Sidney Nolan and Ned Kelly

This activity was such a winner. Grade 2 and 3 students were fascinated by the story of Ned Kelly. One  student suggested he 'stole from the rich to give to the poor', but alas, no, we soon learnt that there was no Robin Hooded goodness there with Ned and his gang. Even though he had a tough childhood and a hard life he was a bushranger and an outlaw.

We learnt that Sidney Nolan was also fascinated by the Ned Kelly stories and painted a series of paintings that told of his interpretation of some of the events in Ned's life and of the landscape in which it happened.

Students then chose colours to depict the land and the sky in the Victorian countryside. They created a horizon and applied the paint in different ways to create their desired effects. Most students also printed a line of trees on their horizon to help create a feeling of distance and space, like Sidney Nolan did.

Then came the challenge of putting something of the Ned Kelly story into their painting. Students chose collage, drawing with pastels or textas, painting or drawing on a piece of white paper then cutting and pasting.

One student was fascinated that Sidney Nolan had painted Ned Kelly disguised in women's clothing to avoid police, so her Ned has a dress, red wig and high heels!

A lot of the students were excited that this was one time that the "No Guns In Art" rule was relaxed and took advantage of including guns, bullets and blood in their art work.

The resulting work looks absolutely fantastic with evidence of really effective use of space with the placement of their Ned Kellys.

Emus

Grade 3 students made papier mache emus. They look so friendly and fluffy all lined up, swinging their plaited legs!

The idea for this activity came from Anne Farrell's blog "Use Your Coloured Pencils". You can see it here.

Day 1
After reading Edward the Emu, we scrunched up a couple of pieces of aluminium foil to make the base shape. Sort of an oval with a skinny neck. Then we bent the end of the neck to create the head. Next we covered the whole armature in papier mache. They took a long time to dry but being under a heater and turning  occasionally helped.

Day 2

Next we painted the head and while it was drying we plaited the legs.  

6 strips of fabric, about 4cm x 25cm were needed, 3 for each leg. Each group of three fabric strips were tied together as close to the end as possible, then taped to the table to be plaited. When the plaiting was at the end of the strips we just tied the two outside strips together which made three "toes". These were then trimmed to size.

Fortunately I had a work experience student this day so she used hot glue to glue the legs onto the bodies.

Day 3
I had wanted to buy the fluffy/hairy wool often found in $2 shops and have the students wind this around the body to create the feathers, but apparently this yarn is not available anymore in the shops. So, I bought a large, black, fluffy throw-rug and cut that up into rectangles to be glued and wrapped around the emu bodies. It was soooo hairy, the carpet looked like we had been attacked by emus and hairy cats, black fluff EVERYWHERE! Luckily our cleaner is such a fantastic and kind person. Thank you Glenda.

Some goggle eyes completed these fluffy emu sculptures.

sheep

Lambing season is well underway in our area and a big annual event, Sheepvention, is coming soon.

Grade 2 and Grade 3 students made these lovely little sheep which are now displayed in their classrooms and in our school's foyer.

The idea came from Anne Farrell at  "Use Your Coloured Pencils" blog here. Thank you Anne, it was a fun activity.

The body base is a piece of cardboard, legs are clothes pegs, a bit of packing foam to create a fatter tummy and lots of wool wound round and round.

The clothes pegs were purchased from a $2 store, and many of them were not even enough to stand up once the wool was wound on. These particular sheep needed a blob of plasticine to keep them upright.

pig masks

Grade Prep and Grade 1 had some fun today making a pig mask. The kids loved making and then wearing these masks.  It seems to transform them slightly and it promotes a bit of extra confidence when they are wearing their piggy creations.

Masks were made from

• half a paper plate
• a single egg carton section
• coloured paper
• elastic

The egg carton was glued on by hot glue (applied by
an adult) and the colouring in was done with oil pastel. This ensured the masks could be made in a one hour session rather than waiting for glue & paint to dry.

modelling with plasticine

Plasticine has been around for such a long time, but it is still one of my favourite mediums to use with kids for modelling. The colours are really bright and it doesn't go hard or dry out. Joining is easy, just press together, and tiny details can be made by kids from prep to grade 6. It does leave tables and hands a little oily, but some soap and water cleans it all up easily.

These models were made by students from Grade 2. We read a story about jungle animals then looked at some pictures of plasticine models for inspiration. Some students made a paper background and drew a simple scene to help put their models in a context.