In March we reported on artist Helen Plant's project at Chudleigh Community Primary School, leading an ambitious series of THF-supported workshops. Over two very full days, she worked with the whole of Y3 (over 70 children) in a series of small groups. Children prepared for the workshop in advance by practising drawing trees and parts of trees – leaves, bark, seed pods etc.
Using starch resist, the outlines of leaf designs were painted onto A0 sized fabric sheets, and children working in pairs, coloured in the leaf shapes and then created fabric designs for a large scale series of posters based on the theme of each class's name.
Each of the 5 classes in Y3 is named after a tree: sycamore, hazel, willow, oak and chestnut. The children had to learn new techniques such as starch resist and co-operated closely together in creating their designs.
Helen took the designs away and turned them into acrylic sign-boards for each classroom - and here are just two of them. Magic!