We are having some building work done at our school which has meant that I take Art in  three different Classrooms on Tuesdays at the moment. I have thoroughly enjoyed going to Grade 4AT where the teacher,  Mrs. Athans Tsalkos, has proudly displayed the student Art work. I would like to thank Athans for doing so as the work is attractive and reflects her students’ love of and commitment to  Visual Arts. Congratulations 4AT, keep up the great work . Our next work will be a piece of weaving. We should have some more photos soon.

Last Friday, on my day off, I volunteered to take some photographs throughout our school for our new school website. Although time didn’t permit a visit to each room I felt privileged to get the opportunity to  wander through the school to see our students and teachers at work. I have chosen three photos  from the many which relate to Visual Arts . Our big screen TV, which we use as a monitor in the Art Room, has made an enormous difference to the way in which Glenys and I deliver Art lessons.The photographs are  much clearer than  on any of our school’s Interactive Whiteboards. It enables us and the students to use ICT in displaying  our work and finding out about Art and the World. Our Blog is about to have its 10,000th visitor which makes us  very proud. The front  entrance of our school is a “cool ” place worthy of a photo as is our extremely busy Art Room at work. The students were creating Junk Sculptures and took no notice of the camera.

Our Grade 3 and Grade 4 students made a simple cardboard loom and wove a small piece of fabric using  knitting wool as the warp and weft threads. After watching a video instruction on Teacher Tube  (you might need to wait until the  BMW ad finishes first ) they settled into weaving with very few difficulties. They also enjoyed the Interactive Weaver on the House of Tartan site which allowed them to design their own Tartan fabric.

While I was visiting Fiji for a week I attended a  Dinner meeting of the Rotary Club of Nadi. It was held at the Saffron Restaurant in Nadi and this picture was on the wall near our table. Always on the lookout for inspiration for my students, I snapped this photo. I thought it would be of particular interest to our Grade 1 and Grade 2 students who studied Thai elephants last Semester.

Whilst visiting Fiji we took a look at The Garden of the Sleeping Giant  which is about 20 minutes drive out of Nadi. The flowers were magnificent and I hope you enjoy their colour, shape and variety as much as we did.This is the first time I have used the Gallery format for the images. It is another great Edublogs feature.

Our Grade 3 and Grade 4 students have been looking at the work of French artist Raoul Dufy. Fot the sea and sky they used a crayon rubbing as a background for a PVA glue, food dye and water wash. They stencil printed yachts and sails onto another sheet of white cartridge paper and  finally added wooden masts, colourful flags etc to complete the work.

Today’s  Blog entry has a twofold purpose, firstly to showcase the display our  School’s great History enthusiast, Heather Lewis, has arranged in our foyer display case and secondly to commemorate Rememberance Day. Heather and her class sold poppies  and generally raised awareness of the history of Remberance Day, formerly Armistice Day. Grade 5 teacher Paul Lenart organized a moving Rememberance Day ceremony after our school Assembly. Students read  simple explanations and the beautifully moving poem “In Flanders Field“.Thanks to  Paul, Heather and to people like them “At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them”. Lest We Forget.

When staying in Fiji Vuda Point is a “must visit” place to relax and watch the sunset.The photograph doesn’t really do the sunset justice so I’ll need to go back there again some day… soon I hope.The carved wooden poles scare off evil spirits but certainly not the tourists who flock to this area particularly for it’s Art and Craft market which is held on the last Saturday of each month from 12pm until midnight.

Last week’s visit to four Fijian schools, Sabeto Muslim Primary School, Sabeto District School, Namaka Public School and Nadi Airport School allowed me to see the Artworks of students who don’t have the luxury of an hour per week of Specialist Visual Art like we do at our school. The students still managed, with the help of their wonderful Class Teachers, to have done a variety of  Printing , Drawing,  Construction and Collage and these were displayed  with pride in their classrooms. Our students will probably notice that the student who is leaf printing is not wearing an Art Smock. Another little girl was dressed in a beautiful Salwar Kameez to celebrate  the Hindu festival Diwali. Maybe it’s too hot to wear an Art Smock in Fiji you might think. According to my sister, who works in Fiji in Early Childhood Education, the Fijian students just stay clean. It is part of their upbringing to keep their clothes clean. Maybe we could give it a try.