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Tuesday 26 April 2016

Summer Art Courses for Primary Teachers - Part 1

Summer Art Courses for Primary Teachers 

This post is a work in progress at the moment and I will continue to update it over the next few weeks with art courses on offer around the country.

I have only completed one art summer course and it was a face to face course in my local teachers centre. I came away with lots of ideas and the week flew by! 

The first course to grab my attention is being run by The Lewis Glucksman Gallery. 

Summer Course for Primary Teachers

1. This August The Lewis Glucksman Gallery, UCC is offering a Summer Course for Primary Teachers called Learning through Creativity. The five-day
course will examine how art can be used to increase student participation
and understanding of subjects when looking at other strands of the
curriculum such as Math, Language, Science, History and SPHE. Led by the
Glucksman curatorial team, this course will encourage participants to engage in class discussions, exercises in narrative and storytelling as well as practical art making sessions. Each day participants will work with a different professional artist in a different  medium to learn new
art making techniques suitable for the classroom. Set in the beautiful gallery settings, surrounded by contemporary art this is a unique opportunity not to be missed!

I teach infants is the course suitable for me? 

Last year we had teachers from every age group, from senior infants to a
secondary school art teacher. Although the projects relate directly to 5th/6th class curriculum, the techniques and skills taught are transferrable across all age groups. Also we keep the group small so teachers can get sufficient time to work through their own ideas and build
skills for their own practice. 

How is the course structured? 

The morning sessions are spent with the Glucksman curatorial team and we look at artists, art movements, projects and ideas that combine art with other strands of the curriculum. The afternoon sessions are practical art making workshops with the professional artists.

Monday - Art and Language - Collage with Cassandra Eustace -
http://backwaterartists.ie/artists/cassandra-eustace
Tuesday - Art and Math - Printmaking with Dominic Fee -
http://www.dominicfee.com/
Wednesday - Art and History - Painting with Paul McKenna -
http://paulmckennaart.blogspot.ie/
Thursday - Art and Science - Drawing with Angela Gilmour -
http://www.angelagilmour.com/
Friday - Art and SPHE - Sculpture with Fiona Kelly - http://fionakelly.co/

How much is the course and how do I book a place? 

Learning through Creativity
Monday 22nd August to Friday 26th August 2016
10am – 2:30pm
Cost: €75
Target class groups – 5th/6th class
Booking is essential and can be made through info@glucksman.org or


The course has been approved by Drumcondra
Education Centre on behalf of the Department of Education, participants of the course will be eligible for EPV days as outlined in Primary Circular 37/97. 








Wednesday 20 April 2016

Fields of Flowers

I have been so busy lately and have neglected the blog! My apologies to anyone who has missed me!

I finally got to use a lesson from Hervé Tullet's 'Art Workshops for Children'. Not only did I throughly enjoy it but I am so happy with the results too. Bright and beautiful flowers to adorn the class walls. 


I set up a row of tables across the class (no seats needed) and covered them in newspaper. I placed A3 white paper in a line down the table but I didn't tape the pages together as I needed to place the sheets on racks to dry.

Each child was given a paintbrush and pot of paint (any colour except green). Once I had explained the idea and rules (to keep us safe as there is lots of moving around) we got started. 

The teacher leads the lesson by calling out instructions and guiding the children.

Here are some of the instructions I gave -

1. Paint a dot
2. Paint a bigger dot
3. Paint a circle
4. Paint a dot in a circle
5. Paint dots around a dot
6. Paint a circle in a circle

After each instruction I asked the children to change places. Remember you can repeat instructions as often as you see fit. Keep an eye on the work in progress, if you think a page is full remove it. If you see white space that needs to be filled point it out. 

Once all pages were nicely covered in flowers I collected the pots, cleaned the brushes to be used again, and gave out pots of green paint. Now the kids set to work adding stems and leaves to our flowers.

As before if a page is done remove it. Less is more :)

This lesson was lively and fun. I can't wait to try another one from the book! 


I only photographed one page, but isn't it lovely! 

Give it a try :)