Together we read Monster Chef by Nick Bland. Marcel the monster intrigued us with his not so scary antics. Instead of scaring us with his facial expressions, he cooked many disgusting dishes. The children have given you their own interpretation of Marcel. Some monsters are friendly, some are scary and some are feeling sick from the food. Children explored the use of pastels and black markers. They noticed the black markers were best used for outline and pastels for giving Marcel his personality.

Transient Art

In Exploration Galaxy, students have had the opportunity to explore transient art experiences. Transient art allows students to explore and experiment with different materials. With the materials being moveable, students can use their imagination to think of ideas and change them when needed. Students used a variety of loose parts, such as, beach glass, felt balls, gems, curtain rings and small crocheted doylies to create these beautiful pieces of art.

Monet Inspired Art

We have been learning about Claude Monet. Students have each made two different artworks inspired by his work.

Students focused on drawing the Japanese bridge and water garden. They used oil pastels and coloured dye for the cool colours of the water, plants and the tree reflections.

Students focused on using different textures to create the lily pads. Firstly, students used blue dye to create the water background to which they added salt to make a ripple effect. Next, students used two different coloured tissue papers to make the lily pads, then students painted a piece of paper using a fork to make patterns to add texture to the lily leaves. A template was used to make the lilies and students carefully bent each leaf to make the lilies pop out from the page. Students glued it all together and scrunched tissue paper to create the inside of the lily.

Wombat Art

As a class we have been looking into texture and different ways to create this in our artwork. After reading the ‘Diary of a Wombat’ book by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley, we decided to create the wombat from the story. Firstly, students outlined the wombat in pencil and used crayon to do the wombats eyes and mouth area. Brushes and brown paint were used to colour their wombats. Plastic forks were then used to create the look of fur on the wombats. When the paint was dry, students used a black marker to outline their wombat to make their wombat stand out.

Owls

During Exploration Galaxy, the Preps participated in a guided Art lesson to create these beautiful owls. The students drew the outline of their owl in pencil. They then carefully traced over the outline with a black Sharpie. The owls were then painted using coloured dye. 

Old MacDonald

Frogs

Students from Prep WK have been exploring texture, colour and shape. Students gained knowledge about all three elements when creating these beautiful ‘red eyed tree frogs’. Firstly, students used pencils to draw the shape of a frog. Next, students carefully squeezed a mixture of glue and black paint from a bottle over their outline. This created a smooth, yet bumpy texture to their art piece. After the glue dried, children used oil pastels to add both warm and cool colours to their drawings. Students were encouraged to then use their finger to blend the colours together.

Owls

To create their owls, students first drew the outline in pencil. Next they carefully traced over their outline with a black Sharpie, before then painting their owls using coloured dyes.

This term, we went “back in time” and talked about the significance of art history.

First, we explored the shapes, colours and textures in Van Gogh’s famous oil on canvas painting ‘Starry Night’. Using our observations, we then created our own ‘Starry Night’ interpretation with oil pastels and dye, concentrating on the lines we added to emphasise the sense of movement.

Next, we looked at Claude Monet’s ‘Water Lilies’ series, and observed the colours he used to represent nature. We carefully mixed our own shades of colour to create the lily pond. The round canvas was to mimic the original choice of the artist, used to complement the close-up view of the lilies themselves. Our textured, gold frame was then added using acrylic paint and a bubble wrap sponge.

Finally, we made a decision about how to display our artwork. Recycled materials worked well to create a night sky backdrop of rich blues and yellows and, because Monet liked to work outdoors, we explored a range of natural and man-made materials to visually express our Monet inspired lily pond photo.

Starry Night

Water Lilies

Pablo Picasso inspired portraits

While learning about realism and surrealism in art this term we have focused on Abstract and Cubism styles. Pablo Picasso has been our feature artist as he represented many of his artworks to look like they are made out of cubes and other geometrical shapes. We explored using shape and abstract style in our own art and we produced our very own original self-portraits.

Observational drawing

We have been learning to observe still-life closely to see the shapes, patterns, colours, shadows, and perspective details more closely. When translating 3D objects to 2D drawings on paper, we practise getting shapes and proportion correct. We have been learning how to show depth with shading, and we have tried different techniques for showing texture and detail.

Our Community Watercolour Art

1-2 EE have been busy creating art works to be a part of a class book. We read a story about an outback school and decided we could make our own book about what was special about our school and our surrounding community. Students sketched their design, and then used sharpie and water colour to add colour. We plan to send our completed book to an outback school in central Queensland to share with some other Grade 1-2 students.

Stop Motion in 1-2 Hayes

This term, students in 1-2 H have been exploring Fractured Fairy Tales and learning how to construct and write a narrative. We looked at animated filmmaking techniques and the best way to bring our stories to life. Using stop motion, students worked collaboratively during the planning process to create characters, setting, dialogue and organise a sequence of events.

Students had to think innovatively to solve problems and combine ideas to create their movies during the three stages of film making- planning, production and editing. We hope you enjoy watching them!

Much of our art this year has been inspired by the books we have read.

In Term 1 we read “Mr Poppers Penguins” and students used mixed media including collage, watercolour washes and crayons to create cool penguins sitting and skating in their icy environment.

In Term 2 “Alice in Wonderland” was our class book and we had fun imagining what Alice could see through the keyhole and what was in the beautiful garden on the other side of the door.

Our Science activities in Term 3 were focused on the sun, moon and earth and in art we explored the cool and warm colours associated with the sun and moon, and applied them to abstract images of our solar and lunar bodies.

Another art inspiration this year was the fertile farming land surrounding our school. Students imagined all the crops and the patchwork of paddocks they pass on their way to school each day. We also looked at the beautiful flowers in our school garden and students created beautiful floral portraits using watercolour, acrylics and adding layers of collage to bring them to life.

Mani, continues to amaze us with his beautiful pencil sketches of animals, created quickly and accurately with great regularity, particularly the reptiles that he loves so much.

Penguins

Through the Keyhole

Sun, Moon and Earth

Farms

Flowers

Colour

This term, students in 3-4 KB have enjoyed exploring the use of colour through a range of processes and with different materials. Colour is one of the most commonly used means by which children express their emotions and thoughts. Colour can cause excitement, give inspiration and promote calm and peace.

Chalk Pastel Self Portraits

Our chalk pastel self -portraits are based on the abstract and cubist portraits of the Canadian artist Sandra Silberzweig. She says “……colour. It lives in my soul, dances in my heart.”

The students have focused on using their preferred warm or cold colours and enjoyed the tactile experience of blending these with their fingers. Each student was challenged incorporate one or more true aspects of their real face into the portrait.

Sunflowers

Poetry

‘Ojos de dios’ – God’s Eyes

‘God’s Eyes’ were originally made by the Huichol, the indigenous people of Western Mexico.  The four points of the ‘eye’ were believed to represent the four elements of fire, earth, air and water. The students made their God’s Eyes by binding two sticks together into a cross form, then weaving the wool around them to make a diamond pattern.  

Throughout this process, the students learned about warm and cold colours and selected colours from their preferred group for their weaving.  Cold colour are green, blue, indigo and violet. These colours are associated with quietness, rest and calm.  Warm colours are red, orange and yellow. These colours are associated with excitement, joy, strength and energy.

Bush Fire Inspired Paintings

3-4 T learnt about the bushfires that affected Australia earlier in the year. We read ‘Fire’ by Jackie French and created paintings using warm colours and negative space as the foreground. The students learnt control painting in small spaces and all about warm and cool colours.

Weaving

3-4 T combined with 3-4 KB to work with wool to weave the diamond shapes. All the students had to be patient and methodical in creating the loops while thinking about colour choice and texture of the wool. To finish off, the students selected the feathers for a final flourish of colour and pizazz.

3D Webs

Over the course of the year, 3-4 T have been improving our techniques for colouring and making things look three dimensional. The colours for our 3D Webs had to be contrasting colours. By incorporating a little maths with angles, the students created the plan, sketched the webs and chose between three colours on opposite sides of the colour wheel. They then had to create an optical illusion by making each individual piece look three dimensional using light and shade.

3D Hand Art

5-6 G have completed a variety of Art activities throughout Term 3. Our 3D hand designs were completed by tracing our own hand onto a piece of paper. We then used a ruler to draw a straight line across the page, being careful not to draw over our hands. A curved line was then drawn in the actual hand and fingers to give the raised/3D effect. Students were then able to use a series of bold, contrasting colours to help highlight the hand.

Protractor Art

Our protractor Art was completed as part of our Maths unit on angles. Students were encouraged to outline each of the protractors and have them overlap each-other. Each student was able to design and colour each of the drawings, leaving some parts of the page blank to highlight the various types of protractors used.

Self-Portraits

To complete our self-portraits, we began by painting a background to enable enough time for it to dry. Our backgrounds were based on an outdoor setting or a night time sky-line. Each student was then able to draw and colour themselves, concentrating on a portrait of their head and upper body.

We then cut out our portraits and added them to the backgrounds. The contrast of the painted background and the use of pencil to shade the portraits enabled each image to be highlighted on the page.

Spring Flowers

To celebrate the start of Spring, students created colourful spring themed artworks. They started their artwork by creating a 3-D table for their flowers to sit on using oil pastels and painted the backgrounds using water colour paint. On a separate piece of paper they drew a vase and a variety of flowers, and coloured them in using oil pastels and watercolour paint. The students could choose to draw any type of vase or flower that they liked and could also include leaves. They then cut out their pictures and arranged them on their background and glued them into place. The end result was absolutely stunning.

Layered Self Portraits

Students in 5-6 N enjoyed creating a layered self-portrait. The students had a photo taken of their faces that was printed out in A4 size. They then used a sharpie and a piece of laminating paper and traced over their portraits, ensuring that they included all the main features of their faces.  On a separate piece of paper they created either a warm or cool coloured back ground for their portrait using paint.  Their portrait was then placed over the background and photocopied. The end result was fantastic and the students are all very proud of their artwork.

Dreamcatchers

To make these watercolour dreamcatcher artworks, the first step was to create a mandala. Students measured the centre point of their paper and drew a circle with a radius of 10cm using a compass. They then segmented their circle into eighths. Each segment of the circle had to be the same and students repeated their original segment design 7 more times to complete the mandala. They then drew feathers attached to strings hanging from their mandala design to give the effect of a dreamcatcher. The mandala and feathers were then outlined with permanent markers to make the lines stand out. Children then used oil pastels to select small parts of their dreamcatchers to colour in – deciding which sections coloured would add interest (and resist watercolour paint in the next step). The final step was to saturate the whole page using a water spray bottle and splotching watercolour paint over the page to create a background. Once the paint had been added, the picture was then held up and the excess water and paint dripped off the picture, creating an interesting effect.

Mixed Media Portraits

Students used a range of scrap paper materials to create collage backgrounds for their portraits. They then used watered down black acrylic paint to very carefully draw the outline of their faces and facial features on the page. Minor details of the face were coloured including the eyes and lips. The final step was to use watered down white acrylic paint to white-wash the background of the portraits, leaving the face clear to have contrasting bold and muted colours.

Early childhood have enjoyed singing and celebrating the music of Peter Combe. Through these songs the children have explored movement, dance, drama, the use of props, playing percussion instruments and learning the tunes on chime bars. In the song Rain, each class made their own rain stick to represent the sound of rain.

Prep MC - Newspaper Mama

Prep WK - Juicy Juicy Green Grass

1-2 BK - Mr Clickety Cane

1-2 H - Rain

1-2 EE - Three Billy Goats Gruff

3-4 T, 3-4 KB and 3-4 ER - Riptide

The Grade 3-4 classes have enjoyed learning the song, Riptide by Vance Joy. Each class learnt how to play the chords on ukuleles and guitars. They also learnt the bass note pattern on bass guitars, xylophones, marimbas, and keyboards. The video shows the 3-4s performing Riptide with an audio recording of each class doing a part of the song.

5-6 G, 5-6 W and 5-6 N - 12 Bar Blues

The Grade 5-6 classes have been learning all about the 12 Bar Blues. The 12 bar blues is one of the most prominent chord progressions in popular music. It is based on the first, fourth, and fifth chords of a key. All children in 5-6 learnt how to play the 12 bar blues in the keys of C and D using, bass guitars, guitars, ukuleles, keyboards, marimbas and xylophones. They also explored the use of drum rhythms in the 12 bar blues. The video shows all 5-6 children performing the 12 bar blues on their chosen instrument. The audio is performed by 5-6 G featuring Oscar on the drums.

BHPS School Band - Two Tone Jam

The school band has made great progress in the short time we have had together this year. This video features the band playing Two Tone Jam which is based on a 12 bar blues progression.

A small group of Grade 5-6 students have been working with Mrs Wilson and have adapted the screen play Bruce Saves the Day. They have been learning how to use intonation and developing the character's voice by adding their own ideas into the script. Here is an oral reading of the play.

These students were recognised in the End of Term Assembly and had their art work chosen to be framed. Their work will be on display in the Student Art Gallery.