Our MWF classes have had a very busy week learning about Australia. We have received many postcards from Australia so the children were familiar with the location on the globe/map. We learned Australia is an island, it is called 'The Land Down Under', introduced the concept of the equator, learned about some Australian animals and much more.
We received this Aboriginal art when we started our world wide adventure. It was the inspiration for this art project for our Australia unit. I never know if a new project will be a success or failure. This art project was time consuming but the pieces the children created are beautiful!
We looked at the original art (we had two pieces) and the children could see all the little dots that made the picture. I worked with the children in small groups of four during center time. Each child started with an 8 x 10 piece of tag board with an outline of a kangaroo.
Paint was placed in egg cartons (we love egg cartons. Easy clean up to the trash!) The dots were made with pencil ends. The first day I learned the pencils were too long for the kids to manipulate easily so I broke them all in half and filed the ends smooth. Much better!
The first day each child painted the inside of the kangaroo and we let dry. This went pretty quickly.
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Step 1 |
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Step 1 |
The next class we painted dots from the tail to the edge of the paper, the foot to the edge of paper and the nose and back of the kangaroo to the edge of the paper. The children really listened and did a great job. Next, each child chose a different color to place dots around the edge. We let these dry.
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Step 2 |
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Step 2 |
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Step 2 |
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Step 2 |
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Step 2 |
The final step was filling in all the empty spaces with more dots. Each child chose a color they had not used and did one set of dots. Then they chose a second color and filled in the empty spaces. This was the most time consuming step. I was amazed at the concentration some of the children put into these pieces.
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Student Work |
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Student Work |
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Student Work |
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Student Work |
Want to do more? I did a quick search and did not find any kid friendly Aboriginal art websites but you and your child can look at some of the images found. I searched Aboriginal art and was able to see some pretty amazing pieces. Students will bring their art home on Monday.