THE ARTS

T1 2025

Everything starts from a dot- Wassily Kandinsky

Term 1 - Visual Arts

Classes this term are exploring the Visual Arts component of The Arts curriculum by looking through the eyes of one of the chief founders of abstract art – Wassily Kandinsky. This famous, Russian born 20th century artist stated that Everything starts from a dot and when you think about it, everything does! Each member of each class made a colourful concentric dot/circle pattern that has been joined together to make a big display in the Arts Room. It looks a lot like Kandinsky’s famous artwork – Squares with Concentric Circles (1913). Come by a take a look sometime!

Kandinsky had a rare condition called synesthesia which meant that he could hear colours and see sounds. He translated music he heard into paintings by exploring the relationship between colours, sounds, lines and shapes. We are delving into how these elements can connect and create an artwork in our lessons too.

Castle Unit

Students in Castle Unit were firstly introduced to the artistic element of colour. They have learned the colours of the rainbow using the Rainbow Song and the special leprechaun – ROY G BIV to help them remember the order of the colours. The Year 1/2 classes also made 3D rainbows using coloured strips of paper. Students were shown the colour wheel and learned about the primary and secondary colours through mixing food colouring using eye droppers on filter paper. After listening and moving to classical music, the children discussed the colours, shapes and lines they felt, heard and saw. They then created a sound picture to show what they were thinking. We will be making Rainbow Serpents (using the First Nations story as inspiration) as well as creating a castle artwork using different lines, shapes and colours later this term.

Holly and Stillwell Units

The Year 3-6 classes made a portfolio to store their artwork at the start of the term. They used their name to create a concentric line design around letter shapes using metallic markers and Sharpie pens.

After learning about Kandinsky through YouTube clips and through the biographical picture book, The Noisy Paintbox by Barb Rosenstock, students explored geometric and organic shapes and various types of lines through playing a roll the dice game. They are currently designing their own “Kandinsky style” artwork using crayons, Sharpies and watercolour paints. Classes will move on to learning about another famous abstract artist, Paul Klee and dive deeper into the colour theory and the elements of line and shape through observing and discussion his artworks. They will create a colourful, abstract portrait of themselves over the forthcoming weeks.

HEPS Choir 2025

Choir started in Week 2 this term with 59 students from Year 3-6 attending Come and Try sessions. Students learned various warm ups and exercises to help get their voices and bodies ready to sing. We discussed the expectations of being a member of the choir, listened to some songs from this year’s repertoire, and took part in singing “just for fun” songs. We now have 36 students who have committed to Choir this year and we look forward to preparing them for the Southern Metropolitan Music Festival later in the year.

We are very grateful once again to have Miss Hay assisting us with learning the songs and helping us with solo part singing. Special congratulations to Lily H who was selected at the end of 2024 to be a member of the South Australian Public Primary School’s Choir (SAPPS). Lily has been a regular member of our Choir since she was in Year 3 and has been a successful soloist for the Festival concerts for the past three years. Her exceptional talent in voice and performance was recognised and we are all very proud of her in achieving this prestigious position.