Junior School, South Plympton

Year 3/4 Artists learning new techniques 🎨🖌️ 

In Art lessons this year, we have been focusing on famous artists and the techniques they use to create their art pieces.

Firstly, we explored techniques used by the artist Gustav Klimt. We looked at his landscapes and portraits. Each piece had patterns and ghostly features. Gustav Klimt incorporated gold leaf into his unique pieces. As a class, we use ideas and techniques from what we learned about Gustav Klimt to create our own portraits. We used chalk pastels to colour in our faces and bold colours in the background. To finish off our pieces, we added patterned details with paint pens.

Next we studied an artist called Sarah Suplina. She is a contemporary Paper Artist creating unique collages and snippets capturing the beauty of life. We looked at her bird collages and discussed the layering and colouring techniques she used to create her final pieces. We then chose a bird, had a go at drawing it in pencil to give us an idea of what parts make up our birds. Then we painted colour swatches to match the colours of our birds. Using these colour swatches, we cut out the different parts of our birds and stuck them overlapping each other to create our bird collages.

The most recent artist we have been studying is Wayne Thiebaud. He is an American painter best known for his still life paintings of edible treats and everyday objects. We learned about how Wayne Thiebaud used form and colour to create his delicious-looking creations. We also looked at how shadows are created from light and the sun. By adding these to our artworks, it creates depth in our art pieces.

Catherine Tolja, Susan Van der Merwe, Megan Kelly

Year 3/4 Teachers

Reminder - 25km/hr Speed Limit 🛑🚗

The speed limit around the school and at the school crossing is 25 km/h. If your child is not at the curb and ready to be collected, please drive around the block to make room for the next car to keep the flow of traffic moving.

Thanks for your help to make the pick up safe and efficient.

Piaget in Action - 11 Psychology visits Foundation class

Take some time to look at the image below - which row has more coins, or are they the same?

(Image from Psychology Today, 2023)

Jean Piaget theorised that an important milestone in cognitive development was the ability to understand conservation. Conservation refers to recognising that quantity remains the same even when the appearance of an object or group changes. In this task, although one row of coins appears longer after being spread apart, the number of coins has not changed.

Piaget believed that younger children in the preoperational stage are often influenced by appearance and may think the longer row has “more” coins. As children develop into the concrete operational stage, they begin to understand conservation and recognise that both rows still contain the same amount.

In a collaborative session, Year 11 Psychology students partnered with Foundation students to run through the above activity, alongside several similar tasks. The Year 11's were intrigued to discover a wide variety of responses. 

Some Foundation students were able to explain that the rows still had the same number of coins despite the spacing changing, demonstrating an understanding of conservation. Others focused on the appearance of the rows and believed the longer row must contain more coins.

These activities highlighted how children’s thinking develops over time, and provided the Year 11 students with a practical insight into Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.

Thank you to Mrs Were and the Foundations for having us for the afternoon!

Georgina Lampard

Year 9 Home Group and Rite Journey Teacher

English & Psychology Secondary Teacher

What's on at OSHC

We’re excited to be offering three fantastic after-school sessions at OSHC this term with AFL MAX incursions. Each session gives children the opportunity to stay active, build confidence, and have fun with friends in a safe and supportive environment after a big day at school!

Here’s what’s coming up

MiniRoos ⚽– 10th of June. A fun and engaging soccer session featuring movement challenges, skill-based techniques, mindfulness, and exercise. Children will develop coordination, confidence, and teamwork while building positive wellbeing habits.

Spots are limited across all sessions, so we encourage families to book early to secure a place.

Amy Bothma

Emmaus South Plympton - YMCA OSHC Director

Upcoming Events

Term 2