On Thursday our Pirate Week continued with foil painting
This for us was sensory art or process art
We were not trying to make anything in particular
But we wanted to see what we could do
How the paint would behave on the foil
What marks and impressions we could make
The foil was recycled from our Pieces of Eight Invitation to Play
I laid out the foil on large pieces of cardboard
In the garden
I held the foil in place with stones
It was a windy day
I put out different paints and painting tools
To enable Esther and William to choose
What to use and how
They both decided to start with Easy Painters
These are tubes of paint with a sponge nib
It is like painting with a felt tip pen
They both started to draw circles and swirls on the foil
It was all quite neat and controlled
I asked them to try drawing different shapes
And using different colours
The easy painters gave a nice smooth line on the foil
We tried pressing softly and firmly onto the foil
But the effects were much the same
And so I asked Esther and William to select a new tool
They each had a go with a brush
Brushes on foil leave a wide range of impressions
The stroke marks can be seen in the paint so clearly
Long strokes, soft strokes, short strokes, firm strokes
Dabs and scribbles
We had great fun making pictures and patterns
With the brushes and the paint
Esther and William love colour mixing at the moment
So very quickly they were mixing red and blue
To make a purple colour suitable for a pirate
It was lovely watching them explore colour and texture on the foil
We designed pirate flags as we worked
Drew X marks the spot
And tried making simple treasure maps
All the while we were talking, talking, talking
Which is the great benefit of sensory and process art
The use and development of language
And with it imagination
We also added some specific learning into our play
Thinking about initial letters and sounds
For simple pirate words and for our names
With my educator hat on
Foil is wonderful for mark making
And early writing practice
You can write and overwrite on the foil
Then wash it away and start again
Like a very pretty, sensory whiteboard
When we had our fill of letters and words
William decided that hand prints were the way to go
He does love messy art and play to be, well, messy
Esther and I experimented with printing
And transferring paint from one piece of foil to another
We made some lovely butterflies
We then had the idea of using the foil as a painting tool
Foil on foil
We made foil sticks and scrunched up balls
And when using them to paint we got some weird and wonderful effects
We imagined we were making pretty pictures
For a pirate princess
We had a wonderful time
Inspired by Pinterest
And pirates!