Talk About Art! An exercise in Art Appreciation.

Alexander (Year 2): The Champion! 48 Points!!!

At the end of each of my lessons I devote 5-10 minutes to the 'Art Show'.... where we reflect on what we have achieved that day. Becoming an artist is as much about thinking and reflection as it is about doing. I want my students to be able to appreciate and discuss their own work and that of others.

Because of the number of students in each class, we usually focus on the art pieces that are going to be featured on the internet that week. (Every child has his/her work published at least once per term. Pieces are chosen randomly from the roll before the start of each lesson - this ensures that the kids know that I am not choosing pieces that I 'like best'!)

We start by looking at these 2 or 3 pieces and thinking of at least one thing that we think has been particularly well done. I encourage the students to talk about the techniques we used that day as well as the elements and principles of design. (Because my classes are a fun, after-school activity, these concepts are not formally taught, but it is amazing what they pick up and understand through discussion and modelling of language!) I always stress that we are not commenting on the picture we like best - we are looking for things that we think each artist has done well.
(This is particularly  important as there are frequently pieces by Prep students side-by-side with pieces by children in years 6 or 7! The children have no trouble at all understanding that we are not making comparisons. They go out of their way to find especially nice things to say about the littlies work :))

When I moved from a private website to a blog in August this year, I realized that it presented a wonderful opportunity for my students to share not only their work, but also their thoughts about their art, with a much broader audience! Art Appreciation in Real Life!!!!
So I started a 'Commenting Competition'!

The rules were fairly simple - You could comment on any art work on the blog. Only positive comments allowed. You could make as many comments as you liked.
I awarded points according to the quality of the comments made -
A simple "I like this picture" earned 1 point.
A comment that included one positive aspect of the picture, using relevant art terms and language, earned 2 points.
A comment that included 2 or more aspects, using relevant art language, earned 3 points.

The competition ran for 3 weeks, at the end of which I awarded a prize for the child with the most points from each class, and a prize for the overall winner from all 5 classes.

 I was really impressed with the way so many of the children entered into the spirit of the competition :) and was also pleased to note that the quality of their comments improved markedly over the period of the competition!!

WELL DONE KIDS!!

More Cool Paper Toys!!

Mermaid - Juliana K (Year 1)

Fairy - Ashli M (Year 2)

Angel - Amy H (Year 7)

Owl - Emma G (Year 4)

Dragon - James R-S (Year 5)

Click here to read how we created these marvelous 3D Paper Toys!!

Cool Paper Toys

Paper Toy Shark

Army Dude - James A (Year 6)

Easter Bunny - Madeleine M (Year 1)

Rabbit - Olivia DW (Year 3)

Batman - Kai M (Prep)

Tasman S (Year 1)

It's the last week of the school term!!! Two weeks holiday ... YEAH!! I wanted an engaging, fun activity to celebrate ... I've been saving these Paper Toys for just such an occasion!

There are a number of Paper Toy sites out there - I found Toy-A-Day on Pinterest (where else?) and decided to base the activity around this simple box plan that has lots of scope for the kids to be really creative with. This site has well over 200 downloadable PDF templates for toys based around a simple box. I wanted the kids to create their own toys rather than simply adding color... Toy-A-Day have a great blank template (which for one reason or another were not quite what I needed) so I adapted it to suit my needs...

I get two toys from one A4 sheet of 210gsm card, with left over space for creating fish tails, dragon wings, batman capes or whatever else is needed to complete their masterpieces!

We started by designing our characters - I had a couple of examples made up to give them an idea of the diversity of characters they could develop, then we brainstormed some more ideas - otherwise I gave them a completely free hand.

Then we transferred our designs to the templates with black felt-pen and added color with crayons.

Cut out (carefully!! Accuracy is vital, so this is one cutting exercise where I help the Prep kids!) fold, and glue together. Voila! We have superheros, mermaids, dragons and monsters to name just a few.... I think they have done a wonderful job! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

More Australian Native Animals

Kangaroo - Charlotte K (Year 2)

Emu - Tia C (Year 2)

Turtle - Mayah K (Year 5)

Platypus - Estelle T-F (Year 3)

Koala - Murray L (Year 2)

Cassowary - Oscar N (Year 2)

Platypus - Makedde C

Koala - Toby G (Year 2)

Echidna - Jay PO (Year 2)

Wallaby - Kyla R (Year 4)

More Australian native animals, drawn and painted using some traditional Australian Aboriginal designs and techniques. Click here to view details of how we created these great pictures.

Australian Native Animals

Emu

Turtle - April K (Year 5)

Turtle - Jakobe C (Prep)

My Hand - Abby K (Year 4)

Crocodile - Kiefer C (Year 2)

Platypus - Sascha B (Prep)

Crocodile - Kira R  (Year 5)

Kangaroo - Alex A S (Year 2)

Platypus - Bronte B (Year 3)

Indigenous Australian art is rich in tradition, texture and earth colors. Often depicting stories from the Dreamtime, the art style incorporates the use of many media and techniques including dot and x-ray painting, rock and bark painting, sculpture and fibre arts to name just a few.
This week we've explored just a small part of this rich culture, looking at examples of paintings of native Australian animals by indigenous artists using the dot and x-ray techniques.

After discussing color, texture and pattern, we used white color sticks on colored paper to first draw our animals in outline. We then thought about where we thought the internal organs of the animal might be, and drew them in with lots of pattern. It is important that our lines are drawn very firmly.
From there we considered the background patterns of our pictures, using flowing lines to divide the background into interesting shapes.

We then added more color in linear pattern or  solid blocks of color. I didn't restrict the student's use of color at all, but did talk to them about the effectiveness of a limited color palette.

Finally, students used the ends of paint brushes dipped in white acrylic to carefully apply dots of white along the major lines of their backgrounds and, if they chose, around their animals.

More Dragonflies & Various Other Insects!

Alexander K (Year 2)

Sophie T-F (Prep)

Teddy H (Year 2)

Yule A (Year 4)

Ella H (Year 2)

Hannah Y (Year 2)

Kate P (Year 4)

Lily B (Year 4)

More dragonflies - and various other insects! Click here for details about how we created these marvelous pictures :)

Dragonflies & Various Other Insects!

Candice N (Year 6)

Faith H (Year 1)

Kira M (Year 2)

Libby E (Year 2)

Emily W (Year 5)

Liam R (Year 3)

Maddison P (Year 2)

Chan N (Year 2)

Charliz C (Year 2)

Jordan O (Year 3)

Kane B (Year 2)

Saturday (September 1) was the first day of Spring, so it seemed a good time to create a light and lively dragonfly picture. Looking at pictorial examples we observed the basic structure of the insect body - the three main sections of head, thorax and abdomen, and how the legs and wings attach to the thorax. Then we looked at how simply a basic insect template can easily be changed into various types of insects simply by altering the shape and size of the wings and body component parts.

We created the background of our pictures with leaf texture rubbings of flourescent oil pastel and watercolor wash . While our backgrounds dried we drew our insects, starting with the 3 basic body sections and then altering them to create insects of our choice - many chose dragonflies or butterflies, while others went for bees, preying mantis and a variety of other insects. We traced over all lines of the insects with sharpies and finer permanent black markers before adding color with the flourescent oil pastels, then cutting them out and gluing onto our backgrounds.

Our pictures are shimmering with a lovely iridescence, and are very Spring-ish!