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morristonmsm
Day 1

 

morristonmsm
Day 2

morristonmsm
Day 3

 

morristonmsm
Day 4

 

morristonmsm
Day 5

 

morristonmsm
Townscapes

 


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Artist's Statement

MY SQUARE MILE – PLACES AND SPACES
MORRISTON PRIMARY – ARTIST LYNNE BEBB

Aims

My aim was to develop the children’s skills for investigation, through drawing and practical experimentation, in order to explore and examine the school building, it vicinity and the built environment immediately surrounding it.

I also aimed to develop the children’s knowledge and understanding of materials and techniques and their use in the built environment.

The school and its surroundings
The school is an interesting Victorian building right beside a busy dual carriageway in historic Morriston that was laid out in the eighteenth century by an entrepreneur called Morris to house his workers. There are a wide variety of buildings both old and new and numerous commercial premises. In the main high street old and new mingle, and there are a wide variety of construction techniques and materials utilised. There is also a grand Victorian building, empty and abandoned to fire the children’s imagination. A winding footpath runs alongside the dual carriageway and passes the school. It follows the course of a former canal and provides with its trees, grass and old canal bridges an unexpected area of calm.

The Class

There were approximately twenty, six and seven year olds (mostly six). A student teacher worked with the artist and the class teacher.

Stimuli

The children looked at:


• Stones and building materials
• The school building and surrounding walls
• Photographs taken of the built environment around the school
• The streets surrounding the school during their walk
• Gil, the architect’s pictures of iconic buildings
• Pictures of the Guggenheim Museum
• Books
• Historical references
• Maps

Activities

The children worked for five whole days in the classroom, in the hall, in the yard and in the community outside. As it was completed, their work was assembled in an empty space adjacent to the classroom into a townscape based upon their square mile. Activities were designed so that the children could:


• Draw from observation, memory and imagination
• Develop effective techniques for making and using sketch books
• Slow down their looking
• Sharpen their skills of observation
• Make discoveries
• Conjecture about what they found
• Build a specialised vocabulary
• Respond to what they learnt with both 2D and 3D work
• Work individually and collaboratively
• Engage imaginatively with both the subject matter and their own work
• Present aspects of their own work
• Learn through play
• Respond verbally during question and answer sessions


Written work completed with their teacher allowed them to reflect and speculate and they made a presentation to the class of aspects of their own work using drawings as prompts.

Drawing

The children drew:
• In sketch books
• From observation and imagination
• In large and small scale format
• With a variety of both wet and dry media
• Maps, standing pictures of them selves, huge and tiny pictures of houses based upon their sketchbook work.

The children used what they had noticed and learnt about their own environment to make stones, walls, houses both big and small, shops, churches, doorways, gates, roads, maps, futuristic buildings, bridges. These were all placed in an infrastructure to create a townscape in which they placed small standing images of themselves. This led to imaginative play with the children using the tiny figure to interact with the townscape and each other.

The children learnt:
• About forces and cantilevering
• About scale
• That triangulation gives strength to sheet material
• That modern buildings have flatter pitches to their roofs than older buildings
• There are patterns in brickwork
• In the constructed environment you find straight lines and geometric shapes
• In the natural environment there is asymmetry and curvy lines
• Houses are different at the front and at the back
• The fronts of a row of houses tend to be similar the back are often quite different
• Shops and commercial premises tend to group together and attract cars and pedestrians
• Houses tend to be on quieter streets
• Openings need to be made for windows and doors and these are often decorative
• Old and new can exist together
• A built environment has an infrastructure
• There is no limit to the shape and form that a building can take only imagination

Observations

The children worked with commitment, enthusiasm and imagination. It was noticeable that the children’s drawing became highly detailed during the course of the project demonstrating how their learning was being assimilated. They even took their work home and showed their parents what they had learnt

One child who is diagnosed as hyper active became engrossed with his work particularly the 3D aspects. His sketchbook demonstrated a growing commitment as a result of greater concentration.

Two girls produced extremely sophisticated drawings and they were given the opportunity to further develop their skill.

Although all the children were engaged, some of the boys seemed to respond particularly well to the activities requiring large motor skills such as the construction exercises.

Another boy adopted a remarkably analytical approach that enabled him to identify the patterns created in brickwork that the others failed to notice.

The vibrant and busy townscape created by the children attracted enthusiastic comments from parents, teachers, children and visitors and was a rich testament to all they had experienced and learned about their own square mile.


 



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Teacher's Statement

My Square Mile

Morriston Primary School

Y2 Teacher: Mrs Jones

The children at the start of the project recorded through observation their school environment. They drew the walls, windows, doors and the roof of the school using a wide range of materials. We then moved to their environment outside school. We drew buildings, walls and gates.We compared the buildings and roads outside school and the main street. Gill showed them unusual buildings on the white board and this led to the children designing and making futuristic buildings and bridges. They made a map of their journey on paper as well as on the classroom floor. Around this floor map the children build a 3D Morris town. Making houses as they are now out of boxes and houses of the future using paper. Finishing the town with people, lampposts and vehicles.At the start the children's skills in observational drawing were very basic. Houses in the local area were all rectangular in shape and with square windows. As the project progressed they concentrated and took more time over their drawings, which became more detailed. They were now becoming more aware of shape and colour.Developing an awareness of tools and materials, characteristics and qualities. They were far more aware of the man-made forms in their environment.They showed inventiveness and originality whilst designing their 3D buildings, working well in groups and as a whole class. I was very surprised the way the children worked as a whole class making Morris' Palace. They collaborated well together supporting and guiding each other as well as constructively criticising each others ideas.
During the project the children were not only artists, they were designers,town planners, cartographers, environmentalists and architects. "My Square Mile" also incorporated all subjects of the curriculum. The children were fascinated with the derelict house, this led to written work on what they thought was behind the door of the house. They also wrote down ideas of what they would do with the building. They found out about Morriston past from a range of historical sources. In Geography they were able to collect and record information about their local area as well as making a pictorial map of the area around school. They also wrote about what their environment was like and how they would improve it. At the end of the project the children gave a presentation on one of their experiences. Making simple explanations of their choice, speaking in turns with confidence and structuring their talk in ways that are coherent and understandable.They then evaluated their talk, giving ideas on how they would improve it.


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