Art Old And New

Today we went to the Art Gallery of NSW to see 3 exhibitions. First up we went to the Afghanistan Treasures exhibition to get some more inspiration for our treasure chests. There were many golden and gem encrusted items on display. The children took the free activity trail around the gallery.

 

Next up was the Biennale of Sydney which was quite frankly the biggest load of old rubbish I have ever seen! Didn't bother taking any photos of that.

Lastly we went to look at works by HSC students in the Art Express exhibition. L and I had already seen other works on show at Sydney Olympic Park. The work on display at the gallery of NSW was just as good.

One of our favourites was this line drawing showing mankind through the ages.

We also liked these mini creatures and insects made from junk pieces of metal.

Skeleton, Aghhhh!

Nothing particularly educational to see here, just some cute photos of L!

Playgrounds

Recently the children have been working with Dad on a design technology project to make playgrounds. They went to several local playgrounds to evaluate the structures there and collect information about materials and construction techniques. Back home they used lots of different materials to make their own playground designs. Balsa wood, straws, lolly sticks, match sticks, toy tyres, pebbles, leather, foil and plastic were attached together with string or a low-melt glue gun. They both even included a parent's bench for the mums and dads to sit on.

Playground model by R

Playground model by L

Camden Logo

This is our council's logo. We thought we would make our own version. First the children brainstormed ideas for images associated with Camden. This included buildings, transport, landscape and wildlife. They tried out 6 small design ideas with paper and pencil. Next they took their favourite design to the computer and used Photoshop to make a flag. L chose a black swan for her image. R chose to represent the landscape features in Camden; the river, roads and countryside. Here are their designs.

By L

By R

Camden Wildlife

This week we have been finding out about local wildlife. First we had a pond dip at Mount Annan Botanic Gardens. We caught lots of tiny creatures such as water boatmen, shrimps, water fleas and tiny fish. The big ones got away!

We used the Atlas of Living Australia website to find out what other types of wildlife are living in the area. The children then made these graphs showing the sightings of various mammals and amphibians within 5km of our house.

Local Mammals by R

Local Amphibians by L

Camden - Local Land Use

This week we have been looking at land use maps and making our own. Your local council website should have resources displaying this type of information for your local area. Links for Camden are at the bottom of the page.

First we talked about the different ways that land is used. The children were provided with pictures of different buildings and other types of land use to sort into groups. You can print out many pictures from Sparklebox or just Google images. They had categories such as shops, houses, factories, parks etc. I introduced new vocabulary such as residential, industry and infrastructure.

Next we discussed what land use maps show and examined a map from our local council. We talked about the reasons for different land use such as proximity to transport, raw materials, type of landscape etc. I explained that we were going to make a land use map of a small section of our local area. The children were provided with base maps and they decided the colours for their key. We went into town and walked around marking the various land use categories on our maps. We talked about reasons for the type of land use and changes that had happened in the past along with changes happening now.

Back at home the children used Photoshop to colour a base map to make a really professional looking map (top of page). We used the key to add photographs from the street to the correct locations.

We also used the council website to look at and compare transport maps, bushfire danger maps and flood maps.

Here are some links if you are studying Camden.:

Camden suburb maps
Camden Land Use maps
Camden flood map
Camden bushfire maps
Camden bus map

Tyrannosaurs

Today we went to the Australian museum to see the Tyrannosaurs exhibition. The exhibition features lots of dinosaur bones, interactive computers and a cool "see yourself with the live dinosaurs" section. Here are some photos from the day:

A pack of "live" dinosaurs approach the children

We also had some hands on fun in our favourite gallery "Search and Discover".

Treasure Chest - Finished!

This week we have been finishing off our treasure chest with 2 last panels. Firstly the children used air drying clay painted with metallic paints. They used a dry brush technique over the first layer of paint.

By R

By L

We used metallic paints with our Gelli plate to print up some papers to use as tiles on the lid. See previous posts for details on Gelli printing.

All the panels are now attached to the box and our chest is complete. Next for some treasure...

Camden Brochure

The children have been working with Dad on these colourful tourist information brochures for Camden. They used PowerPoint to make a double sided, tri-fold leaflet featuring photos and text about Camden. They look really professional don't you think?

The purple brochure above is by L. R's brochure in green is below.