S5 art

Lamorna completed this pencil drawing today and also created this fiery sky using acrylics and a palette knife. It will be used as the background for another drawing.

Snowshow!

S1 - S3 drama students took a trip to the Kings Theatre to see Slava's Snowshow - have a look at some pictures and a video on the home blog.

S3 revision techniques lesson

S3 have been brainstorming together the different methods they can use to revise. They have looked at visual, auditory and kinaesthetic methods. Each pupil has collected materials for their holiday revision work, and is making a plan...



We have spent time today breaking down the process of revision and discussing how to engage the brain at each stage. The class identified aspects they struggle with and we all came up with solutions. For example, instead of sitting reading, you could try walking about to do the reading stage of the process.


The class will hand in their revision materials so that the class can share ideas and assess how useful they are.



Watch this space!




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Successful exhibition!

Thank you to all who supported our 1st ever digital art exhibition today. It was a super success with over 90 paintings sold!

Middle school pupils were excellent at welcoming visitors, showing them round and demonstrating different apps. They were a credit to the school- well done!


I will send home as many of the purchased paintings as possible with the relevant children before we break up for the holidays. Some paintings will have to be reordered over the holidays but will be ready for as soon as we come back.

If you have bought a painting and it has not arrived by Tuesday 1st November, please do not hesitate to email me as it is possible that there may have been the odd mishap with our ordering system at busy times! jo@cedars.inverclyde.sch.uk

If you couldn't make the exhibition but would like to order a painting, you can view most of the exhibits on our flickr site. You can access it from the page that lists all the blogs on the school website.

Please email me at if you want to order any paintings and I will arrange it. jo@cedars.inverclyde.sch.uk

Exhibition

Middle school pupils were making final preparations for the digital art exhibition today. There are over 160 paintings by pupils and staff. Everyone is welcome to come and see the exhibition and learn how to use some of the art apps. It is from 10 - 2 on Tuesday 11th in the new extension hall at Struthers Memorial Church / the New Dawn Coffee shop.

Mobile 'to exceed people globally by 2012'.

Daria sent us this link today: http://news.sky.com/home/technology/article/16083288







We had an interesting discussion about whether mobile devices have made our lives better or worse. Mrs Creighton told the class that she bought her first mobile about a year after they had all been born, so she was the only person who could give insight into life before mobile phones. However, one member of the class has been without a mobile phone since his ended up in the washing machine, and he was coping perfectly well with life! Some of the girls gasped in horror at this and admitted to sending almost 200 texts a day- at which point Mrs C and most of the boys gasped in horror!

Daria also asked us what the writer's purpose was in writing the article and whether the statistics in it were reliable.

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S5 art

Lamorna was using acrylic paint and a palette knife to create a fiery sky for one of her artworks today:

S3 artists

S3 were giving feedback on some critical studies work on paintings by Van Gogh - we has some interesting discussions.

Then it was back to the practical work:










Nicol completed this smoking cigar optical illusion using chalk pastels today:

Not to left out...

S5 did not want to be left out of next Tuesday's Art exhibition so they had a quick digital painting ArtRage lesson:




Here are their masterpieces:

Lamorna's:




Ailie's:




And Zander's:

Senior school art

Here are some finished pieces of work by pupils in S3-S5:

An oil pastel handbag by Melissa:




A watercolour tent by Jennifer:




An oil pastel police car by Euan:




An oil pastel still life on a sweets theme by Chloe:




A baking still life in acrylic paint by Leo and in pencil by Kieran:






A chalk pastel monopoly board by Christopher:




A pencil drawing of a flip flop by Nico:




Some oil pastel hockey pucs by David:




And a chalk pastel pocket watch by Nathan:

S3 historians: Democracy vs dictatorship

S3 are finding out how Britain became a democracy. Through their studies they are looking at wider themes and today they are focusing on understanding new key words including fascism, democracy, plutocracy, autocracy, dictatorship, communism, mutiny and revolution. Here, they are playing the game we call 'keyword exchange.'












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Digital Art Exhibition

Middle school pupils will be running an exhibition of digital art on Tuesday 11th October from 10 am - 2 pm. The exhibition includes work from P1 - S5 and will be held in the New Dawn Coffee Shop top hall. The hall can be accessed from Jamaica Lane or through the coffee shop on West Stewart Street. Pupils will be giving demonstrations of how to use different art apps on the iPad, paintings will be for sale and all visitors will get a free tea or coffee voucher for the New Dawn Coffee Shop.

All are very welcome to come along for a look round.

Senior school art

Pupils in S3 - 5 completed these artworks today:

An acrylic painting of books by Euan:




An oil pastel still life of sports equipment by Zander:




An oil pastel still life related to cars by Scott:




And a chalk pastel beach ball by Nico:

More S3 reading homework

Christopher emailed the class this story about a pilot car hiring scheme in Paris: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15134136






He asked us whether we thought people who already owned cars would make use of the scheme or not, and also if we thought this scheme would be adopted in other cities around the world. This led onto a class discussion about our own preferences of transport: Mrs Creighton likes to listen to people's coversations on the train (as long as she can get a seat), but doesn't like taking the bus! Euan prefers public transport to getting a lift in the car, as opposed to most of the others who would rather use Mum and Dad's taxi service!
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Excellent Essay Skills

Over the last week, S3 have been working on a critical evaluation on a short story by Ray Bradbury. They were writing about how tension is built up in the story through the use of setting in time and place, the use of flase alarms and the main character, Lavinia.





Ian has written an excellent essay and his opening paragraph is a great example of how to write an introduction:

The Whole Town's Sleeping by Ray Bradbury is a short story in which there is a build up of tension. In this story, Bradbury uses setting to establish tension, by setting the story in a small isolated town, in late evening and early night. The story's central concerns are danger and fear. The main character, Lavinia Nebbs, faces both danger and fear on her walk home alone from the movies, at a time when there is a murderer called "The Lonely One" on the loose. During the story, Bradbury uses a series of false alarms to heighten the tension. Moreover, the author uses character development to raise the tension further by showing a change in Lavinia's character from a strong, fearless woman at the start of the story to a terrified character in the grip of panic at the end.

Well done, Ian.
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More history presentations

Here is Jennifer speaking about how world war one changed life for women.





Here is Andrew describing the experiences of men during the Somme offensive.





Stuart and Kerr spoke on The stalemate- why it happened, the consequences, and how each side tried to break it.







Scott and Angus spoke on the variety of technology developed during the war.




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