the pieces of art in the gallery. We were able to compare the buildings we looked at (such as the famous Ziggurats by Denys Lasdun) to the work we have been looking at by Zaha Hadid. We noticed lot of similarities such as the use of straight lines but also many differences which made their work unique. The other activity we took part in on the day was a workshop by some of the staff at the centre, where we got the chance to try out some new art techniques using Gel plate printing. Using the gel plates, ink and photographs of the buildings in the UEA, we were able to create pieces of printing art and then we folded and cut them to make buildings of our own.

How can one person make a BIG difference?

Throughout the year, we will be using what we have learnt to think about the overarching question “How can one person make a BIG difference?” In the Autumn Term we thought about how King William changed Britain and how the Norman rule shaped the Norwich landscape. We compared the Norman influence on Norwich with the influence of local architect George Skipper. We loved searching for clues in our fine city.

When learning about the Ancient Kingdom of Benin, we thought about how one person (the Oba) can make a big difference to society and a community of people. In the Summer Term, we will inquire into the lives of Robert Kett and Ruby Bridges. Two very different people who made big decisions that will be remembered throughout History. We can’t wait to find out more and think about how we can make a difference to those around us.

Year 5 Trip to the Sainsburys Centre

We went on a local area trip to the Sainsburys Centre. We really enjoyed finding out more about how different cultures use art to represent people and status. We shared our knowledge of the ancient Benin society and explored different ways of casting and printing designs in a specially tailored workshop.

After our workshop, we had a tour around the permanent collection in the art gallery and then went on the outdoor sculpture trail.

We had so much fun- thankyou to all at the Sainsburys Centre for your help.

Stone Age Banksy!

Year 3 will be looking at different designers, architects, and artists this year. We have already looked at the designer Orla Kiely and now we are looking at another artist that puts their work on a wall – Banksy!

They were not the first person to add art to walls though. It first happened thousands of years ago.

We looked at the cave paintings (see above) from that period and then tried to recreate them ourselves.

Year 5 Blog 2022/23

Welcome to the Year 5 Blog. Please read below to find out more about what we have been learning throughout the Autumn Term.

At the start of the term we launched our inquiry by discovering and learning about the landmarks of our fine city, Norwich. As part of our learning we used a range of books, leaflets and online materials to research facts about Norwich. In groups we chose the facts we wanted to share and created posters. After that we created a presentation and shared the information with the rest of the class. We enjoyed using our public speaking voices and being the audience for one another.

Year 5 Trip to Norwich

We went on a trip to Norwich to find out how George Skipper has influenced the architecture of Norwich. We visited Surrey House and the Royal Arcade and created sketches of the botanical tiles. We also went on the Hidden Streets Tour. This was exciting because we got to go underneath the modern day streets. We used our history skills to find out more about the past.

To complete the trip we stood at the top of Norwich Market and drew a map of the Norwich skyline and key landmarks. We really enjoyed eating our lunch on the Forum steps.