Oil pastel and paint people

Posted on 31/07/2015 by languageisheartosay
people pairs

Here are my examples from lesson 5. I didn’t have enough black paper to make the expected size and I made them much too small so could not add the suggested extra decorations. I also had to use Cray-Pas as I gave away my oil pastels because I hated the feel of oil pastels – and Cray-Pas are not much better! It gives me empathy with the children who have similar horrors.

Good vocabulary possibilities: We talk about the border and painting round the edge – even though the page is rectangular. Just point out it’s a bit strange! Then we put a line down the middle. We do usually draw top to bottom and understanding what is meant by going down/up/across (which should be left-right like reading and writing English)/round is critical for describing letter forms and drawing geometric shapes.

Adjectives about the colours: light; dark; bright; ‘close’ colours might be easier to understand if described as ‘nearly the same’.

Common shapes: Diane talks about the ‘sections’ but also calls them shapes. Children learn circle, square, triangle and rectangle first. If the sections are not ‘nameable’ shapes, you could talk about the bits or parts that have to be coloured.

Orientation expressions: you will turn the page upsidedown to colour it. Be sure the child knows that the page is to be turned round/around not over! Talking about things being the right way up/upsidedown depends on who is looking at it. Too often I have seen adults forget this when they are holding a book or pointing at a part of the paper. Always try to be beside the child so you both have the same view! Then left/right/top/bottom is the same for both of you.

Verbs: ‘leave’ is mentioned again – when you let some of the black remain visible; we divide the page – children may have heard about dividing when doing sums so explain it in relation to a page.

Watch the video together, talk about what Diane did: what did she get out ready, how did she begin, what came next, and so on. Before you start on yours, list the actions again as you point at your fingers in turn:

  1. we get everything ready etc. etc.

Video demonstrations are excellent for learning vocabulary because:

  • the meaning is often made clearer by the accompanying action
  • you can watch it again and the voice will sound EXACTLY THE SAME – this is really helpful for children to detect new words etc. When we repeat things in conversation because someone did not hear/understand, it is very difficult not to change the volume, stress, vocal timbre etc. A recording gives you a second chance without these changes.

When you’ve made your paintings, ask the child to report on how the job was done – praise any attempt at a sequenced list of actions in the correct order.  Again, point at your fingers to jog the memory of the list. If some of the actions are correct but in an impossible order, try and introduce the idea of ‘coming first’, ‘and then’, ‘that was the last thing’… like a story. Make a card to send someone but beware of oil pastel/Cray-Pas because it loves your carpets and clothes…

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6050371 includes the vocabulary you might need for ‘the journey of a letter’.

Wow! It’s nearly the end of Kids’ Art Week already – great fun. One more lesson to do.

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