Visual Arts News

Welcome back to Term 3! The Visual Arts team is excited to begin our Media Arts unit. Throughout the term, students will explore how stories can be told using modern technology, including animation, filmmaking and photography. We look forward to seeing their creativity and understanding of Media Arts develop over the coming weeks. 

Prep

This week, Prep students enjoyed reading Little Red Riding Hood. They retold the story from beginning to end before designing fairy tale puppets to help bring the story to life.

Try this at home: Encourage your child to retell familiar stories, identifying the characters, setting and key events.

Grade 1

This week, Grade 1 students chose to read either Jack and the Beanstalk or The Three Little Pigs. They designed puppets and backgrounds in preparation for creating their own stop-motion animations over the coming weeks.

Try this at home: Practice retelling stories together and identifying the characters and setting. Students can also practise drawing different facial expressions to help communicate emotions in their storytelling.

Grade 2

This week, Grade 2 students read Beauty and the Beast and learnt that a photo story is a story told through a series of still images. They then created character puppets and settings ready to retell the story using this technique.

Try this at home: Encourage your child to retell stories they know well, identifying the characters, setting and sequence of events.

Grade 3

This week, Grade 3 students explored toy commercials and learnt how slogans, camera shots and camera angles are used to make advertisements engaging and persuasive. They then brainstormed an original toy, including its name, slogan and price, ready to begin filming their commercials over the coming weeks.

Try this at home: Watch a TV or YouTube advertisement together and discuss what makes it memorable. Can your child identify the slogan, camera shots or angles used to persuade the audience?

Grade 4-6

This week, students investigated how camera shots and camera angles help tell a story. They learnt about three camera shots—close-up, mid shot and wide shot—and three camera angles—eye level, high angle and low angle. Students discussed how these techniques influence the audience's emotions and understanding of a scene.

Try this at home: While watching movies, television shows or videos, see if your child can identify the different camera shots and angles being used.

Looking Ahead

Next week, students will apply their new Media Arts knowledge by planning and filming their own videos before editing them into a finished production. We can’t wait for the children to share their finished creative work with their peers at the end of the unit.

Thanks for reading!

Miss Lee, Miss Manning, Miss C & Miss Bailey