Monday, April 23, 2012

Crafternoon - Pencil Drawings

It's a rainy day here in Sydney for our last day of school holidays. The children and I have had such a beautiful time together the last few weeks, that I'll be so sorry to see them back at school tomorrow.  I could so easily home-school these gorgeous kiddos...
This morning we had "Crafternoon" (ok it's the wrong time of day but that's what we call it around here). The kids read a book and then drew their interpretation of it. Today they did pencil drawings and also used some watercolour pencils.


I'm a big believer in having lovely art supplies - it really promotes nicer art work when you are working with beautiful materials. It also teaches kids to take care and treasure their pencils and craft supplies when they are beautiful to begin with. We bought Sasha this tin of 72 Derwent pencils for Christmas. She really takes care of them! She still has them in colour order!  I won a set of Derwent pencils in a colouring competition when I was in 4th grade and I still have them 35 years later - most of them are well used and much shorter but it goes to show what teaching kids to treasure their art supplies can do.
This morning I just set the art supplies up and left the kids to it. Here's what they came up with themselves with no help from me. I love their creativity!

Jonty (who has just turned 6) read his book "When I'm Feeling Angry".  He's written "When I'm feeling angry, I feel like there is a boiling hot volcano in my tummy that is about to explode!"


Sasha (who is 8 and a half) read one of our favourite children's books "Edward Built a Rocketship". This is a seriously delightful book and we can all recite it from heart.  

 I love her mix of pencil and wash for the sky and how she's left the clouds white. 
We are still hoping that it clears up enough to spend the afternoon in the park but it's not looking hopeful.  I was also hoping to finish the 2 milk paint bedside tables that I started at the Porter's Paint class on Saturday but I need to sand the second one before waxing and as it creates a huge amount of dust I need to do it outside so I need some dry weather. I can't wait to show you the finished product and tell you all about the course. Hopefully tomorrow!


cheers from one proud mummy,
Fiona



5 comments:

  1. My kids love to 'be creative' as my son aptly calls it, and I love it. Although we do have lumps of black pastel in our brand new carpet though, thanks to their recent creations, oops :(

    I just picked up a lovely sideboard, can't wait to get stuck into it but I will have to wait until Geoff is home from work to get it out of the car, it is heavy!

    xx Karen

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  2. You are so right. We need to teach our children to appreciate and value their writing tools and "tool box" as I call it. As a teacher, I see such waste and consumerism by our children who think, that a new set of pencils and textars every term is acceptable and even expected!! G.x

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  3. Hello Fiona. My name is Graham Ross and I am the illustrator of Edward Built A Rocketship. I came across your blog as I was searching for titles online in preparation for a gallery show of my children's book illustrations. Some of the illustrations from Edward are presently in the gallery show. I wanted to pass along my sincere thanks for the lovely comments about Edward. Seeing Sasha's interpretation of my artwork had me beaming, and grinning from ear to ear. Such a lovely reward to see my work has made an impression.

    Hoping you receive my note 3 years after the fact.

    Wishing you and your children the very best

    Graham Ross

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