Brittany the artist

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Bird stencils

Student	Brittany	Date	19 August 2008
Topic	Visual arts, English, technology	Observer	Libby (teacher) Helen (arts and EfS advisor) Rob (cameraman)

Resources

Photocopied birds, shells, fish that have been cut out and backed with stiff card, a large variety of paint in many shades of green, brown, and blue.

Resource books and photographs of New Zealand birds in their natural environments.

How we created opportunities for learning

Brittany will:

be part of an ongoing discussion about the creatures that live in the habitat of the sandy shore and estuary
place shapes of birds, water creatures, and shellfish in the composition with an understanding of what their needs are
use the shapes to make stencils of the creatures.

Background

There were many birds, shellfish, and fish in the sandy shore environment where Brittany had been to camp. We had photographs of the black shag (kawau) drying his wings and a group of white fronted tern (tara) on the sand. There were birds at the farmyard and sculptures of birds in the playground. We continued to talk about the birds we had seen and we talked about their habits and their habitat. We looked at our camp photographs and we looked at books from the library about birds that lived in the coastal environment. The teacher and support staff had made a resource of bird and animal shapes backed with stiff card. We had used this resource over a number of weeks to place the cut out pictures of the creatures on our painted backgrounds and to talk about where they would feel most at home, what food would they eat, and whether they were food for some other creature. By the time we came to using paint on the birds and creatures, Brittany was familiar with them and knew some of their names and where they may live in the sea, mud, or sky.

Learning story

Some children from Room 9 were with us on this day; they were eager to join in and help. Helen gave a demonstration of how to carry out a further stencil technique, this time involving sponging around the shape. We also tried a dye wash and a tea bag wash to give a more natural look to the white photocopied paper shells and native mudfish. The teacher gave Brittany a choice of two birds. Brittany was able to name the seagull (tarapunga). She was anxious to get started and said, “Undo my straps, please”. This was to enable her to move about more freely in her wheelchair and to access the equipment on either side. Emily Rose (student) offered to help her by holding onto the paint tray; Brittany was happy to have help from Emily Rose. She was focused on her work and tried painting on the shape and sponging around it. She spoke freely throughout the session, talking about the birds and the paint. She was confident and assured. When she had done a number of bird stencils and she wanted to continue painting and mixing paint colours, she was able to ask for paint and paper and continued to work independently for an extended period. Brittany was very interested in her work when we reflected on what we had done. She was able to comment on colours and recognised the work of other children, saying the names of the birds.

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