Lisa Brosnan
Van Gogh Sunflowers
While studying living things we took inspiration from artists like Van Gogh and
Monet. Teachers spent time framing and/or displaying the art. We find the more effort we put into this, the more effort the students apply to their tasks. Our students are five year olds so we give them some support for their work, particulaly those students who are not confident in their own abilities. eg. They were all given a sheet of paper with the outline of a vase. We observed the number, balance, shapes and line of the artist's work, before working on our own. We had a couple of attempts throughout the week, before choosing our favourites. Then we looked at colour. mediums. Friday was the best day - many of the students chose to experiment with a variety of mediums and colours. and we could because we had taken the time to draw a number of sketches throughout the week. (We did this in the afternoons after coming in from recess as a sort of short calming, winding down period.)
