What’s Happening in Visual Arts in Term 2 2025

FOUNDATION:

In Term 2, Foundation students will continue to explore organisational processes in Art and how to work safely with various equipment and materials. They will participate in a whole-school collaborative visual display of the Wurundjeri people’s creator spirit, Bunjil the Eagle, as a way of acknowledging Country. Students will draw connections between art and the natural world throughout the term, firstly using found materials in nature to create crayon rubbing artworks, revealing nature’s intricate details and line work. They will then create hanging mobiles using foraged materials from the school gardens, adding colour through the use of acrylic paint. Lastly, the students will continue to develop their fine motor skills by threading beads and recycled materials onto wire and practicing the concept of symmetry and balance to create their own balancing sculptures.

GRADE 1:

In Term 2, Grade 1 students will continue learn how to safely engage in a range of activities, using a variety of tools in the art room. They will participate in a whole-school collaborative visual display of the Wurundjeri people’s creator spirit, Bunjil the Eagle, as a way of acknowledging Country. Throughout the term, the students will explore the impact of plastic on our world’s animals, both on land and in our oceans. Using commonly disposed plastic waste such as bottle caps and pen lids, they will create underwater creature artworks with an ocean background made from painted paper collage. Then, the students will experiment with sculptural forms, creating feathered bird sculptures using reused plastics and a range of other materials. Finally, the students will develop their skills in mixing colours to create a colour wheel using acrylic paint.

GRADE 2:

In Term 2, Grade 2 students will participate in a whole-school collaborative visual display of the Wurundjeri people’s creator spirit, Bunjil the Eagle, as a way of acknowledging Country. Throughout the term, they will explore the important role that bees play in our world. They will create hand-built clay beehives, utilising the skills of coiling and joining using the ‘score and slip’ method. Once the clay beehives have been fired, they will use underglaze to add colour to their piece, before applying a gloss top glaze. The students will also create a mixed media bee artwork, including the processes of collage, print making and drawing. During the term, they will also develop their skills in mixing their own colours to create a colour wheel, using primary colours to create secondary colours and tertiary colours.

GRADE 3:

In Term 2, Grade 3 students will participate in a whole-school collaborative visual display of the Wurundjeri people’s creator spirit, Bunjil the Eagle, as a way of acknowledging Country. They will study Aboriginal ariel map artworks and use birds-eye photos of Melbourne and surrounding areas to create their own ariel map artworks, utilising colour, pattern and symbols to express their ideas about local places. The students will learn basic sewing techniques to sew an image of an underwater creature onto burlap, exploring the impact that plastics have on our ocean and its wildlife. The sewing process will help to develop hand-eye coordination and fine motors skills. Rather than using only wool to sew with, the students will also make their own ‘thread’ by reusing soft plastics and netting used in produce packaging, as well as embellishing with other upcycled materials. Lastly, they will develop their skills in mixing their own colours to create a colour wheel, focusing on analogous colours.

GRADE 4:

In Term 2, the Grade 4 students will participate in a whole-school collaborative visual display of the Wurundjeri people’s creator spirit, Bunjil the Eagle, as a way of acknowledging Country. They will conduct their own research into endangered Australian animals and insects in order to create a Pete Cromer inspired artwork. The students will use Cromer’s layered approach, starting with basic shapes and colour application, then moving to layering and arranging shapes to create their final composition.They will study Aboriginal ariel map artworks and use birds-eye photos of Melbourne and surrounding areas to create their own ariel map artworks, utilising colour, pattern and symbols to express their ideas about local places.

GRADE 5:

In Term 2, the Grade 5 students will participate in a whole-school collaborative visual display of the Wurundjeri people’s creator spirit, Bunjil the Eagle, as a way of acknowledging Country. Continuing on from this, they will create artworks in recognition of Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week, working in small groups to collectively create thought-provoking pieces that explore this year’s theme, “Bridging Now to Next”. The students will create a clay sculpture, using slab-rolling, shaping and etching processes to form a textural fish. They will then hole punch the clay to allow for plastic thread to be woven into the piece once it has been glazed and fired, demonstrating their understanding of the impact of plastic on our ocean’s fish. The students will then participate in a unit of work that explores a connection to nature by creating brushes from foraged materials, which the students will use during the mark making process. They will then use oil pastels to draw magpies on top of their ink backgrounds.

GRADE 6:

In Term 2, the Grade 6 students will participate in a whole-school collaborative visual display of the Wurundjeri people’s creator spirit, Bunjil the Eagle, as a way of acknowledging Country. Continuing on from this, they will create artworks in recognition of Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week, working in small groups to collectively create thought-provoking pieces that explore this year’s theme, “Bridging Now to Next”. The students will use their knowledge of the environmental impacts of bushfires from their Term 1 novel study of the text ‘47 Degrees’ to create a powerful dichotomous artwork. They will develop their skills in using materials including graphite pencil, chalk pastel and charcoal to create two separate artworks showcasing the before and after affects of bushfires. The artworks will then be cut into strips and reconstructed to form a concertina structure, changing in appearance depending on the direction in which it is viewed from. Finally, the students will challenge their perceptions of art ‘tools’ by using only their fingers to paint Australian native birds. They will mix colours and apply the paint without the use of brushes, exploring how this affects the overall application.