Our Year 2 have been taking part in the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation’s Global Canvas competition.
Global Canvas children’s art competition is an annual international art contest run by David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF), to encourage creativity from young people, and to display thought and concern for our planet’s environment and the incredible wildlife that inhabits it.
Set up in 2004 by DSWF’s founder, wildlife artist and conservationist David Shepherd, each year, the competition receives thoughtful and creative entries from all over the world, with an amazing array of interpretations of the year’s theme.
In 2022, the competition received over 800 entries from groups and individuals across 50 countries. Winners and runner-ups came from USA, UK, Greece, Lithuania, India, Dubai, China, Russia, Portugal, and Spain.
Year 2 entry for the competition
In Year 2 at Forres Sandle Manor School, our topic this term is Biodiversity and Endangered Species. We had many questions and wanted to learn more, so we invited a visitor from the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation to talk to us about the importance of protecting habitats and the species that rely on them. We also went on a Moss Safari and looked for nematode worms, tardigrades, and gastrotrichs through microscopes, gaining an appreciation for the diversity of life on our planet.
To better understand the biodiversity in our local environment, we have been observing and making notes on the changes we have seen each week. We decided to create a group piece for our entry into the Global Canvas 2023, Biodiversity, a complex web of life. Our goal was to show the importance of biodiversity and how each creature and plant plays a part in the delicate balance of nature, so we created a woven art piece. The horizontal canvas represented animals, and the vertical canvas showed plant life, which we decorated by drawing and painting to illustrate the variety of life that exists.
It was a challenge to weave it all together, but we worked as a team and used branches from the school woods to hold the weave in place. When we finished, we noticed that some of the animals and plants were covered up. Initially, we were disappointed but then realised this could be used to demonstrate the impact of human activity on our planet and how many animals are now endangered or extinct as a result. We hope our work can inspire people to take care of our planet and appreciate the beauty of biodiversity; we loved making it!
See the Entry Video
Biodiversity Photographs
See more about Forres Sandle Manor Independent School News here.