Visual Arts 

Foundation/1

For the last fortnight, students in F/1 have been exploring the use of oil pastels. During this time they have learnt to twist, drag, push, pull and smudge the pastels to make various marks. This week the students challenged themselves to use a monochromatic colour palette to draw a bird. To begin, they drew a warm-up drawing of a bird on A4 white paper using an oil pastel, before drawing their final piece on A3 black paper, using white oil pastels.

Here are some examples of their drawings:

Grade 2/3

The Grade 2/3 students have continued working on their sustainability unit, using recycled and sustainable materials to create papiér mache shakers. Students learnt how to make an armature for their animal and are currently adding the last layers of papiér mache before they paint them next week. They have learnt how to use the right amount of glue on their layers, ensuring that they have carefully smoothed their newspaper over the armature. I have been particularly impressed with how quickly the students have developed their skills in this area, by striving to perfect their technique.  Next week students will begin painting and decorating their pieces.

Here are some of the Grade 2/3's with their papiér mache pieces:

Grade 4/5

Students in Grade 4/5 have been busily working on their sewing skills, by upcycling old jeans and making them into pocket creatures. They had to plan and create a creature using a variety of different construction materials.

I would also like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone who kindly rummaged through their closets to donate jeans for this unit; both the students and I appreciated it. 

Following on from this unit, students continued to perfect their stitching skills by using felt to make either a wall hanging or a Christmas ornament. 

Here are some examples of their artwork:

Grade 6

The Grade 6 students are gearing up for graduation by making their own graduation bears, using calico, felt and other materials. They have painstakingly cut out their patterns; pinned, stitched and decorated their bears; which will be on display during their graduation. 

They have just begun working on their legacy piece, which will be a small plasticine self-portrait. For this unit, they have been learning how to model and manipulate plasticine to create an image of themselves. 

'Young Archies'

Thank you to everyone who visited the pop-up 'Young Archies' Exhibition at the front of the Foundation/1 classrooms. It was wonderful to see all of the F/1 students proudly sharing their artwork with their families. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank the Foundation/1 teachers for kindly sharing their space to display the students' artwork.