Multi Faith Multi Cultural Art Week – October 2017

In order to raise our understanding of our multi-faith multi-cultural world, we decided to base our arts week around a particular faith or culture.

Reception Class decided to look at Buddhism . They learnt the story of the Bodhi Tree, did some meditation, learnt about prayer flags and learnt about the 5 precepts of Buddhism.

Year 1 learnt about the Hindu harvest festival called Onam. They created colourful “pookalam” pictures and had a very special visit from Mrs Feeney in her sari. Mrs Feeney’s parents come from India and she talked to Year 1 about the red spot or “tikka” and taught the children the traditional greeting of “Nameste”.

Year 2 studied Inuit art and in particular the art of Kenojuak Ashevak. They modelled their work on designs such as her “Enchanted Owl”. Year 2 also copied the Inuksak stone sculptures which were used to mark trails on which have been found in the artic for thousands of years.

Year 3 learnt about Islamic art. They studied the geo-metric designs and then created their own designs. Some of these were put together to create a large prayer mat. Samarra talked to the class about her prayer mat and read from the Quran.

Year 4 studied the two main symbols of Judaism. They designed and created beautiful clay tiles to explain how the Menorah is linked to the story of Moses and how the symbol of the star links to the story of David.

Year 5 learnt about how Christianity is a world-wide religion and that consequently there are many different styles of crosses from the many cultures around the World. They used collage and other techniques to create crosses from places such as Bangladesh, El Salvador as well as Taize crosses.

Year 6 studied Ugandan Folk Art. They noticed that that red, black and yellow are the main colours -the colours of the Ugandan flag! The colours represent red (earth), yellow (the ever present sun) and black (the colour of the skin of the Ugandan people).  Year 6 noticed that much of the art represented everyday life such as carrying water. Year 6 also learnt that many people in Uganda struggle to find fresh water.