For this task, I went for a walk in my front yard and had a look around. As I live near the city, there are not too many trees or plants around however I found some stuff that I could work with. In this assemblage, I have retrieved part of a palm tree, some flowers from a bush, some stones and dirt. I added the dirt to symbolise that even in the city, there is still soil and the stones, flowers and palm leaves have been planted since and not native. I chose to keep the concrete in the assemblage as I feel it represents the city life. The purpose of this assemblage is to show visual arts concepts while showing parts of my local geography area.

So what?

Through completing this task, I was worried that I wasn't doing the right, but I was soon to realise that there was no right or wrong way to interpret the task which is how arts should be. It had been raining for a few days before collecting the assemblage which is why some of the items are wet. I disliked the anxiety I had trying to think through the way I assembled it. Since this experience, I have found that I would not want my students to feel the same art anxiety that I felt during this.

Now what?

This was a simple and easy way to incorporate artwork into another subject, in this case, geography. Throughout this experience, I learnt that creating art is up to the artists' interpretation. By bringing this learning into the classroom it will help me better understand that students work has its own meaning and interpretations. Even though that task had some requirements, it is important to ensure that it is still open for students' creativity.

For this activity, I had to use recycled materials to create something new and then create a stop-motion video of the new creation. This task required me to download an app called Stop Motion which helps create stop-motion videos using photos. With the recycling, I used some gift bags that I usually throw out to create something that can be used as a backdrop for puppets or photography of products. With the use of the app, it was easy to create a stop-motion video, especially without prior experience. Being an arts integration activity it is super easy to include in the classroom learning to teach students new skills during their learning. I was excited when creating this as photography is my hobby and I thought about all the ways I could use this backdrop when photographing products.

So What?

I was surprised that I was so excited to create this, it felt good to not have those bags go to waste. I learnt a new skill of being able to create stop-motion videos which would be something I would like to do again. By integrating this into the classroom, I know that students would have some fun while they are learning about geography concepts.

Now What?

From here, I would like to create more connections like this in the curriculum to help support learners through art and fun. Engaging students in this kind of work can help support learning, however, a hindrance can be that some students feel they won't know what to create. Through inspiration and examples, students should feel the confidence and inspiration to create something that represents them in their art.

This activity focuses on two arts learning to teach, this being music and visual arts. For the activity, I had to listen to a clip of music and then create a visual art piece to match it. With this song I chose, I heard a lot of light piano notes which made me include the yellow dots because to me it should be bright and happy. I then included the waves of blue to represent the sounds of the music going up and down. The green line represents the ending and the double circles on the end represent the dark ending.

So what?

I now understand that using the arts integrated into the curriculum does not exclusively mean including it in subjects other than art. While creating this, I was rather hesitant that I was not doing it correctly however, I just listened to it a few times to find the inspiration.

Now what?

Through encouragement and using examples, students will have the tools and confidence to be able to create. When creating, students will need to remember that there is no right or wrong way to create art.