Cityscape Art

Yikes time can get away quickly! Haven't posted in a little while with reports (and sickness!) on the cards.

Just wanted to share a new artwork I did with my class last week which looks fantastic! As we've been learning about wet and dry environments we've also been thinking of the differences between natural and built environments. I used this lesson to highlight some of the features of built environments as well as think about how ultimately built environments are part of natural ones. To do this we created a city at sunset (or sunrise!)

To start with we looked at a power point I created of different sky scrapers from around the world. Pointing out the features and elements that we see in these sorts of city landscapes.

Next, students created their own city landscape using lead pencil on black paper which they then cut out, 

After that, we spoke about the sorts of colours you see in a sunset and the progression of colours in the colour wheel. Students then chose their colours (in rainbow order) and painted their background with water colour paints.

 Once dry, students stuck their cities on the backgrounds and then added some stars or clouds if they wanted to (using oil pastel). Obviously I'm a bit biased but I think they look great!

Exceeding Expectations

Just wanted to share a little story from today which was a nice way to end the week! I have a new boy in my class who speaks only a few words in English, he has only been here for a few weeks and I really feel for him not knowing the language.

This week my class have been presenting speeches on their favourite wet or dry environment. These speeches only need to go for 1-2 minutes and is their first real attempt at trying to present information with eye contact and memorisation - tricky stuff! The boy in my class gave his speech this afternoon and it was so amazing to see the class captivated by the few words he could say, they cheered for him when he finished and he smiled the biggest smile I have seen on his face since he's been here. He also drew a picture of the mountain from his home and the class were amazed at his sketching skills. A great result from a potentially scary task. 

(from travel.3yen.com)

He did a pretty good job, wouldn't you agree? Note: he didn't have the photo while he was drawing!

Mountains Artwork

As we are learning about Wet and Dry environments in HSIE I have been trying to link in a lot of the other Key Learning Areas to what we are doing.

Yesterday we learnt about what a 'mountain range' is and thought about the features of alpine environments. As a mountain range is a series of mountains it was a really good base to create a class artwork displaying what we know!

Here are the steps to creating a fabulous mountain range!

First, I got students to draw a dot for the tip of the mountain in the middle of the top edge of their page.

Then student drew a grid on their mountain (you could use this as a start to a discussion about how humans have impacted the environment)

Next, have students fill in their grid using oil pastels (they are nice and bright but can be used for smaller areas!)

Once students have filled in their grid they can use a black oil pastel to draw over the lines and snow and then cut out!

Makes an awesome mountain range! 

Marble Jars - Behaviour management

There are some things that I have tried this year with my class in terms of positive behaviour management routines which have worked really well so I thought it was about time to share them!

I have my tables organised into table groups with each table group linked to the topic we are studying in HSIE (Humans Society in it's Environment). Because we are learning about Wet and Dry environments this term my tables are: Alpine, Desert, Bushland and Ocean. Each table group has a jar with a picture of their environment on it. I give tables marbles to put in their jar as a reward for a variety of behaviours - improvement, listening. tidiness, working well, sharing, being helpful etc. At the end of each week we count up the marbles for each table and the table with the most gets a prize from me!

The kids really love it, and get SO excited every Friday when it's time to count the marbles. It's also really good for them to learn how their behaviour impacts those around them and how to work as a team. Not very expensive either! I just got some plastic jars from the $2 shop and a packet of about 100 marbles from there as well.

Bushland table's marble jar!

Underwater Sihouettes

This term we are learning about wet and dry environments in HSIE. After being inspired by the Bees Knees cousin we created the artworks below.

We learnt what a silhouette is and I gave students free range to create their own silhouette of an underwater animal in a wet environment. Needless to say, I was totally amazed by their creativity! We had sharks, hammerhead sharks, jellyfish, sea turtles, starfish, sea horses and more!

This was also a great lesson for learning about perspective as the artwork is looking up into the sun from underneath the sea creatures.

Have a look at the Bees Knees Cousin for a full description of the artwork!