Saturday 7 August 2010

Cat vs Monsters: Battle of Wills



My desk is sparkling with stray glitter, my light-box is piled with fat envelopes, bits of escaped collage are making a break for it across the studio floor and my head is whirling with creepy, be-tentacled, bug-eyed, blood-oozing, multi-headed, spider-encrusted nasties...

Yes, over the last few days, I've been trying to fight my way though all the Hairy Scary competition entries that have come in and, my goodness, it's proving quite a task to choose the winners. I had nearly 30 envelopes of work, some with as many as 100 pictures inside. Where to start?

I'm selecting the best entries from each school first, trying to whittle it down to a short-list of 15 for each of the two age groups. The only way not to get into a total muddle, is to lay out piles of the various school's entries on the studio floor, with the strongest pieces on top of each.

Straightforward you might think, but you'd by failing to take Maddy into account...


We are babysitting her again for the week. She is very sweet, I'm sure you'll agree, but she keeps sneaking into the studio and trying to sit on the monsters. As a compromise, I've have let her have my chair, but then, where do I get to sit?!


As I'm working though the submissions, occasional schools stand out as having lots of creative entries. Like Dobcroft Infants in Sheffield - a special mention to Miss Chaudhrey's Y1 class, whose wild, multi-media work is above.


Woodside Primary
in Oswestry are also impressive - the KS2 entries in particular (above and below) are original and different, and often beautifully detailed.


Right, back to those envelopes. Mmm... it's all right for some:

5 comments:

granny grimble said...

What a job you have Lynne. I don't know how you are going to make a decision with that wonderful array of drawings, aren't they amazingly inventive? Good luck to all the children and may the best monster win!

Lynne the Pencil said...

I know! I am weighed down with the responsibility of being fair, so keep vacillating about which is better than which...

They are such great fun. Some are actually quite scary too!

granny grimble said...

I did notice that each class seems to produce the same species of monster. They must all influence each other. Woodside monsters are mostly horned and slanty eyed, while the class above have a thing about creepy crawlie legs!
By the way, it's good to see your sleek black visiting monster again. She is beautiful.

Lynne the Pencil said...

I wondered if sometimes, when teachers make suggestions as they introduce the idea, to get the children inspired, the kids incorporate those ideas, instead of their own.

Maddy has now gone again unfortunately. She caught a mouse while she was here!

Emily said...

What a talented little kitty! Was the mouse beautifully presented to you?

As for the drawings I both envy the task of judging and don't... what little gem but as mentioned how to choose!