1. Great Barrier Reef
We explored some of the wild life living in the great Barrier Reef. In particular, we focused on the colours and the shapes of all the different plants and animals.
The children used sponges to create the sea background. Then they used a separate sheet to draw and colour some animals such as clown fish and turtles. When the paint had dried, they added some crepe paper to represent the plants.
2. Ayers Rock (Uluru)
You can use any materials to do this lesson but we used water pastels (I think they are pretty much the same as oil pastels). They work in a similar way to paint for mixing, so when we layered blue on yellow and rubbed it created green.
We really tried to experiment with blending. The children also added a border to each of their masterpieces.
3. Australia Postcards
Linked with English writing, we wrote and designed postcards from Australia. They children looked at examples of postcards from Australia to begin and then used their own ideas, based on all they had learned on Australia.
4. Aboriginal Stones
I showed the children examples of aboriginal art and we discussed the shapes and colours that they used. The shapes are almost a lesson in themselves as they represent humans, plants and animals to tell a story.
The children used the technique of pointillism (using thin paintbrushes and earbuds) on small stones. We didn't limit the colours to the usual colours of Aboriginal Art though, they had free reign!
