Visual Arts @ Taylors Lakes Primary School

Almost a year ago my husband, my mother in law and I travelled around a large part of Australia in convoy with other cars from our Car Club.
Today I am adding two views (taken in the evening and in the morning) of Ayers Rock, or Uluru as it is now known, and some of the ancient Rock Art in one of caverns around its base.

This photo  was taken in the morning just as the sun rose and lit up the rock.

There was such a lot of great student Artwork at the Zart  Gallery that I thought I’d add some more.
The great animal collages using magazine and catalogue pictures fascinate me.
It goes to show how we can have students  look  for other possibilities and different uses for everyday objects e.g. say a fork as an arm with the prongs as fingers.
Adding the link to the Zart Gallery has opened my eyes to the extent of the great student Art work which Zart collects for display each Term.
I hope you find some ideas there too.

Today I had the very pleasant task of doing some shopping for Art Supplies at Zart. Zart is situated at 4/41 Lexton Road, Box Hill. Before I started making my selections from the vast art “supermarket” I went upstairs and photographed some of the great student Artwork in their Childrens Gallery. The work pictured here is not our student’s work but will be used as inpsiration for our students when they return to school in February. I asked Zart staff whether they mind photographs being taken and they  indicated that they are happy that the work receives publicity and is shared. Congratulations go to the Art Teachers and students from Altona Primary School, St Thomas the Apostle Primary Blackburn, Strathcona Girls Baptist Grammar School and Corowa South Public School. The Pattern and  Line work on Hands and Faces is by some Year 8 students at a secondary school. I hope that you enjoy the variety and the quality of the work.

One of our talented parents, Jay has made some fantastic cakes for her son Andrew’s class parties over the years. I love the way there is standing room only on this cake.
The wintery scene reminds me that while we, in Melbourne Australia, are sweltering in 44 degrees celcius (111 F) many parts of the world are experiencing records with extreme cold weather.

A New Year’s just begun, a new decade too. Incredible changes  have happened in teaching and learning over the past ten years.
Thankfully some things remain unchanged, the element of choice which Visual Arts provides and the satisfaction we feel in expressing, creating and making.
Najee’s Christmas Tree and Adele’s Butterflies are just two of  our 2009 Grade 6  Mosaics. 
We found Mosaic work messy, tile cement and grout being two of the hardest powders to control in a class of 25 students. But we did it and would do it again.
Happy New Year Everyone.

Our Grade 2AK and 1/2KG students made a cardboard loom and began weaving a variety of  threads and materials through the warp threads.
A fellow  teacher from a neighboring school exclaimed “I thought they were houses.”So we added a roof and windows and doors and
that set us going on a whole willage, Tartan Town, with the main street being Weaving Street.
We even involved Maths with the houses having even numbers on one side of the street and odd numbers
 on the other . More work is featured on our Recent Student Artwork page.

Last night our school held a Graduation ceremony for its Grade 6 students at  Luxor Receptions at Sydenham.
Four grade 6 classes graduated and again this year  the students presented the Principal, Mr. Peter Reading with a mosaic which we created in Art classes.
This year’s student designer of the Chinese  Year of the Ox Mosaic was BJ Bentley who helped me present the heavy mosaic.
The OX is the fifth in a series which is displayed on a wall in our school’s courtyard.

Our Prep (Kindergarten) students looked at the work of Pat Hutchins and her story ” Rosie’s Walk”.
Originally published in 1968, this story still appeals to young children and makes an excellent inspiration for a collage picture.

Our Grade 4 students have been embossing using thick aluminium foil and wooden skewers to do the drawing. The students pasted their designs onto folded  cover paper to make cards.

Melbourne Airport CEO Chris Woodruff. presented our Third prize in the Christmas Banner Competition at a special morning tea yesterday.

We were very proud of all three of our Banners.  Congratulations to our Grade 5 students.