Melissa's Melting Pot

This week we learnt about how children's book illustrations use techniques, methods and approaches including visual elements (such as line, tone and colour) to create characterisation, and also looked into interpreting the work of a chosen illustrator through a 2D practical activity. To begin the session we looked at the books which we had brought in with us and discussed our books in relation to the prompt questions which Sadie had given us which were: What is the Illustrator trying to communicate? How are they doing it? Thinking about colour, composition, materials, scale, size, emotions, where the text is placed and the relationship between the illustration and text. Through discussion I thought about this in regards to the book which I had brought in called 'Doing the Animal Bop - by Jan Ormerod and Lindsey Gardiner' and some things which came up were that I thought about how the illustrator was trying to convey different emotions such as shock, ...

This term we have moved on to the non core subjects which are: Art, Design and Technology, RE, History, Geography, Modern Foreign Languages, and PE. So I'll be posting updates and reflections on them when I have the chance :) It's been an interesting term so far as we have been doing Art, Design and Technology, Geography and RE and had four sessions of each. Personally I think that this is a good introduction to the foundation subjects but I feel we need more seminars in terms of how teaching these subjects which are not our specialisms would be approached in different schools. So far I've found most of the sessions useful and feel more confident a little if I were to teach any of these subjects, although admittedly I'm more comfortable with the creative subjects such as Art and DT as these subjects I am used to have have a wide subject knowledge of. We are now on a printing project in our specialism Art but have covered pictorial posters and illustration so far thi...

In our Specialism Art this term we are starting off on the topic of illustration and what illustration actually is and means to different people. We began by discussing where you may find illustrations and we decided that we would look at books, but what type of books had illustrations in them? As a class we came up with answers such as picture books, children's books, and illustrated books. We then were asked by Sadie (Lecturer) to consider where we may find these type of books? Whereabouts would you go looking within a school to find illustrated books? Answers that came out through discussion were in reading corners of classrooms, libraries, and reception classes as illustrated books or picture books are generally found in classes where children may struggle to read and therefore rely on the pictures to tell the story. But I don't think that this should be the case as picture books often contain beautiful illustrations which could be used as a basis for an art project, for...

Personally I love DT and think that it should be taught in all schools but sometime it is overlooked and pushed aside for other subjects as teachers are not comfortable in teaching DT because of the equipment and subject knowledge that is needed, and also that it is seen as as dangerous using saws etc... In our DT session we covered a lot of basic skills such as sawing, joining, shaping and finishing of materials and products. As we are in a mixed class a range of people had different skills within this subject and just because some people were comfortable with these skills others had never picked up a saw and could not have pointed out a hack saw from any other type of saw. Within Design and Technology there are three different sections to consider which are: Focused Practical Tasks Investigate, Disassemble, Evaluation Activity Design and Make Activity  We started off by talking about reclaimed materials, and were asked  "Why do we use re...

I'm sorry for the lack of posts recently! It's just been such a manic couple of weeks/month! With placement which was brilliant - I had year two which was lovely as they were just finding their feet as a class but still found everything quite new and exciting. Then our assignment which was on high quality teaching and learning in core subjects supported by recent experience and academic reading, presented as a portfolio of work whilst trying to ensure I actually referenced correctly! And finally other aspects of Uni life such as actually finding a fork amongst the mass of dirty grimy things in the kitchen - Honestly... you would be appalled! Plus having a social life and going out or round friends for film nights or halo nights! So all in all it's been a manic couple of weeks but I wouldn't have it any other way! Watch this space for any updates as I'll be catching up on blogging over these holidays :)

I have just finished my two week placement at a local school, and to be honest I wish it had lasted longer! Two weeks doesn't feel like nearly long enough as it feels like we were just getting settled with the routine, children, staff and being a part of the school. My school was a lovely one form entry primary school which had a farm, tree trail and nature path attached to it which the school made the most of by running things like forest school. In the first week we started to get settled and into the swing of teaching and being in school full time. The early mornings were the main thing to deal with in my opinion! Plus the 'teacher clothes' which were smart but also practical to wear as I was with year 2 which means you need to be able to sit on the floor, kneel etc. It felt like I was back at school as we made our packed lunches round at the flat next door to me with the two boys who were also on their teaching placements. We had a lovely variety of chicken, ham a...

I chose to continue to develop my work using the impressionist style which we used in our seminar. Here are some examples of my sketchbook work and a final development piece using this style. These photos below document the stages of my final developmental piece of work in the impressionist style. We used a limited palette when creating our pieces to see the range of colours you could make.