Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping, and I'm really looking forward to learning with you today about reclaimed materials and looking at those through drawing, printing, and sculpture.

We're going to do lots of thinking, talking and exploring together in this lesson.

So shall we get started? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to respond to images of nocturnal animals through modelling materials.

Before we start, I would like to introduce you to some keywords.

We'll be using these keywords during the lesson, so it might be a good idea to write these words down.

The key words we'll be using today are nocturnal, texture, and shape.

I'm going to say those words again, and I would like you to repeat them after me.

Nocturnal, texture, shape.

Good Job.

Now let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean by taking a look at their definitions.

Nocturnal means being active at night and sleeping during the day.

Texture is the feel or appearance of a surface, and shape is the form of something made by a line around the outer edge.

Pause the video here to make note of these key words, and when you're ready to continue, press play.

These are the learning cycles that we are working through together in today's lesson, identifying shapes and textures and responding through playdough.

In this first learning cycle, let's look at identifying some shapes and textures.

What do you already know about this animal here? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you know about this animal? Well, this animal is a hedgehog.

They're nocturnal animals.

A nocturnal animal is an animal that sleeps during the day and comes out at night to eat and play.

Look at this hedgehog here at night exploring this person's garden.

Can you think of any other nocturnal animals? Hmm.

Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner, and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? Do you know any other nocturnal animals? Perhaps you thought of a badger.

They're nocturnal animals, or maybe an owl.

Well, you might have said a fox or a bat, or an owl or a badger.

All of these animals are nocturnal, so they sleep during the day and they come out at night.

Many nocturnal animals have special skills or senses that help them to hunt at night.

The fox has a very special night vision that allows them to move around and find something to eat.

The bat has echolocation.

That's a special skill it has to help them hunt.

The owl has night vision, but also silent flight, so you won't hear an owl when it's in flight.

It's so silent.

And a badger has an excellent sense of smell.

So even in the dark, they're able to find their food.

Now, a bat uses echolocation to help them hunt at night.

What this means is that bats send out very high pitched sound waves, which bounce off insects and other prey.

This is called echolocation.

This lets bats know exactly where insects are located and allows them to find them to have a nice meal at night.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Which of these animals is not nocturnal? Is it A, B, or C? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that B is the animal that is not nocturnal, you are absolutely right.

Squirrels are awake during the day and sleep at night, so they are not nocturnal.

Sometimes, artists will take inspiration from the shapes and textures they see in nocturnal animals.

Shapes are the forms we see all around us, like circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles.

Texture means the feel or appearance of a surface.

Have a look at these images here.

Can you see different textures within these images? What would they feel like if we could actually touch them? What shapes can you see in the hedgehog? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? Well, you might have noticed more than one shape.

Maybe you spotted a triangle here for the nose or a semicircle for the ear, a circle for the eye.

So lots of different shapes.

Now what about the textures that you can see in the hedgehog? What do you think it might feel like? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? Well, you might have noticed more than one texture.

You might have seen a shiny texture across the eye or a spiky texture here on the spines and maybe a bit of a soft texture down here.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

There is only one spiky texture on a hedgehog.

Is this statement, true or false? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think.

And press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that's false, you are absolutely right, but why is that statement false? Can you explain? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you discuss? Maybe you said something like a hedgehog has a spiky texture, but also has soft, furry ears.

Well done.

And when you are drawing, you can hold your sketching pencil like this, and this can help you to achieve both light and dark marks.

So have a look there where you hold your pencil between your finger and your thumb.

Sometimes an artist will want to achieve light marks like here.

Can you see? They're really quite faint.

And they can draw light marks by pressing lightly with their pencil.

Can you see how they've created those light marks there barely touching the page with their pencil? But sometimes artists will want to achieve dark marks, so like these ones on the scale here, and they can draw dark marks by pressing firmly with their pencil.

So can you see here the dark marks you might want to create if you were drawing the bat looking at the detail on its wings? Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

To achieve dark marks an artist can press firmly.

Is this statement true or false? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that's true, you are absolutely right.

To make darker lines or marks, an artist can push down harder with their pencil or tool.

Well done.

This now brings us to our first learning task.

I'd like you to draw the shapes you can see in your chosen nocturnal animal.

So perhaps you might choose the fox or the owl, the hedgehog, the bats or the badger, and you need to draw the shapes you can see in that chosen animal.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at that and press play when you are ready to continue.

How did that go? Well, let's have a look at these examples here.

So you might have spotted some triangles like here in the fox, the owl and the hedgehog, maybe some rectangles like you can see in the fox's legs here, or some soft curved shapes like on the bats, the badger, on the owl's wing and on the fox's tail.

Maybe some four-sided shapes.

You see the shape for the badger there, and then the shapes on the bat's wings, and also some circles on lots of the eyes of these animals, and some semicircles like on the ear of the hedgehog.

Well done for spotting those shapes within the animal that you have chosen.

So this brings us to the second part of this learning task.

I want you to draw the textures you can see in your chosen nocturnal animal.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at drawing those textures.

Think about what it might feel like.

Press play when you are ready to continue.

How did you get on? Well, let's have a look.

You might have drawn some nice light strokes for some fur on the fox, or maybe you've got some darker lines here to show the texture of the owl's wing.

Maybe you've got some light and some dark lines for the spines and the spiky texture here on the head chalk.

Maybe you've used some dark lines here for the texture on the bat's wing, and maybe you focused on the eye of the badger and looking at the different soft textures around there, or the shiny texture of the eye.

So well done for having a go at drawing those textures of your chosen nocturnal animal.

This now brings us to the second part of our lesson.

We're going to look at responding through playdough.

Now, sometimes artists will make shapes and textures from a three-dimensional material.

So taking a look here, can you guess what this material is here with all these different shapes and textures? Now this means the artwork is not flat.

It can be viewed from different angles and sometimes touched.

Artists such as Wangechi Mutu, create textured sculptures, blending human and animal traits.

Wangechi Mutu is a Kenyan American artist known for her powerful and imaginative artwork that blends humans, animals, nature and fantasy.

Her art often shows female figures mixed with animals or natural elements, creating dreamlike creatures.

She uses lots of texture, layers and organic shapes in her work.

Some pieces look like creatures from another world.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Artists can only work on flat surfaces.

Is this statement true or false? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that's false, you are absolutely right, but why is this statement false? Can you explain? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said something like, artists can choose to work on flat surfaces, such as canvas or paper, but they can also work in a three dimensional material such as clay, and you are absolutely right.

Well done.

Lucas is going to make some of the shapes he sees in the image of a bat.

What shapes will he need to make? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you are ready to continue.

What shapes will he need to make? Well, he says, I can see lots of four-sided shapes.

The head is a round shape, and there are two triangle shapes for the ears.

The artist is making similar shapes to Lucas.

What do you notice? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner.

Press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you notice? Well, they're using their fingers to gently mould the shapes.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Which shape might be best to represent the head of the bat, A, B, or C? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think.

And press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said A, you are absolutely right.

The head of the bat is a circular shape.

Well done.

Lucas is making some of the textures he sees in the image of a bat.

I'm practising making some of the dimples I saw on the bat's face.

Can you see here the dimples he's making in this material? Now he can use these tools to create different textures.

This tool will be useful for making the textured lines I see on the wings of the bats.

Now you can start making textures by taking a small amount of playdough, pressing the dough flat, and then using different tools to explore different textures.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Which step is missing from creating a texture with playdough? So we're taking a small amount of playdough and using different tools to explore different textures.

So which step is missing? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that you need to press the dough flat, you are absolutely right.

Well done.

This now brings us to our final learning task.

I'd like you to explore the shapes you can see in your nocturnal animal through playdough.

Think about the shapes that you can see in your image and gently moulding your shapes with your fingers.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at exploring the shapes through playdough and press play when you are ready to continue.

How did you get on? Were you able to create those shapes gently moulding them with your fingers? Well, maybe you made these shapes here if you were doing the bat.

You created some triangles for the ears, a circle for the head, and some four-sided shapes for the body and the wings.

Well done for having a go at creating those shapes for your nocturnal animal.

This brings us to the second part of our final learning task.

I'd like you to explore the textures you can see in your nocturnal animal through playdough.

So take a small amount of playdough, press the dough flat and use different tools to explore different textures.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at experimenting and press play when you are ready to continue.

How did you find that? Well, maybe you've got a range of different textures here.

If you were doing the batch, you might have texture of the lines of the wings, maybe some of the dimples on the skin or the texture of the fur.

So well done for having a go at experimenting with lots of different textures for your nocturnal animal.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learned about nocturnal animals through modelling materials.

Sometimes artists will take inspiration from the shapes and textures they see in nocturnal animals.

Artists can make shapes and textures from a three dimensional material.

Artists can use their hands and other tools to create three dimensional shapes and textures.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson today.

I hope to see you in the next one.

See you next time.