Lazy Sunday and planning art for school; Pollock, Mondrian good. Rangoli bad.

Got up late, rolled out of bed, crawled around the floor for a few minutes until my back decided to play along.

Things are still pretty bad with the back, although the painkillers do help. Overall I think it's improving but it's doing so very. Very slowly. Hopefully a week at work where I'm careful again will see it sorted. But I think another trip to the doctor may be called for. The one on Friday just didn't give me the answers I was after. What I'd really like is the doc to send me along to physio again and see if there's anything else they can do. Unlikely perhaps but I shall try.

Eventually, after the back started working again, I got up, headed downstairs and joined family for a chiling day. After the past few weeks of non stop activity it was good to actually have some down time. And for one reason and another the next few weeks in October are going to be very, very, very busy as well with packed weekends. More on that later.

Now feeling chilled enough to contemplate a little bit of computery work. Blogging, Reviewing and then creating resources for Year 2 ICT unit that we're starting after half term. It's a very good one this time, much fun for the kids and for me. The unit's called Creating Pictures. So my plan was to spend 7 weeks working to the plan we came up with last year. One week of introductory stuff, two weeks of making Jackson Pollock artwork, two weeks making Mondrian artwork, two weeks of making Christmas stuff on the computer. A great plan, perfectly timed for the half term. The kids love beiung able to use the paint programs and actually making things they can compare to the work of famous artists.

I even found this fantastic flash website that helps you create your own Jackson Pollock. Very simple, lots of fun:



Except that's not the way it's going to happen. Because the student teacher has had an idea. This is rarely a good idea and invariably means a lot more work for me. She wants to compress Pollock and Mondrian into a lesson each (doubtful) and spend two weeks getting the children to make Rangoli patterns. This is purely because she's decided to be clever and get all cross-curricular on me. This covers ICT, art, geography and D&T and she gets to tick lots of boxes.

At the time I explained that to do it properly the way she wanted it (pupils have Rangoli templates that they can then use fill on the computers to colour in) would take more expertise than our 6 year olds have. But she's determined. I had a good go at making it work but it just isn't possible to do with a 6 year old in two half hour sessions. So I have stopped and will give her the great news tomorrow.

Now, back to reviewing stuff...