3D recycled building constructions

I set the Grade 1 and 2 students a hard task this semester. Most of them rose to the challenge and if they didn't they learnt a lot about construction and persistence!! The challenge was to create a building using only recycled cardboard and tape. The construction could not be bigger than 30cm  and had to have one moving part. They finished off their buildings by adding the gorgeous building paper from ZART.

They absolutely love construction and it was such a joy to see them measuring and trying over and over to get it right. The results were mixed but it was such a big learning curve for them I know they all enjoyed the challenge.

Recycled large scale tea party food

This year for the Mooroolbark Festival the students entered the recycled sculpture competition. The theme for the festival was 'The Mad Hatters Tea Party' so we decided to make large scale tea party food inspired by the art of Lars Oldenburg. We selected the best three to enter the competition. I am very proud of my students they worked extremely hard on this project and produced some fantastic results.

Sustainable Cities

For Term 1 with Grades 3 and 4 we explored sustainable design and how to make our cities more environmentally friendly. After looking at examples from around the world students were presented with the challenge to design and then make a building with at least two sustainable designs. They could only use recycled materials to create their buildings.

Some but not all the ideas they came up with were as follows;
wind turbines
solar panels
large windows to reduce power use
rooftop gardens with chickens
compost bins on all buildings
services built into the buildings you live in to reduce travel
no cars allowed in the city centre
solar powered cars
electric car charging stations

I cannot rave enough about how much the students love construction and having the freedom to create what they choose under the umbrella of a main topic. They loved it!! They worked every week for an entire term and did not get tired of the project but the complete opposite. They took so much pride in finishing their projects and it was a real joy to see the final product when all their works were put together to make and environmentally aware city of the future.

Australian Endangered Animal Sculptures

In Art for Term 1 2013 we learnt about Australian Endangered Animals. On the first lesson they learnt about some of the animals in Australia that are endangered and the difference between extinct, endangered and

vulnerable.

I gave them a challenge to make a sculpture of one endangered Australian animal using only recycled plastic bags, sticky tape and recycled pillow stuffing.

After building their animals they then covered their work with paper mache and then painted their animals to complete. They added details at the end with permanent markers.

It was quite a challenge and very messy! They seemed to really enjoy this project and I can't rave enough about construction construction construction projects they love them!