To culminate our journey exploring sculpture this year, we have held an exhibition of some of our work. The students spent the afternoon setting up their installations.
Our sand sculpture that all the children had participated in producing took pride of place in the centre of the exhibition.
Parents were invited to view the works and were given a map of the playground, created by the Year Two students, that indicated where the sculptures were located. Each artwork was labeled with a QR code that linked to this blog allowing the parents to use their smartphones to see the process as well as the final product.
Parents were also invited to participate by commenting on the exhibition, writing on a leaf shape and adding it to a cardboard tree, creating another sculptural element.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Two Purple – Follow in our
footprints
Our living sculpture
is a metaphor for our current study of the Environment. The children of Two Purple are looking at reducing our
footprint through recycling, reducing and re-using. We are breathing new life into
our old shoes. Please follow in our footprints.
We brought in old
shoes and each painted a tiny purple footprint as a reminder to keep our
footprint as small as possible.
We put a layer of gravel on the bottom of the
shoe,
followed by soil.
We were sure to use gloves and masks to keep ourselves healthy. Then we were ready
to plant.
“Do buildings come in different shapes and
sizes?”
This was a big question as we began our Let’s Build unit of
inquiry in Kindergarten. We investigated buildings from our local
community to across the world and we were quick to gather the answer to our
question “Yes!” However our next
question was “why?”’
We began to look at the work of the Spanish architect Antoni
Gaudi. We studied his buildings in wonderment and awe! The children posed
question after question as to how he had built these structures and why? As we
gathered answers to our questions we became inspired to create our own design
for a building. However a building standing alone wouldn’t do, we needed a CITY.
This involved much discussion as we were challenged to
decide on which buildings would be most essential for a city to function.
Through a thoughtful elimination process a democratic decision was made.
Kindergarten Yellow would construct a grocery store, airport, school, shopping
centre, church, hospital, fire station, police station and a train station.
The children volunteered as to who would be responsible for
which building. In small groups they began to plan designs drawing from the
inspiration of Antoni Gaudi. Much thought was given to the aesthetics of the
building as well as the function.
The children drew from their designs to create the exterior of their buildings. This involved the consideration of form, colour and shape.Through much cutting, pasting and positioning the buildings began to take their form.
The final step involved the interior designs for the buildings. Creative, imaginative and innovative conversations filled the room as simple recycled materials transformed into new and novel objects!
Or perhaps you would like to visit a bathroom made for two?
Have a seat on the patio. It's alright for the children to be there - a garden fence has been installed!
This TV room was too dark so the children added a skylight! Essential Services
“It doesn’t matter what shape or colour buildings all that matters is it is sturdy and strong.”Kindergarten Yellow, 2013.
Creating an Environment
Step 1. Paint green for trees
Step 2. Cut our tree shapes
Step 3. After gluing on bottle tops, attach the trees to their trunks with nails and a hammer
We couldn't plan a town without thinking about the environment! Kindergarten used their knowledge of recycling to create some beautiful features for our town. Bottle tops, spare chopsticks and slices of wood from a fallen tree have been used by the children to solve the problem of how to keep these items erect in our installation.
Road safety has also played a role in the development of our town. Kindergarten Orange worked hard to create replica of traffic lights for the road. They even ensured that the lights were on a silver (metal) pole!
Creating buildings out of paper weaving
We were inspired by an artwork we saw to make buildings out of paper weaving. We began by weaving different coloured paper to make the bricks.
We then collected boxes to cover with our paper weaving.
We decided that our boxes could be placed on top of each other to make taller builings.
