Whale Watching!

Humpback Whale Collage

Ava C (Year 3)

Ethan B (Year 2)

Faith H (Year 1)

Ivy Y (Year 1)

James A (Year 6)

James R-S (Year 5)

Kanan P (Year 4)

Maddy W (Year 4)

Matilda B (Year 2)

Mayah K (Year 5)

Molly B (Prep)

Sage B (Year 2)

Lilly H (Year 4)

It’s the end of winter here in sunny Queensland (Australia), and the humpback whales are on their annual migration north along the Queensland coastline. If you’re very lucky you can occasionally catch a far-off glimpse of what might possibly be a whale spout on the horizon from my balcony, but it’s a much better idea to hop on a whale-watching day cruise where the ‘friendlies’ will often come up close and personal. It’s truly quite a memorable experience!

I thought it was an appropriate time of the year to do a whale picture, so we looked at photographic examples before drawing a breaching humpback (guided lesson) which we then outlined with black marker and finished with black watercolor. We made a collage of torn painted paper for the background.

Of course some kids decided they’d rather do sharks (which are also common in our waters), octopuses and even mermaids – hey I’m happy they are so creative! Great job everyone!

A-Mazing Dinosaurs

This is a half-lesson we did with time left after painting our Hippos. I found an amazing site through Pininterest called KrazyDad.com. He has created hundreds of downloadable mazes, at all levels of difficulty, from easy ones for children through to more difficult ones to challenge adults. I printed off some of his easy dinosaur mazes and the children used them as inspiration to create art pieces around them with colored pencils. Some drew more realistic environments for their dinosaurs, and others abstract or semi-abstract backgrounds.

Pottery Hippos

Joe C (Year 5)

Kristen C (Year 7)

Mackenzie W (Year 2)

Aanya C (Year 3)

Bella G (Year 6)

Bonnie J (Year 4)

Caela NN (Prep)

Demi B (Year 2)

Lily L (Year 2)

Lucy S (Year 3)

James A (Year 6)

Riley K (Year 1)

Ziva G (Prep)

Macy E (Year 3)

Zara B (Year 4)

This week we’ve painted our pottery Hippo sculptures. We made them a couple of weeks ago by joining two pinch pots for the body, then added legs and head (and in some cases hats, bow ties etc!) using score and slip method. After bisque firing we use water-based house paint to finish and decorate. I find house paint has a good coverage and is (relatively) water-resistant on pottery, so it wears well. Pottery is always the standout favorite lesson each term!

If I Lived in Futurama.....

Amy H (Year 7)

Ary C (Year 5)

Charliz C (Year 2)

Chloe D (Year 2)

Emily H (Year 3)

Hayden M (Year 3)

Hollie P (Year 2)

Jay P-O (Year 2)

Joe F (Year 7)

Ruby DW (Year 2)

Tara S (Year 3)

April K (Year 5)

Kira R (Year 5)

Ned C (Prep)

Savannah F (Year 3)

Black marker and felt pen. The original inspiration for this great picture is from Deep Space Sparkle, thanks so much. The children draw a futuristic city, taking inspiration from a picture from ‘Futurama’, layering buildings from the front and imagining what the future might look like. What will our transport be? Will we still drive cars, or ride in flying buses? Or (as one of my students imagined) will we be transported in our own personal travel-bubbles? An art piece limited only by our imaginations, this has been a great success…

Cats with Attitude

Jordan O (Year 3)

Bronte B (Year 3)

Ella H (Year 2)

Emily W (Year 2)

Estelle T-F (Year 3)

Fatima M (Year 2)

Kaiden S (Year 3)

Kate P (Year 4)

Madeleine M (Year 1)

Shaun H (Year 5)

Taleeha B (Year 2)

Tasman S (Year 1)

Claire B (Year 6)

Emma M (Year 2)

Lana S (Year 3)

 Taking inspiration from Christina Bretschneider’s cats, we talked about body language and expressive color before creating our Cats with Attitude, using soft pastel.