Memory Trail Opening

The clay tiles making up the Memory Trail art installation for 2009 were officially unveiled last week. Many thanks to the buildings and grounds committe, especially Greg Hallinan, Peter Gilpin and Paul Savy who constructed the frames, grouted the tiles and mounted the whole mural. I think the finished art work looks fantastic and will be a wonderful lasting contribution to our school by our exiting grade six students.

Now on to planning for next year!

The Art Show is Over!

I hope everyone had a wonderful time at the art show on Thursday night. We had a great turn out pretty good weather for the event. I would like to sincerely thank the team of parents who worked so hard to put up the displays, and Suryati Dzulzalani who put many hours into helping my husband and I take it all down again! Thanks also to all the fabulous staff members and parents who manned the bbq and bars, snow cone machine and raffle and donation tables, and looked after the multi media displays and entertainment stage on the night, to make this another successful and enjoyable SNPS event. A special thank you to Annette Sax and Sofie Xinopolous for their excellent Artist in Schools display and felting demonstration. Well done all! Hard work, but worth it when you see how much the children and parents enjoy this social occasion .

Here are a few pictures of the art work on display. I took some photos of people on the night but these will be displayed at school rather than on the net.

Only two years until the next show!

Cheers!

Anne Duke

The Art Show is Coming!

Now that the madness of the Royal Melbourne Show is over (well done all!) it is time to start organising the Art Show. This year it's being held on Thursday 22nd October from 5.00pm to 8.00pm. Along with the usual work from the art room we will be displaying the media projects the children have completed in computer classes, videos from LOTE and the work inspired by the Artists in Schools program. I have once again invited students to provide entertainment and a bbq and drinks will be available to purchase. We are also raffling a lovely wooden coffee table and a small metal angel-fish sculpture donated by an ex-student. I know the fish alone is valued at over $350! Well worth winning.
If any one can help put up displays on Tuesday 20th October I would be very grateful.
See you there!
Anne Duke

Royal Melbourne Show Entries 2009

Here are two pictures of a few of our entries in the Melbourne Show this year. Results come out next Thursday.

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Melbourne Show Entries 2009

We received our exhibitors' tickets last week and I am now flat out organising our entries which must be delivered to the showgrounds next Wednesday 9th September. We have 73 entries this year! Yes, 73! This includes a group entry made by all the grade 3/4 students and 3 animations made by groups of 5/6 children. Wow!
I thought my blog followers might be interested in viewing one of these videos made by Carly, Alana and Julia. Enjoy!

What's Happening in August in the Art Room?

It's all action (and a fair amount of mess and dust!) in the art room at the moment. The children from grades Prep to 2 are working on clay modelling projects, as are the grade 5/6 students who have made a veritable Jurassic Park of dinosaurs and begun their terracotta clay tiles for this year's Memory Trail activity. Hence, we have a room full of drying greenware, and a queue of work waiting for firing in the rapidly rusting kiln! Thanks to Mr Agar for some timely rivetting to keep it together a bit longer!

In grades 3 and 4, the children are mastering the technique of blanket stitch. This is being used, along with felt, paint and fabric textas to create a variety of Australian birds and animals. These will be velcroed to fabric-collaged murals, one of which, if all goes to plan, will be entered as a group project in the Royal Melbourne Show.

Thank you very much to our parent art room helpers Monica Macdonald, Joanne Deidtrich, Eunice Caligarri and Elaine Horton for assisting our children with the challenges of their various projects. Your help is invaluable!

This week Ms Sawada and myself will be selecting entries in the painting, drawing and collage classes for the Melbourne Show. Children will receive a note, if their work is selected, and asked to bring along the $5 entry fee.

We have entered about 70 items from our students this year, including cooking, knitting, scrapbooking, teddy bear making and jewelery. Wow! We have very talented children!

All the best

Anne Duke and Etsuka Sawada

Artists In Schools - August Update

The children in grades 3 and 4 have been working with Annette Sax to explore the fascinating process of felting on silk. The children thoroughly enjoyed this quite different experience and their beautiful silk and felt designs will be on display at the art show in October.
The children are now working on their own stories and following the illustrating process Annette is undertaking as she creates collaged pictures for her latest publication.

New work samples from the Art Room

In the first semester Ms Howard and I worked together on a project involving the grade 3/4 children making bottle characters, devising storylines, taking photos then turning these into photo stories in the ICT lab. I had the pleasure of viewing the finished videos tonight and I am absolutely thrilled with what the children have achieved. I can't wait to share these little photo stories with the school community at the art show in October. I am also looking forward to showing them off to the other teachers at a staff meeting next week!

At the moment in the art room the Preps have just finished creating some abstract paintings. They drew lines in pencil and black pastel across their pages, painted in each section with colours of their choice, then used metallic oil pastels to fill each area with patterns using selected shapes or lines. The results are very effective. In the other Prep artwork featured in the photo presentation, the children used torn tissue paper to create a background and a camouflaged chameleon in response to the very cute story, "Rex".

The grade 1/2 children are also working on abstract pieces, but they are using candles to draw their design before painting with water colours in primary colours.

The grade 3/4 children are finishing their collage workfrom last term. Our next project will involve using felt and blanket stitch to make Australian birds and animals, which will be included in a large group fabric mural. (Help with teaching sewing would be greatly appreciated!)

The grade 5/6 chilren are also finishing last term's collages before starting work on clay and completing the Memory Trail project.

In addition to this we are trying to sort out entries in this year's Royal Melbourne Show. It's going to be another very busy term!

Jeannie Baker Collages

Lately we have been looking at the artwork and stories of artist and illustrator, Jeannie Baker. In response the children have been creating their own collage work using a selection of natural materials.

The ones on display here have been made by Lauren Nguyen and Carly Harrison.

The "Fine Feet" pictures have been drawn by Anushi Ilangamage and Ming Gie Guan.

New Bears Born Every Day

Many of the grade five and six children have finished their teddies, with new bears being "born" every day. Here are a few to share with you.

On To a New Project

With most of the photos taken for the grade 3/4 digital photo stories, it's time to move on to a new project. Complementing the work of our resident artist, Annette Sax, children will start to look at the published stories of collage artist and book illustrator, Jeannie Baker. Some collage work, using natural materials will be undertaken.

A scene from a digital story about a soccer game.

Artists in Schools Program

In the last two weeks the children in Grade 34 have met with artist Annette Sax and author Sue Atkinson. They have begun exploring the processes involved in writing and illustrating books and are gaining an appreciation of elements that affect what someone writes and draws. The children will now take a journey with Annette as she works to illustrate Sue's latest story, and use this as a model to write and illustrate their own personal stories using their heritage as a stimulus.

Great work from the Art Room

It was a great week in the art room this week with many of the children completing their bears and bottle characters. A few groups even finished taking photos for their digital stories.

Here is an exclusive sneak preview of the stories created by Isabella, Brittany, Devin, Connor V, William, Nathan, Syafiq, and Taya of Grade 34.

Photo Stories - Grades 3-6

Next term children will be finishing their bears and bottle characters. They will then be creating simple photo stories using their toys. Preparation and photography will be done in the art room. The digital stories will then be nade in the computer lab. I have played around with one of the programs the children might use and and made a sample to show them. I know it's not perfect, the duration of each picture is too short for one thing and some of the writing is hard to read, but I hope you enjoy the story anyway.
I also hope it inspires the children to think of their own ideas.

Last Week of Term One

The last week of term has arrived with many bears well on the way to being finished. Jack Baker and Harry Cooper, in grade 5, have finished sewing their teddies and will make outfits for them this week. Well done boys!

On the right is the little jointed bear being made by some children.

The children in Prep will complete their mixed media picture related to the beautifully illustrated picture story book, "Fox", this week and the grade three and four children will be continuing to work on their Bottle Character. Some have already started painting and decorating their model and all children should be planning their photo story which we will complete next term.

The schedule for this year's Royal Melbourne Show has arrived so, over the holidays, I will be compiling a list of all the classes we can enter . Twenty of our cute teddy bears will certainly be on display.

Happy holidays all!

Camp Week

I will be working on Thursday instead of Tuesday this week, so that the grade 5/6 children do not miss a week of teddy bear making.

What's Happening This Week?

Preps
With a focus on illustrations and illustrators this year the preps have viewed the gorgeous pictures in the picture story book, Fox and Magpie. This week they are constructing a fox, solely using triangle shapes, to place on their painted desert backgrounds. Warm coloured crayons will be used to colour the fox, with children encouraged to layer and blend colours to create interesting effects.

Grade 3/4
Our bottle characters are well underway, with newspaper, wire and modroc being used to create the basic model ready for painting and decorating.

Grade 5/6
All our "You Can Do It" skills are being well utilised in this challenging and rewarding sewing project. Some bears are already at the stuffing stage! A great effort. A big thank you goes to the parents who have given their time to come and help the children construct their bears,