Australia~ A Cultural Experience

Second Grade Artists Encounter Australia

Second grade artists at Hartville Elementary studied, extensively, the culture of Australia during the creation process of their most current painting. Our paintings were inspired by all of the Australian painting techniques we discovered during the experience which last nine weeks. Little artists created a modern twist on the “X-ray” style painting; a drawing using scratch art paper. Then we did our “Dot painting” techniques on brown butcher paper to represent the “Bark” painting style. Next, we studied Australian symbols and created our own symbols based on our featured animals which is our version of what is known as a “Dreaming”. We incorporated our hands in an Australian “cave” painting technique. (This mixed media project idea & set up was inspired by an Australian art website, Zartart.com)
The entire nine weeks of art class has been dedicated to this continent and its culture as it relates to art. During our study, students kept a visual learning log that is a collection of notes based on the geography, beliefs and customs and, most importantly, the indigenous animals of Australia that we used as the subject matter for our paintings. For the cross curricular aspect, I asked our classroom teachers to partner up to help us write a short story about our indigenous animal. The story was the last creative step and adds the perfectly, unique touch that frames our art. Parents were also involved and had to complete their “homework” assignment for students to bring in and share about their own family culture. THIS was a wonderful opportunity for students to learn more about their family and their friends in our community. This helped me to learn more about my little artists too!! I loved reading everyone's parent homework! Big thanks to all of our parents for sharing these awesome details...