World Travellers 08

We have just read the book “Who Sank the Boat” by Pamela Allen.  At the end of the story the  boat sinks.  We  had  a discussion about which animal made the boat sink. Some thought it was the mouse, who was the lightest of all. What do you think? 

We then decided to do some science experiments to find out what things in the  classroom float and what sink.  First we had to make prediction and then test these out.  Take a look at our photos as we  test our predictions.

The ESL world travellers are ready to take off again and report back to you.  Share with us all the fun and interesting things we will be exploring in 2008.  The ESL world travellers will be sending their news straight from the mainstream classrooms this year.  The ESL students are from  KW , S1R, S1M, S1H, S1s (stage 1), and S2J (stg 2). Stay tuned. 

 Stage 1 have been discussing the use of colour in visual texts. We discovered that there are many ideas and feelings associated with different colours.  We worked in groups to discuss and brainstorm our own ideas and feelings. These were some of them. 

RED               - anger, danger,  love, traffic lights, hot

BLUE            - calm, the sea, cool, water

GREEN        - cool,  grass,  fresh, bright

YELLOW    - hot, bright, happy, the sun

BLACK       - dark, scary, evil, bad luck

BROWN    - dull,  boring , dirty, old photos

WHITE     - snow, cold, bright, clean

GREY       - sad, depressing, cloudy days

After this activity we looked at our shared reading text “The Very Ordinary Caterpillar” by Gary Fleming. We discussed how the illustrator used colour in the pictures. We noticed that all the animals and plants  in the pictures were brightly coloured except for the caterpillar,  who was small and brown. We think this was done intentionally to communicate the idea that the caterpillar was very ordinary and boring (which is associated with the colour brown.) What do you think???     Check us out while we’re busy at work.                                                                             

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The following weblink provides some great units for visual literacy activities across the stages. Also great for other KLA’s.
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/teachingideas/primary/index.htm

Today stage1 looked at the work of the artist Piet Mondrian.  We discussed his use of horizontal and vertical lines, rectangular and square shapes and the primary colours of blue red and yellow. The only other two colours he used in his artworks were black and white. Our class was divided into two groups so we could do both activites with our two teachers.  We made our own art works using the IWB ( interactive whiteboard) and a computer program called 2paint a picture. We also made artworks using paper cut into squares and rectangles, and straight lines which were arranged vertically and horizontally.

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Below is as useful website to examine the basic elements of art.
www.artsconnected.org/toolkit/explore.cfm

On Thursday (23 Aug) Stage 1 visited the art gallery of NSW and the Botanical gardens to get a sense of the world we live in.  They used their eyes to see, noses to smell, hands to feel and ears to hear  the things around them.  The art gallery had a huge variety of paintings and other artworks to look at while the gardens provided lots of experiences to test our senses.  We saw many different types of plants and the air was filled with many aromas.  We touched many different plants and even felt the rain as it poured down on us.  We also saw and heard the fruit bats in the trees above.  We thought that they were really cool.  Take a look at the photos of our “sense”sational day out.
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Visual Literacy is being able to make sense of what we see in pictures or visual texts and the ability to think critically about what is being presented. It also involves understanding how visual images relate to spoken and written texts associated with them. We are exposed daily to visual images through picture books, magazines, newspapers, signs, advertisements, television, films, packaging and all forms of information technology. Meaning in visual images can be conveyed through elements such as colour, shape, line, actions, eye paths and angles, to name a few.
This term Stage 1 students will undertake visual literacy activities working with picture books. We will look at elements such as colour, image position and size and the meanings created by these. The book we have chosen to use is called The Very Ordinary Caterpillar by Gary Flemming. Watch this space for more details of our class work. Coming soon.   

Below is a great website providing sample teaching programs and a recommended list of picture books/authors/illustrators for visual literacy activities.
http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/bookzone/vislit.html