Boats
Boats
Dalmilling Primary School, Ayrshire, ages 7–9
How Do Boats Float?
Our pupils wondered how the boats in the painting stay afloat. We learned about buoyancy and did lots of floating and sinking experiments. We made floating boats out of tin foil before making our final pieces from papier-mâché decorated with pictures of Venice.
Peasedown St John Primary School, Bath, ages 4–5
Celebration Boat
Children in Reception Class said that their favorite thing about the painting was the red boats. So we decided to make our own red boat from recycled cardboard and paper, with textile decorations on the outside and people inside wearing party costumes.
Laleham Gap School, Ramsgate – a special school for students with autism and communication needs, ages 4–17
Stop-Motion Animation
After looking at the painting, we decided to create an animation piece, with each child designing their own gondola and gondolier. Children learned how to use stop-motion animation to bring their creation to life, before filming and editing their own sequences.
Weston Favell Primary School, Northampton, ages 8–9
Decorated Boats
We loved the bright colours and ornate decoration of the boats in the painting. We made the structure of our boats using recycled cardboard, before adding felt, curled paper, feathers and glitter for the decoration.
Vicar’s Green Primary School, London, ages 7–8
Venetian Gondoliers
We wanted to celebrate the gondoliers who would have been working hard to steer the boats. We began by constructing wire frames for our figures, before carefully shaping them with tinfoil and Plaster of Paris. Finally, we painted the traditional clothes, including black trousers and a striped top.
St James C of E Primary School, London, ages 8–9
Giovanna the Little Gondola
We noticed a small gondola in the painting and thought about how it might feel! We thought that the gondola would be dreaming to join the race. This led us to write and illustrate a book to tell the story of little Giovanna’s adventure.