Monday, April 14, 2014

Easter Art School Holiday Project

I'm currently trying to develop my Teacher portfolio. It's one of those projects that I have a ton of ideas for, but most of them are still in my head and I'm struggling to get them down onto paper, or the computer. In the midst of that it is school holidays and I'd like to do some fun stuff with my kids. So.....

Miss10 and I decided to create a piece of art using Easter egg wrappers. It's something I've wanted to do for ages and also something that I think would be fun, and engaging for kids in a classroom around Easter time. It also fits with a reuse theme, so rather than throwing away the wrappers, you make something fun and visually stimulating. (This is my link to the cross curriculum priority of 'Sustainability' in the Australian Curriculum) :)

Here is the result of several hours of our time... Miss10, being a hoarder like her Mum, had previously saved wrappers and stored them in her craft box, so we had a great stash to start with. She came up with the idea of a rainbow and given the selection of colours we had it seemed a perfect subject matter.

We started by arranging them in colour order.


We did a rough sketch of our rainbow design, including a pot and a cloud.


We then started sticking the colours down using a collage technique.










 Then came our cloud




 and our pot


and some grass

and a couple of chicks, who we made slightly 3D by packing them with some offcuts.


And finally, some gold for our pot

Now, to add to the educational element (and art in itself is a wonderfully crucial aspect of education) I decided to have Miss10 write a poem to accompany the art piece.

Cinquain poetry was introduced to me at uni recently so we googled that and found the main rules for writing this sort of poetry. Essentially, it should have 5 lines.
The first should have 2 syllables
The second should have 4 syllables
The third should have 6 syllables
The fourth shoud have 8 syllables and
The fifth (and final) should have 2 syllables.

Furthermore, each line can follow a format of:
Subject
Description
Action
Feeling
Conclusion

With these general principles, Miss10 came up with a poem to accompany our art:

Easter
Rainbow of hope
Into the clouds it goes
Birds chirping at the colourful
Rainbow

Here are the rough drafts




Here is the finished masterpiece:


Integrating art and poetry means I have ticked off on a couple of aspects of Ausvels (level 5 for this purpose since that is the year my daughter is in), including:

English (Writing - literacy):
Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive print and multimodal texts, choosing textstructures, language features, images and sound appropriate to purpose and audience (ACELY1704)
The Arts (working toward level 6, Creating and Making)
At Level 6, students independently and collaboratively experiment with and apply a range of skills, techniques and processes using a range of media, materials, equipment and technologies to plan, develop, refine, make and present arts works. They investigate a range of sources to generate ideas and manipulate arts elements, principles and/or conventions in a range of arts disciplines and forms as they explore the potential of ideas

So, my fun activity with my daughter has resulted in something I can possibly include in my Teacher Portfolio. Win - win... and as I continue with my work, she is searching for a second art project to work on, and already talking about writing a Haiku to go with that one!

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Ned Kelly...Transcribing lyrics 'What else is New?'

I'm up to my neck in a 6 part music and art project that I've based on Ned Kelly. It's been hanging over my head for awhile now and I'm trying to finish it off...
Part of the project requires students to listen to a couple of different songs about Ned Kelly. I selected a song from the rock opera 'Ned Kelly' by Reg Livermore and Patrick Flynn that was performed in the 1970's. I chose it was a little bit different and would expose the students to a different genre...

Anyway, as I'm busy grabbing lyrics online for the other songs I realised that I could not find the lyrics anywhere for 'What else is new?' from this musical.

I've now listened to the song more times than I care to remember in order to transcribe the lyrics for the appendix to my assignment... I'm going to put them here for two reasons...
1) in case any other crazy person in the future wants them and does a google search....
and
2) in case some helpful reader might want to help me get them right... a couple of sections are tricky for me to pick up and I don't think I have them right.

So, if you are randomly surfing the internet this Saturday night and would like a mini project to help me...

Here is a link to Reg Livermore's website where he discusses the musical.

Here is a link to the YouTube performance (audio only with a slide show of various paraphernalia)


and here is my first draft of the lyrics:

What else is new?
by Reg Livermore and Patrick Flynn
performed by Jon English & cast

Once upon a time there were these English landlords
Grinding Irish faces over tea and muffins
Holy nora
We dawdled in
And watched their broad smiles waxing thin

Once upon a time there were these greedy squatters
Sitting on a hundred pounds of Brisbane waters
But jesus we aimed our shots
We hit the squatters where they squat

Once upon a time there was this hellfire preacher
Singing how Ned Kelly was a loathsome creature
Holy Moses, was pulled out his hair
he forgave him then and there

So, what else is new?
We’re only passing through
Dan and Steve and Joe and Edward bang bang Kelly sure
When the sun goes west
And we’re laid to rest
Do remember we
were fighting for your liberty.

Once upon a time there were these crime reporters.
Writing how the public should lock up their daughters.
Well Cor blimey,
In rode the gang
And how those herald angels sang.

So, what else is new?
We’re only passing through
Dan and Steve and Joe and Edward bang bang Kelly sure
When the sun goes west
And we’re laid to rest
Do remember we
were fighting for your liberty.

Once upon a time there were these prison warders
Standing with their creases straight and shouting orders
Blimey we took our cue
And it was bye bye baby blue

The law and order game
By any other name
May not smell sweet as a rose
To some who would poke in their nose
But blimey
I am large it’s fine
If you step out of line

So, what else is new?
We’ll all have days to rue
Before we stand before Jesus
All of us All of us
So pick up your icy smiles and wrestling program

Will it be long before this show is over?
Mother Mary we’re on to you?
Your evil plans
How do you do?
Time goes on I guess
One more Ned, one less
Makes no difference now
But anyway, let’s stay around

No, it’s nothing new
We’re only passing through
Dan and Steve and Joe
Come out and watch us as we go.

Thanks :)