A few more birds and some characters from our colonial past.

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!

Preparing to print!

At last! Every child has their printmaking plate ready to go. There is no swimming lessons, or sport's events or any other excursions - that I know of!  (There's NAPLAN but fortunately not too many class changes as a result!)

 

 First we explored taking a line for a walk (Paul Klee style) then made up 'rules' for taking our lines for a walk creating patterns  that were then used to create designs for printmaking. You can see in Megs visual diary the process we have been through to develop our printmaking plates.

But now I have to go to a meeting to address some changes that need to happen in our school! Fortunately for me the Emily, the lovely lady stepping in to take my class on Monday is also a friend and was able to pop into the Art studio today (Saturday) and I could give her a quick printmaking tutorial - to give her some tips and clearly show her what we are working on. Thanks Emily!

At the same time I did a few colour tests for the children to see how the colours they have chosen will go together. 

I also made up two examples so they could see that their work could be repeated by simply sliding their design ...

OR by rotating the design.

Same printmaking plate - two very different designs.

These pieces of fabric will be decorated using embroidery stitches then transformed into anything the children want to make. I have said I want to see them print on fabric and use threads to decorate the surface of their work other than that it is up to them. Some children will be making pencil cases - if they are new to the school or have lost the ones they have made last year. Others will be making drawstring bags or cushions. One boy suggested coasters to go under hot drinks on the table, another has bought in a T-shirt so he can stitch his finished piece to the front of that.

I'm looking forward to seeing what they all come up with!

Perfect fit.

Our school choir will be attending the massed school choir event later this year. One of the songs relates in some way to M.C.Escher (I'm not sure how but I can't wait to see!) Anyway our music specialist asked if I would introduce Escher to the children. So we have interrupted our normal programme to have a quick look at the beautiful intriguing work of Escher.

I have been showing the classes this video - it's not too long but really demonstrates what Escher was all about and how his work links to mathematics.

Although we have taken a bit of a detour by introducing another artist in the middle of a project it actually works really well, a perfect fit in our current programme. Most classes will be almost ready to start their printmaking project, which will be a simple tessellation of a square tile decorated with lines from our investigation of Paul Klee's work .

Printmaking can be a bit of a messy nightmare in a classroom studio with 28 to 32 kids in a class. SO I have come up with a system that uses printmaking stations and allows kids to focus carefully on the printmaking process without other children around them pressuring them for their turn or making a mess of the printmaking area.I majored in printmaking at uni and am the daughter of an artist who also did a lot af printmaking so I can be a bit fussy with how the printmaking is done! I've seen some teachers just let the kids 'go for it' but I'd rather they learn the process well and the importance of keeping the area clean etc.)

I set up printmaking stations and children go to these to print ( containing the mess to a couple of areas ) I have created a set of numbered cards, each child gets one and this tells them which printmaking station they will go to- red green or blue and the order in which they will go. Once a child has finished printmaking they return their card to me an I call out the next number ; green 4 your turn - a bit like waiting in line at the licensing place or medicare!

While children are waiting for their turn to print they go on with another activity. Sometimes this might be a written component reflecting on their own work so far or responding to an art work by an artist related to the topic we are covering. This time they will be creating their own 'Escheresque' tessellations.

Most children have been creating simple square tessellations where a segment is cut from one side of the square and slid across to the opposite side and taped in place to create a template. Here is video tutorial if you'd like to give it a go at home!

One year 7 boy who was intrigued by the tessellations and wanted to try something a little more challenging so we did a quick search and found this video tutorial on how to create rotational tessellations. It is a step by step how to for a computer and we were trying to do it without the programme using our ruler, pencil and a piece of card. So he and I worked together to try and figure it out - it was a bit tricky and he tried hard to make it work and is going to keep trying at home. It was quite challenging. (I'm glad to say I did manage to figure it out. ) I've included the video just in case you want to challenge yourself and have a go - maybe you have the programme it refers to!

PS.

Today at recess the boy I mentioned and his friend came to show me that they had figured out the rotating tessellation. 

Well done Alex and Amir!

Trust the Process.

The art studio is not all about a final product. The creative process is very important. Often our lessons will involve discussing the work of others (peers, well known or less known artists from different times or different cultures) from these discussions we develop ideas and practise skills before producing an art work. 

Last week has had a big focus on the creative process - playing with mark making tools, exploring what they can do. There was absolutely no expectation to make anything, except interesting marks on paper. Almost every child from year 4-7 loved this activity.

 

 We recorded what we did in our visual diaries, recreating some of the lines and marks we liked most.

Then came the imagination challenge. The children were asked to spend some time looking into all the scribbly marks on the large sheets in front of them to find hidden creatures or plants. There were also recorded into their visual diaries and developed into drawings that showed others more clearly what was in their imagination.

 These ideas will be further developed for use in different printmaking and painting activities inspired also by the work of Paul Klee. Different year levels and different classes will be working on slightly different projects although our starting point is the same.

What happened to term Three????

Goodness the time has flown past! This term has been a busy one. One of the highlights has been taking a group of 57 children to the Art Gallery of WA to see the Picasso to Warhol exhibition. It was very successful with both children and parent helpers saying they really enjoyed it and would love to go again. I can see an annual event coming on! 

This year I have been focusing on well known modern artists as a link to arts in society outcomes and to fit in with this exhibition. The kids are beginning to recognise the names and styles of some of the artists we have looked at. The gallery staff all said they could tell from the children's responses that they had been exposed to a proper art education with an art specialist. This is a huge compliment because these ladies see many, many school groups over the year. So well done kids!!!

I personally get a trill to hear kids say things like a comment from a year one child when I showed them a piece of work by Paul Klee. "That looks a bit like Picasso's because it is kind of brownish and all shapes" Indeed it did have some similarities to the works of Picasso that I had shown them a few weeks previously, it gave me goose bumps!

On the excursion we even had a chance to do an activity in the Art Gallery Studio.

We created our own Cubist style still life drawings, just like Picasso.

We have been working furiously trying to get organised for a whole school photography exhibition on September 30th at the Farmer's Market Spring Open Day.

 I have tried to do different things with several classes in order to familiarise the kids with how our new cameras work. Our WONDERFUL LOVELY P&C donated a class set of 12 cameras to the art room.

Some junior classes, especially year ones were given the cameras and asked to photograph some thing they found interesting in the playground. I gave them little instruction as I just wanted to let them go and see what they found interesting. (What is it with boys and toilets?!?!)

Year 2/3's were asked to photograph somewhere they liked to play.

Year 3's chose a little toy and used this as a subject for their photo in order to make them think about what it was they were photographing and have them get in really close to the subject.

Yr 4/5's took photos of collections.

One class had to do drawings that interacted with their hands in some way.

Finally the 5/6 and 6/7 class had a 'Scavenger hunt'. They had to find examples of things like 'rule of thirds' 'leading lines' following instruction about what makes a good photo.

Now I'm going to try to put photos in here again and hope that it doesn't do the same thing as the last post with the photos being so huge!

What is modern art?

With the excursion to Art Gallery of WA to see the Picasso to Warhol exhibition coming up soon I have chosen to focus on modern art this term. We have already met Picasso earlier in the year so this term we will be exploring the work of Miro, Matisse, Calder, Lichtenstein and of course Andy Warhol.
I found this video- it's a great way to introduce and explain the concept of modern art to the middle and upper primary kids.

Sew simple!

In one room of year 5/6's many of the children were reluctant to participate in a sewing activity. In order to engage them I opted to allow them to negotiate with me as to what they would do in order to demonstrate they can make decorative stitches and construction stitches.

They all jotted down three things they wanted to do. Most of them wanted to make mascots or toys. As these were such a similar concept I decided to allow them to make either one. Some kids wanted to make cushions and a couple wanted to personalise their hats. I couldn't see any reason why they couldn't but a quick trip up to the principal reassured us.

So with the direction of making something about A5 to A4 size (things that are too small are difficult to manipulate for this age group and I don't have enough in the budget to make life size toys!)with stitches for decoration and construction the kids set about brainstorming and sketching their ideas. The kids went home to search for fabric scraps from their folks to bring in to share.

From these sketches they had to create a plan and from the plan a pattern.

These had to be cut from fabric bought in from home ( mostly from my home ;) Luckily I needed to clear out some of my stash from home.- and some bought from the shop to supplement our stash) 

The kids are also learning to use the irons to smooth their fabric for cutting and sewing, and about the safety issues that go with them.

 Then the fun began! The patterns had to be pinned and cut making sure they had two pieces that were mirror image of each other so that they could be fitted together and stitched and stuffed. (Again maths overlaps with art!)

 So we are part way through our project so I will post some of the finished pieces.

"Mystery Mess" is a great game to play after a session like this because it is a very messy activity. Before the kids start to pack up I say "Today is a mystery mess." - sometimes for a faction card, sometimes for a prize. I pick an item that I can see that is out of place but I don't let the kids know what it is. The kids have to rush about looking for things that are out of place, putting them away as they go. When everything is neat and tidy I announce what I had my eye on and the person who attended to it gets the reward.

  

BEST game EVER!!!