Zoo

On a Y5/6 zoo visit, each group of children chose a particular animal to study and draw. By this stage of the year, they had had a lot of opportunity to develop their observed drawing skills. (See PAGE Draw what you see.) Even so, the task was not altogether easy. It was a good, modern zoo, with large, natural enclosures. Some animals were just too far away, or hiding completely. Those that were close seemed perversely unwilling to pose long enough for a portrait. Nonetheless, the children made a good fist of their sketching, adding notes about colour, texture, etc., as well as words to describe the creature’s character, movement and apparent mood.

Back in the classroom, they worked up their sketches into full pictures using pastels on black sugar paper. It was suggested that they did not need to try to reproduce their sketches exactly, but rather use them as a guide, focusing mainly on capturing the ‘essence’ of the particular creature they had observed.

I remember vividly the set of resulting pictures, perhaps because the images themselves were so vivid and characterful. Sadly, for reasons I no longer recall, I do not seem to have recorded very many of them. However, here are the ones that do appear to have survived.

(For anyone interested, notes on the teaching approaches that helped children towards these outcomes are on the COMMENTARY PAGES of this blog.)