The art room is no more... and I am no longer the art teacher...

The art room is now an empty shell. It will house in 2013, 2 Year 1 classes and the art room will be relocated.
Over the past 23 years of my teaching career, I have taught many subject areas. At the beginning of my career I taught a Prep grade for a short time, having to leave because I was offered a position with the Department of Education. Then taught Italian as a second language for most of my career after that. I have been a support teacher both in Literacy and Numeracy and for the past 7 seven years taught Visual Arts. Last year I also taught a Year 6 class once a week for the duration of semester 2. I have always wanted to return to classroom teaching and finally I have been given the opportunity to do this in 2013. Next year I will be teaching Year 2. I am so very excited and apprehensive at the same time. I will be working with an amazing team and my intentions are to incorporate visual arts in a rich inquiry classroom. I have already discovered some amazing classroom blogs together with awesome teacher websites. I would appreciate my fellow bloggers to share valuable blogs and websites.

It has been a privilege teaching Visual Arts. It is by far the best job in the school. I have learnt so much and grown as a professional. I have had amazing experiences and met new colleagues world wide.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my fellow bloggers for sharing. For the times when I was stuck on ideas, blogging was a life saver. Then I became confident and shared my ideas only to have received positive acknowledgements. Such an excellent platform for networking.

I will miss teaching Visual Arts but look forward to an exciting 2013. I will definitely develop a new blog.... I will keep you posted..... Bye for nowxx

African Banner has arrived!

  Words cannot describe how my students and I felt when the banner from Uganda arrived delivered by my friend, Vic Magri. This was created by 12 year olds. Amazing artistic skill shown by all who contributed. It is also very touching to read all their respective messages of thanks and love. We are planning to maintain our contact with the school in Uganda for future projects...

Sock Monkeys continued...

 Monkey construction is finally coming to an end. It has been a long process. Check out my very proud Year 6 students showing off their wacky monkeys...

Prep Fairytale Art...

Prep students have been learning about Fairytales this term. So in Art we have created some amazing art work. Check out these pieces of 'The Princess and the Pea'. I love the fancy beds...

 The older Year 6 students had a chance to be a mentor during an Prep Art class. The task was to draw a wacky monster. It was a great success and the students worked well together..

Rainbow Fish - Year 1

The Year 1 students have been learning about the Ocean in their respective classrooms. I got given iPad packaging frames. So I painted them black and thought that small art works would look fantastic. And they do! 
We read the picture story book 'Rainbow fish to the rescue' by Marcus Pfister and I encouraged the students to observe the illustrations. So they used pencils to draw a story on a small page. We then used fluorescent water colours. Once dried, I added a few pieces of metallic paper. They are absolute keepers!

Olympic Graffiti Posters - Year 5

 So my Year 5 students have always wanted to create graffiti art work. This is not as easy as it seems because Graffiti art can be very complicated. So it was during the London Olympics 2012 period when we decided to create posters that represented what an elite athlete may feel during their biggest moment at the Olympic Games. The students first researched Graffiti art, then chose a descriptive word and began drawing their respective designs in their Visual Diaries. They used large sheets to draw in pencil then painted in fluorescent paints. Once dry, the students outlined with black markers.