Merry merry christmas

With only a few days left we have frantically finished off paper mâché models and I've opened the last kiln load for the year.

It's been as usual a busy year with lots of creativity!

I have sent home the kids visual diaries with suggestions for drawing activities to keep their drawing eye in over the holidays. 

Wishing you all a lovely relaxing fun filled summer holiday!

This yellow bird looks like how I feel - with my eyes spinning as I try to clean up our school art studio! ;)

Upcycled paper mâché project

Finally after athletics, fun runs, and a short period of leave for me the kids are completing their paper mâché figures. Each class had a theme that matched with their classroom learning in English, science or history.

Some classes did animals and birds...

some made aliens...

others have made figures from our colonial past.

By next week most kids should be finished! I'll post more photos then!

history links

A couple of classes are looking at early settlement times in Australia. 

To link in with their classroom theme I modified the paper mâché project I'd planned for these two yr 3/4 classrooms. Rather than make animals we have opted to create some characters that may have been around in early colonial times. 

We researched some images of paintings and early photos of those times and made notes in our visual diaries using sketches and some phrases or adjectives.

Today we used bottles, card, pipe cleaners and newspaper to create armatures (frames) for our sculptures that will be covered with paper mâché next week.

Some are making bushrangers, others swagmen a couple are making soldiers and there are quite a few ladies with bonnets and parasols! 

There are bugs in our studio!

Beautiful winged bugs and butterflies!

Rooms 8, 9, 13 and 14 have been helping to beautify the studio with a host of lovely mixed media sculptures of butterflies and winged flying insects.

In creating these artworks we discussed the concept of symmetry along a centre line. We also talked about pattern. The children were able to choose weather to make more realistic butterflies or they could create a fantasy flying creature- even and alien winged bug.

Rooms 8 and 9 (year 1)  had one 45 minute session to create their insects. The focus was on using the PVA glue effectively. We found pegs were handy to use to hold things together while we waited for the glue to bond.

Rooms 13 and 14 (year 3 and 4) had two one and a half hour sessions and created more complex forms using wire and cellophane structures having a go at one of three techniques demonstrated in order to join the wings to the body or discovering a better one of their own.

These artworks are totally the work of the children - apart from demonstrating different techniques to solve a problem I try not to 'help" kids by doing their work for them. Only when a child has given it a good go first do I lend an extra hand. It is so satisfying to see the kids surprise themselves with their dexterity at a task they had at first attempt given in to.