Royal National Park Environmental Education Centre

Telephone02 9542 1951

Emailroyalnatpk-e.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Gifts from the bush

Creative Arts - Visual Arts

Program overview

This is a great program to celebrate the end of a challenging year. Students create two meaningful gifts using different printing techniques. Each student takes home a gift bag and a clay ornament. They observe elements of art and principles of design as they explore nature in their school grounds and use natural materials to create their artworks.

Session details

120 minutes. Up to 2 sessions per day for up to 4 classes. Due to the materials required for this program the cost is $15 per student (GST free).

Key syllabus outcomes

  • Students represent the qualities of experiences and things that are interesting or beautiful by choosing among aspects of subject matter (CA-VAS2.1)
  • Students use the forms to suggest the qualities of subject matter (CA-VAS2.2)

Learning experiences

Students explore nature in their school grounds, looking for elements of art such as line, texture and shape. They collect natural materials, such as fallen leaves and seed pods. They create an ornament by pressing natural materials into air-drying clay, considering composition and balance. (As a follow-up activity students could paint their clay once left to dry for two days).

Students use block printing ink and rollers to apply paint to leaves and print them onto calico bags. They can also use seed pods and other natural materials to stamp ink onto their bags, considering elements such as colour, value and composition. They can use fabric textas to add shape to their design or to letter a holiday or other message onto their bag.