The Flow 

Author: Ms Anne Marie Stock

This year, I have the privilege to be one of the class teachers for 3N.  I am teaching Topic alongside Mr C who is teaching Maths and English.  I love teaching topic as I can make it as creative as my imagination allows – and the children are already used to me saying, “oooohhhh!  I have an idea!” – to which they chorus, “Oh No!”

We are learning about Flow at the moment.  This is focused on Rivers and water in Science and Geography – so we made a River!  As ECAs do not start until after Golden Week, I took advantage of Friday afternoon to use Art in a geographical way.  I explained my idea to make a river across the back display board to Mr C and he suggested that we used our hand shapes to create the water effect.  The children asked why and we looked at Hokusai's painting 'The Great Wave at Kanazawa' and saw how his waves looked like fingers.  So Ms Bella went off to find blue and green paper (helped by Ms Grace).

So Friday afternoon, we sat down to start cutting hand shapes and then … the magic happened!

As they finished and brought their hands to the back, we decided to outline a river shape – Celine and Shirley used ribbon to define it.  The students then started to stick their hand shapes to the wall and began to organise themselves into groups, choosing different shades of blue and green. 

We needed weeds so Theodore began to cut our circles from recycled coffee carriers, he sat down on the floor and other students came to join him.  He showed them what to do and monitored their progress.   

Winson and Michael began to cut hands out of fabric to give a different texture. Several students, including Jeremy, Chloe and Cathy began to cut out seaweed and river plants and looked carefully at the placement by the side of the river.  The hands started to swirl and change direction to mimic waves.

All afternoon there was a lovely working buzz with everyone supporting each other and thoroughly enjoying creating their river.

We haven't finished; this will last for several weeks to come.  This week we will add labels, explanations, more river plants and some boats.  We will also create a cross section of a river on the classroom blinds (don't tell Ms Anne ). We have talked about rivers being like roads and used for transportation; we have looked at how rivers start and how they meander along the valleys; we have investigated where the River Severn meets the sea.  We are going to find rivers and name them and add them to our list.  We will label a map of the world – we are having so much fun (Oops! that should say learning so much) that we will be sad to see it end.  When we finish – the children will write the next message to show off their learning – I can't wait (and I must tell them)

Enjoy!

Miss Anne