During forest school sessions, Year 6 have been completing a project towards the Green Tree School’s Platinum award! Mercury’s theme was woodland perspectives and how wildlife, trees, plants and nature can all look different if we look at them from a range of angles.  This project interlinked well with Mercury’s art topic of photography, so the children were able to experiment and capture different perspectives using a range of tools.

Activity 1 – Pre-visit

To start the project off Mercury had to think about what different wildlife would live in the woods at Washingwell School. Birds, ladybirds, spiders, hedgehogs, squirrels to name a few. We then compared the animals view of the woods and discussed the differences.

“Birds fly high in the sky, so they would be looking down over the top of the trees.” – LT

“Squirrels scurry fast, both on the ground and climb up trees so they would get a different view depending on where they were. Sometimes they would be looking up from the ground and other times they could see far in the distance if high in the trees.” – HH

“Birds get an aerial view of the woods which is why it’s called a bird’s eye view.” – CD

“Ladybirds are really small and are often found on leaves. Everything would appear massive!” – HC

Activity 2 – Visiting the woods

Next, we went out to the woods and were asked to sketch 4 different perspectives: 1 from a bird’s eye view; 1 from a bug’s view; 1 close-up shot and 1 capturing the woods from afar. Examples of these perspectives were shown to the us and we were able to think and sketch our own ideas too. As we walked around the woods, some of us had climbed up trees and were sitting on a branch sketching what a bird’s eye view would look like, some were lying on the grass and drawing each blade and others were sketching what flowers would look like from underneath them, as if we were the tiniest of insects climbing the stems.

Activity 3 – Taking photographs

After we had sketched the different perspectives, we then used cameras to capture the different perspectives and had to make them come alive! Everyone explored the woods capturing a range of photos, some close-ups using the macro setting, using our photography skills and knowledge too, eye-level shots, some used the trees and branches to frame their long shots and some lay on their back and took photos of the canopy from below. Mercury certainly have some aspiring, creative photographers in class!

Back in the classroom, we printed out our photos and compared and discussed the different views we had captured. There was a great discussion by SR and SD about how intimidated a ladybird would feel if they were crawling on the ground and a human walked past and how large a footprint would be! The most popular view was the ‘bug’s view because everything appeared so large and it fascinated the class as how the woodland can look very different if you are a small insect. HH and LS commented on small insects’ safety and although they can scurry underneath large twigs, they are at risk of being harmed because they are so small.

Activity 4 – Creating our own composition

Mercury then reviewed our photographs and decided which one we liked the best, what features we liked and disliked and what effect it created. Once we had chosen our favourite photograph, we then made our own composition. As a class we discussed how a perspective can be created into a piece of art. We used a range of media including: paints, watercolours, chalk and pencils. After completing our composition, we then evaluated and reviewed our work. We commented on why we choose this particular perspective and what made it our favourite. We compared our work with classmates and discussed the different media used. Some of us choose watercolours to enhance the painting, as some parts needed the lightest splash of colour, whereas others used chalk and shading to deepen the different shades of the bark in the trees. Some choose not to add colour and wanted to show the outline of the perspective without adding colour.

Sharing our woodland perspectives

To end our project, we had the pleasure of sharing our work with the Year 3 class, Earth who also took part in a woodland project. We discussed the different woodland perspectives and by simply changing your view or angle, objects and landscapes can look very different. We shared our photographs as well as our compositions and discussed our favourites and asked Year 3 for their feedback on our work.

We also got the chance to listen and look at the wonderful work Year 3 completed too, all about the wildlife and their habitats.