Whanau Koru Artworks

At the start of the year you want to build relationships with children and it's really great to embrace their whānau.

This year I decided the children would create a koru artwork based on their own family.  I thought we'd use paint and use a variety of textures.

I developed a template for the children to follow.  Below are some of the tasks the children completed before starting their final artwork.  They also got to explore tones of colour using pastels and the colour wheel.

Whānau Koru Design Family Tree based on the 'Koru pattern'  
Task 1 - Use the koru pattern to create an artwork about your whānau (family). Your koru patterns can grow out of each other, touch each other, be large and small.

• List family members you want to include in your Koru Family/Whānau Tree.
• Draw four different compositions.

Task 2 - From your four compositions pick the two designs you really like.  Re-draw these two designs and start to explore what colours you could use.

• Will you have different colours for different people in your family?
• Will you use different tones?

After completing Task 2 the children picked one composition and sketched this on to card.  When all artworks were finished they were uploaded on the class blog for families to view.

Using PVA glue to add textures on to the koru patterns.

Layering paper to create texture... 

Using plaster of paris as a texture.  After all textures were applied and had completely dried the children coated everything in white acrylic paint.

Starting to apply acrylic paint...

Some of the completed koru artworks.