Suggestions for Primary Schools

Ages 5 to 7 (Key Stage 1) and 7 to 11 (Key Stage 2)

Henry Moore at Houghton Hall is the latest in a series of contemporary art exhibitions that bring young people of school age into direct contact with ground breaking artists within the setting of an English country house. Houghton Hall was commissioned in the C18th by Sir Robert Walpole to house his art collection. It is therefore fitting that young people can experience contemporary art in this unique context, contrasting the historic and the new. There are two subject suggestions explored at each educational level, relating to the work of Henry Moore on display in the park and gardens and in the house.

PRIMARY SCHOOLS

ANIMAL BONES 

Look at the Henry Moore drawings of an elephant skull and think about how his drawings describe what forms a real animal’s head. The elephant’s skull has an interesting combination of gaps and holes in its surfaces where tusks have been. Looking at the features of the skull get your pupils to draw their favourite cartoon character as a skeleton or imagine the character as an X-Ray.

MOTHERS 

Henry Moore returned time and again to depictions of women, either as single figures or as mothers in groups with a child or several children. The exhibition includes single female figures, some reclining and one of a mother and child, seated. He did this many times. Moore was interested in how we see women in art.

Suggestions for Primary Schools

Ages 5 to 7 (Key Stage 1) and 7 to 11 (Key Stage 2)

PRIMARY SCHOOLS

ANIMAL BONES

SUGGESTED QUESTIONS

What would your favourite animated figure look like once stripped of their outer surface? Would the skeleton still look like a cartoon?

Would the character be able to stand up and walk? Would it have paws or fingers?

If the inside of your cartoon character is soft, will its outside look smooth or will its outer skin surface be wrinkly like an elephant?

Will the cartoon character look funny or scary?

MOTHERS

SUGGESTED QUESTIONS

Discuss why some of the female figures in Henry Moore’s sculpture may be lying down, while others are seated or holding children.

Do you see Moore’s figures as women or as something else, like a landscape or an object?

Draw a picture of your own mother, grandmother or female family friend as they appear to you. They could be either seated or lying down or doing something that you’ve seen them do, like walking or running.

Then draw a second drawing as others might see them. Think about how that person might look if you did not know them. What are the differences between the two drawings?

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Suggestions for Primary Schools

Ages 5 to 7 (Key Stage 1) and 7 to 11 (Key Stage 2)

PRIMARY SCHOOLS

ANIMAL BONES

SUGGESTED QUESTIONS

What would your favourite animated figure look like once stripped of their outer surface? Would the skeleton still look like a cartoon?

Would the character be able to stand up and walk? Would it have paws or fingers?

If the inside of your cartoon character is soft, will its outside look smooth or will its outer skin surface be wrinkly like an elephant?

Will the cartoon character look funny or scary?

MOTHERS

SUGGESTED QUESTIONS

Discuss why some of the female figures in Henry Moore’s sculpture may be lying down, while others are seated or holding children.

Do you see Moore’s figures as women or as something else, like a landscape or an object?

Draw a picture of your own mother, grandmother or female family friend as they appear to you. They could be either seated or lying down or doing something that you’ve seen them do, like walking or running.

Then draw a second drawing as others might see them. Think about how that person might look if you did not know them. What are the differences between the two drawings?

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FACEBOOK

ANIMAL BONES 

MOTHERS 