Finally I can get to do a post!! I have been so busy at school and I have been wanting to share what our Kindergarten class have been discussing. We started with the Olympics and this led on to an interest in Australia. Questions were asked, “How did the world get so big”, “Why are there so many animals”. My favourite question was, “What is the last number in the world!”. I guess when you ask children what they know and what they want to know as far as they are concerned it encompasses everything!!!
We had a big discussion on the mat about Aboriginal people and how they lived. I wanted to ensure that I covered this unit as sensitively as possible and show respect to Indigenous people and their culture. I asked the children if they wanted to paint a picture and there were no shops, no paint and no paper what would they do! They thought for a while and then one child said,” Well , paper comes from trees so I guess you could use the bark!”. Another child was holding her hand up and saying to herself, “if you didn’t have a brush you could use a stick….or” She looked at her hand and said’ ” You could use your finger!” It was good to sit and watch them work it out for themselves! I had picked up some bark from different places, so with paint and their finger and some inspirational prints for reference, the children created some delightful pieces.
1. Bark painting
2. We also read Tom Tom by Dee Huxley, a story of a little Aboriginal boy who lives in Lemonade Springs. He goes to Preschool and lives a partly traditional life. The children have been intrigued by his life style compared to their lives and routines
I painted a large piece of cardboard and the children added the features from the story. I went to REmida which is a recycling centre and the red and yellow pieces were plastic pieces collected from a factory. The blue pieces were from a similar process.
2. I had some stones I had gathered along the way in life, as you do if you are a teacher! We talked about early painting, drawing and symbols. The children painted these river stones. I love the way they are all so different
3. I like using different mediums for children to explore with. We used black paper and pastels. I found a picture of Aboriginal symbols and we talked about the different symbols and how the symbols told a story.
4. Our very own cave!!! I purchased some earth coloured poplin and set about making a space for us to talk, read and share stories. My son had found some rather large stones and I felt inspired to make them into a campfire. I found some shiny orange organza material and voila……our fire!
I am going to put a photo here today!!!
5. This is a Mia Mia that the children helped make. They decorated the floor (large cardboard) with symbols and they made the ‘fire’ with an old square plastic bucket, covered in poplin.
I shall keep adding more photos as we go………………..
6. On a previous post I showed some examples of styrofoam painting and fortunately I remembered it when I was planing. We looked at traditional aboriginal symbols and here are the results!
Tags: aboriginal, bark, children, craft, indigenous, our world, painting, stories
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