All about Fish with Grade 1 and 2

The students started the term by making clay fish from pinch pots. These were painted and then they created a 3D home for their fish using paper. I think they turned out really well.

 

 

 

 

We then tried some origami fish that was sent away to our local politicians to support the Protection of The Great Barrier Reef. The fish were a bit hard so we altered the design a bit and used sticky tape but it was a good experience.

 

 

 

 

And finally the students created fish using recycled plastic bottles and finishing them off with paper mache tissue paper and permanent texta details.

Sewing Rainbows with Grades 1 and 2

How good is sewing on hessian?!! It looks amazing and the kids loved it. Believe it or not this took almost the whole term and most students didn't finish but I am very impressed by their persistence how neat they worked. Their first introduction to a running stitch.

 

Sewing with Grade 1 and 2

These little beauties took us all term to create and I am really surprised by the outcomes.
I'm ashamed to say that I have never dome sewing with my students ever until this point. I came to the recreational recently that I really need to. Sooooo I gave it a go and the results were very surprising. We started off looking at the textures of  different materials and what they thought they might be used for. We then looked at hessian and how it is put together. The student experimented with pulling threads, gathering, creating holes and weaving into a piece of hessian.

We then moved on to sewing a pattern onto a piece of hessian using a running stitch and wool. They had a go at a straight line, a zigzag line, a wavy line and a circle.

They then moved on to hemming their piece of hessian also using a running stitch.

To finish off their pillow they used and overcast stitch. Some of the boys made puppets instead of a pillow which was a great idea! The early finishers has a try at sewing buttons as well.

To say I am surprised by their sewing skills is an understatement. Some of the stitching would put an adult to shame. I will be doing sewing with every level once a year from now on.

Patterns and Printing

The Grade 1 and 2 embarked on a pattern and printing spree this term. They experimented with as many different ways to print and make patterns as we could fit into one term. They printed through doileys, printed with corks and other found objects. They made repeated line patterns with fine liners pens as well as creating back and white painted patterns. On completion they were asked to create a collage of any topic they liked but they had to use at least one piece if each experimented that they had done. We discussed that a printed doiley could be a lions mane, or a flower or a cloud etc and they went from there. The results were amazing!! I can't say how much I love them. They were colourful, dynamic, funny and thoughtful. It was a real pleasure to see them trying to work out where to put everything and to see what their work looked like when finished.

Below are some of the finished mixed media collages

There was even a couple of 3D works that came of this project like this little guy.

Patterns in nature with Grade 1 and 2's

The Level two students have worked extremely hard this term on drawing patterns in nature. They stated the term by going on a nature hunt and collecting their own treasures to draw when they got back to class. They were instructed to pay close attention to the patterns they could see on their objects that they found. They drew these using magnifying glasses.

After doing a few studies they then moved on to drawing shells focusing on patterns and lines. I may be biased but the quality of drawings from these 6 and 7 year olds is incredicble!!

These sketches were meant to be preparatory sketches for a large scale sketch of the same shell but the were so good we mounted them and displayed as they were. They then moved on to drawing the same shell in large scale drawing them on A2 paper. These they coloured to finish. 

I am so proud of my hardworking very keen and creative students.

We then moved on zentangles which I have never done before. They were great fun and the students loved 

them!! After having so much practice drawing patterns over the previous activities this came easily.