Artists use Shapes - Wil Kerner

Hi Everyone,
The Crew have been working on a unit called ' Artists Use Shapes'. This week we will be looking at Wil Kerner's website and making some pictures based on his style. Would you like to join us?

How to Draw a Frog - How Stuff Works

Click on the picture for the slide show demonstration.

After listening to the musical story of Tiddalik the Frog, the Crew wanted to draw some pictures of frogs but nobody knew how to draw one. The How Stuff Works website even has questions for arty problem issues!

Bembo's Zoo

Click on the picture to watch words turn into pictures.

Using our Knowledge of Shapes- Inspired by Kathy Barbro

Hi Everyone,
Lots of our inspiration for great art projects comes from Kathy Barbro's site - Art Projects for Kids. One of our art activities for this week will be Kathy's paint a cow lesson. In Special Education a lot of time is spent helping kids to name and recognise shapes but we also need to give kids plenty of opportunity to use their knowledge of shapes in creative ways while developing those all important fine motor skills. Kathy has lots of simple drawing lessons attached to her blog which are suitable for all primary age groups. Click on the picture of the cow to access the lesson plan. The Crew will have some amazing cows to post on Wednesday so visit us then !

Picasso Heads

Eleanor

Ricky

Tim

Braydon

Daniel

Hi Everyone,

The crew have been looking closely at how people look when they are happy, sad, surprised and a range of other emotions. Yesterday we had a look at some of Picasso's paintings and some that the children at Deep Space Sparkle have painted and decided to draw our own Picasso heads with pastel crayon. The Crew were very happy with their finished pieces of art. I have a feeling that Tim might tinker with his a bit. If he does I will post it again.

Photography by Tim

Hi Everyone,

Tim hates writing but loves to take photo's. While the other children were busily writing about our rainy day experience ( which is rare where we live) Tim took photo's from a tiny dry spot just outside our classroom door. They say a picture tells 1000 words so this is Tim's 5000 word essay.

Signs of Spring

Braydon

Eleanor

Daniel

Tim

Ricky

Hi Everyone,

Our theme for this term is 'See the Signs. Although it is still Winter in Australia we can see the signs that Spring is on the way when we look at the trees in our playground. Today we had a good look at some blossoms that covered one of the trees near our classroom. Then we spent some time in the art room drawing what we saw with pastel and painted over with a food colouring wash. I think they did a great job.

Painting & Decorating

Hi Everyone,

Over the past few weeks Junior Crew kids have been painting and decorating some off -cuts of wood with beads, cords, tacks and stones. We have nailed, glued, stapled and tied a variety of materials to our pieces of wood so that we can arrange them and create some 3D sculptures for a photography project.

This part of the task has been a really good fine motor exercise as well as being a fun design activity.

Where did you get that hat?

Ricky

Braydon

Tim

Eleanor

Cory

Hi Everyone,

The Junior Crew kids had a great time making hats in the art room with Sheryl this term. They began the process by designing a hat on paper and then worked out how to fasten their millinery objects to pre-formed hat bases. What a clever, creative bunch of kids!

The First Batch of Bugs

Ricky

Eleanor

Tim

Hi Everyone,

Here are our first group of completed paper mache bugs! it has taken us a whole term to complete them !

During the term we have overcome lots of sensory defensiveness issues and have learned to work with unfamiliar people to get a task done.

We wouldn't have been able to do it without the assistance of our 'Inner Wheel' volunteers who have helped the children develop practical and social skills . Thanks also to Bunnings Hardware for donating the paint tints that were used.

I will post the next batch of bugs as soon as they hatch!

Symmetrical Bugs

Hi Everyone,

After visiting Miss Tabarcea's Blog the Junior Crew kids were inspired to create these symmetrical bugs which tied in well with our 'What to do when people are bugging you' unit and our symmetry unit in maths sessions.

The kids had a great time folding and cutting to make these cute little creatures. We think they look terrific displayed on our notice board.

I think that the kids loved looking at the cut out monsters they made when they opened out their folded papers as much as they enjoyed making the bugs! I wonder what the two paper monsters in the picture above think of each other and what they said when they met?

By the way our paper mache bugs are at their last stage before being painted. They are rock hard , looking good and will be ready to paint next week!

Paper Mache Week 2

Hi Everyone,

It's the second week of our paper mache project and some of us have applied up to 8 layers paper to our balloon bases while others are making gigantic paper mache bugs and only have 3 or 4 layers at the moment.

Now that the kids can see that their projects are starting to look like bugs instead of a sticky, ugly balloons we are hearing fewer complaints about how messy or boring this project is. Instead, the kids are now talking about how they are going to decorate their bugs. There are some very creative ideas buzzing about the classroom at the moment. These bugs are going to look awesome!

Spooky Spiders!

Joy and the Crew worked together to create this picture of spiders in a web using egg cartons and scraps of coloured paper. This picture now hangs above our classroom door. Look at those scary eyes!

Symetrical Blob Paintings

last week i was absent from school due to illness. The children enjoyed their time with Joy, one of their favourites casual replacement teachers. Joy is an art teacher, so when I returned the room was full of mini projects she worked on with the kids. Thanks Joy!

What's Bugging You? - Paper Mache

We are in the process of making some giant paper mache bugs to serve as a visual reminder of strategies we can use when people or situations are 'bugging us'.

So far we have chosen a balloon shape to form the base of our bug, added some features with card stuck to the balloon with masking tape and added 3 layers of paper and glue to form our hard shell.

It has been a bit of a test of patience and commitment but we can see that they are going to be the basis of some awesome bugs!

We will keep you posted as the project develops.